Yey For Physics!
Today, completely out of the blue, I decided to hook up the old record player to play The Sting album. After setting the thing up, I lied down on the floor in front of it, and was completely absorbed by patterns that flew by on the rim of turntable itself. I remember being completely mesmerized by the effect of orange light on this pattern since my first memories.

This time, I noticed some reference to 50 and 60Hz frequencies on the source of the light. It took a good five minutes to figure it out, but, based on a simple demo from Grade 12 Physics where a strobe was used to "stop" spinning things, I figured this was the same thing. Sure enough, closer inspection revealed that the light is not from an incadescent source, but rather a Neon tube flashing at that annoying 60Hz that hurts my eyes. It took a few minutes to figure out what actually controls the strobing so that it can be slowed to a stop: the fine pitch control. So, with a 60Hz electrical system and a 33 RPM record, the third band has to remain motionless when at the correct speed for the correct pitch.

I suppose I could have just asked my father about this and would surely have gotten a satisfactory answer. As a kid, I always figured this was just a decoration, much like the digital spectrum displays on modern amplifiers. It was fun to solve this twenty year mystery all by myself.