Muzak and Vinylite 4 Ever

A commenter on this blog recently suggested that the upside of Muzak was that they created the vinyl record. This is not conjecture. In fact, according to Muzak’s own website, in 1933 they “began transmitting music over phone lines. Central studios played records – the first 33 1/3 rpm records and the first ever done on vinylite rather than shellac.” This is a claim to have made used and broadcasted the first vinyl records in existence. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. More here.

In 1948 Columbia records began marketing the 7-inch, 45-rpm vinyl discs we now refer to as 45s. In that era, they were described as being made of "vinylite." The first 45 rpm record players were actually developed by Philco in 1938; ten years earlier. But a WWII vinyl shortage and continuing success with shellac 78s. 

But these were not the first vinyl records. Let's back up. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) what we call vinyl was first invented in 1838, by Henri Victor Regnault. It was invented again by Eugen Baumann in 1872. Neither  ever applied for a patent. So when Emile Berliner invented the record in 1888 and chose to use vulcanized rubber it wasn't because of patent infringement. There were two reasons. PVC is too soft for the mechanical playback devices  from that era. Their amplification was powered by friction. In 1913, Friedrich Klatte took did patent PVC but only in Germany. That's all beside the point, it wasn't until 1926 that Waldo L. Semon invented plasticized PVC.  This plastic had far greater utility, the Navy began using it as wire insulation. It's only after this date that we can seriously entertain vinyl records.

Sure enough it's only a few years later, in 1930 that RCA Victor vinyl long-playing records. these were marketed as "Program Transcription" discs. They were 12 inches in diameter and spun at 33.3 rpm. Roland Gelatt's book The Fabulous Phonograph, attributes the commercial failure of the device to the financial strain of the great depression. It was not a good time to debut a new media format with new playback devices. RCA's deluxe line of electric phonographs such as the RAE-59 were designed to handle playback. They were made of a plastic they called "Vitrolac" and it was made of PVC.  These were unquestionably the first vinyl records. You can argue that Muzak as an early adopter helped the format, but arguing that they were the fist to broadcast them requires that we believe no one else tried it for 3 years. Dubious.

Storecasting

Storecasting, hyphenated or otherwise is such an ugly word. Storecasting is the "broadcasts" beard only in retail spaces. It's descended from the Beautiful Music format and Muzak and all that bland, soulless, gutless, artless theme music of capitalism. It's music that's not for listening. it exists only to provide ambiance in commerce. TSL is nice, but in radio we want real listeners, listeners that can change the dial, but choose not to. I hesitate to mention storecasting in the context of radio because in many ways it's antithetical to the appeal of radio broadcasting. But sadly it is the bastard child of radio, so is should be acknowledged as the redheaded stepchild it is. Storecasting isn't new. I found a detailed reference to it in the June 1950 issue of Kiplingers that revaled it as a fully developed service over 5 decades ago. It gushes with enthusiasm over the service, but indicts it inadvertently in the same breath:

"It soothes the housewife while she eyes the bins and shelves, and relaxing her nerves it relaxes her purse strings. The technique is an old one. Storecasting is really a refinement of the old-time gaslight medicine shows, which always featured a bit of gaudy entertainment before the barker sprang the snake oil cures on the bemused customers."

The supposed "peak" shopping hour of 10-1 and 2-6 were targed by storecasting. The music was mild, and the ads demographically targeted at housewives. For the early FM stations it was a boon. It was 20 years before FM out-stepped AM. people just didn't own FM radios. But, broadcasting to a crowded store gained them a captive audience. I blame Stanley Jose Loff.
Stanley was the president of the Storecast Corporation of America. His first storcasting station was WEHS-FM in Chicago, then WSAM-FM in Saginaw, WJLB-FM in Detroit and WFFM-FM in Muskegon. Originally this was a SCA (Subsidiary Communications Authorization) service for FM radio. The station actually rented a subcarrier receiver to the retailer to cover the cost of the service. A inaudible tone was used to switch on and off the tuner so that shoppers would be spared from hearing disrupting jarring audio like talk or station identification. For some reason this really pissed off the FCC. More here.

The KMLA Broadcasting Corp. Vs. 20th Century Cigarette Vendors Corp. case blew up the whole issue. As part of a promotional campaign, 20th Century had given to some of its clients equipment which enabled them to receive KMLA's background music service without paying for it. KMLA sued. Remember, at this point broadcasts, all broadcasts were public domain. Anyone could listen. One cigarette vendor changed all that. The court held that KMLA's service was private, not public. the compared it to a point-to-point communication WHICH IT IS OBVIOUSLY NOT. While it was not KMLAs intent to broadcast it's storecast to the general public. the signal is not point-to-point, not all all. A lot of case law was built upon this which is just sad. More here.

In the wake of this case, the FCC decided that storecasting was not kosher. They disliked the tone-triggered system. They mandated that storecasting could continue but only through multiplexing. This was going on at the same time that Stereo FM was a hot topic. I think that the FCC chose this time to rule on store-casting because it narrowed the field in terms of which stereo systems might be implemented. No FM network or coalition would endorse a stereo system that prevented storecasting. Sneaky bastards.

More Elevator Music

When I think abot Soft AC radio stations I always think of Muzak. I recently read a little more history about the easy listening movement of the 1960s. The Seeburg turns out to be older than Muzak and thus this radio jukebox is the great granddaddy of Muzak.

Soft stations liek WJJO and KQED-FM used the Seeburg to fill in airtime. KQED actually had an actual Seeburg Selectomatic Music Hour each day.

They produced a background music system appropriately called the Background Music System. It used mono 9" records with big 2" center holes that spun at an ungainly 16-2/3 RPMs. They look like big black vinyl doughnuts. These machines were usedprimarily in the 1960s. The player was oversized, easily larger than the a tower server. They were rigged like a jukebox to play a stack of 28 records. It worked out to 40 hours of music. It automatically recycled the stack for continuous play.

The records were issued and owned (C&P) by Seeburg and manufactured by RCA. The instructions on the record boxes say they were to be played for 3 months then returned to Seeburg to be destroyed. That's probably why the records are so rare.

This guy here has a whole collection of Seeburg brochures.
http://www.jukeboxparts.com/seeburg_brochures.htm

Seeburg also made a whole array of retail juke boxes and some very collectible bakelite radios. Some models are so populat that reproductions are made overseas for import in America. JP Seeburg was of the man behind the Seeburg Corporation. In the 1960s Seeburg was known internationally as a jukebox manufacturer on par with Wurlitzer. each regularly taking out full page ads in magazines like Billboard. Strangely enough in the UK they were more well-known for their pinball machines.

Brilliant site here; http://mysite.verizon.net/res1cjkx/index.html

Thought for the day

While driving through San Antonio... I passed both the main office for MUZAK and Clear Channel? Coincidence? I think not.

http://www.muzak.com/muzak.html
http://www.clearchannel.com/