I just discovered that Malcolm Riviera (pseud. of Gary C. Broyhill, b. Sept. 17, 1956) died in late July or early August, 2023. No formal obituary has been published online, but he was memorialized in the September 2, 2023 edition of the Trash Flow Radio show on WAIF FM, Cincinnati. The link takes you to a podcast version, and Malcolm is mentioned around 1:20:00. According to Trash Flow, he was a well known figure in the D.C. music scene, particularly in the 1980s, and was in a number of bands including Elevator, Grand mal, Sub Primal Cuts, The Velvet Monkeys, and Gumball. Known best as a musician and photographer, Malcolm was also a fan of 8-track tapes and their history. I never met him, but we corresponded by email over the years after he took over the web site 8 Track Heaven. In 1995, he collaborated with Abbey Levine and Chip Rowe to launch 8 Track Heaven, and it soon became nationally known as a resource for collectors. When Ms. Levine tragically died in 1997, Malcolm contributed to a tribute recording called Links Outta Here (issued only on CD, ironically) and then ran the site until he died. 8 Track Heaven was for many years the best and most comprehensive source for those interested in collecting 8 track tapes and keeping their 8 track players working. In keeping with the creepy and very “21st century” capacity of web sites to outlive their owners, but more poetically in keeping with the celebrated tendency of 8 track tapes to play in a continuous loop until they are finally eaten by the player or break at the splice, 8 Track Mind lingered until its domain registration expired in the early summer of 2024. Today, sadly, the domain is owned by the promoters of some Indonesian lottery site.
8 Track Heaven’s content is preserved by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine by searching for 8trackheaven.com. (image source)