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Muzak

I believe the AM/PMs that do use a satellite- or computer-based BGM service are on DMX. At least, those I have been to in Oregon and eastern Washington are.

All the AM/PM's around my area just play the local radio, I've usually heard either KKCW or KYCH, but at least one in Clark County is known to play Internet audio feeds over its loudspeaker.

Earlier this Summer whilst obtaining my prepaid $30 of unleaded at its attached gas station (I think I got, like, two gallons total for that price) I heard none other than the cheery voice of Larry London announcing that we were listening to the VOA Music Mix Network, right there in the carport. And yes, this *was* in the USA! (I also noticed the same thing happening at a certain McDonalds in Oregon a few years back.)
 
Loud music was being played at a Wendy's on Cleveland Ohio's East Side. First I heard a number of old R&B tunes and thought... "Ok, so we got a "Soul" thing going". Well soon after I sat down, suddenly the German language version of NENA's 1980s hit "99 Luftballoons" ("99 Red Balloons") came on. That was unique. A couple of Rock tunes appeared before going back to R&B. On the return to R&B I heard "Get on The Good Foot" by James Brown. A good Soul-Brother #1, somewhat forgotten hit. Somewhere along the line they played a Wilson Pickett track that I didn't remember, but it was definitely him, and recorded during his hey-day on Atlantic Records. "I'm A Roadrunner" by Jr. Walker & The All Stars made an appearance, as did "You've Got What It Takes" by Marv Johnson. Then when they got away from the R&B a second time, they bored me with "My Eyes Adored You" by Frankie Valli. This was a good experience as the music was not meant to be background sound. It was louder in volume then most other establishments.
 
Sounds like you were treated to Jukebox Gold. That's what most of the Wendy's properties around here also play. (It was also one of my favourites when I wasn't running Foreground 1 or Expressions. ;o)

Wendy's *is* a known Muzak user.
 
For the most part and I don't know who gets to pick the channel at each location. I know of a couple of franchised locations that have XM.
 
Yesterday afternoon, I heard Neil Diamond's "Septermber Morn" followed by Roberta Flack's "The Closer I Get to You" at a "credit union" bank.
 
I once managed a restaurant that used Muzak. We were told by the owner to always keep it on the "'70s Hits" station, but on my shifts I always switched it to "Jukebox Gold." That channel has a great variety.
 
I walked into a business with Muzak on and heard the start of a song I hadn't heard in years. Within a few seconds of the guitar intro I recognized it was George Harrison-Blow Away. Sure enough that's what it was and I enjoyed every second of it. The amazing thing is I haven't heard the song once since it was a current in the Spring of 1979. Yet there was a space in my memory that stored that information all this time. I don't know what's more awe inspiring the human memory or Muzak for finding and playing so many of these hidden treasures.
 
while shopping at one of my local Kroger stores this week I heard Information Society - Walking Away. It made a portion of my shopping go really well.. great tune and one I'd never expect to hear in a grocery store.
 
I'm happy to say I can hardly hear the music at my grocery store. And when I went in the drug store to buy what I couldn't at the grocery, no music! They got rewarded this time.
 
In nearly every store I go into that has music, almost all of them have only one channel of the audio hooked up by some idiot that is too cheap to go to radio shack and buy a "Y" adapter.. Its not that noticible on new songs, but on oldies it will drive you crazy when half the band is missing or the vocals are recorded on one channel only. Twist and Shout by the beatles comes to mind. Foxy Lady by hendrix is like that and there is an old version of Moon River that is a split track. I wish muzak were in mono and that would eliminate that problem. Most PA systems are mono anyway. I also hear quite a few radio stations doing the exact same thing. The local" "music of your life" station did it for a long time. I refuse to listen to anything like that. I can't believe nobody notices or even cares to fix the problem. its inexcusible for a radio station to do that. its obvious that they don't listen to their own radio station. Or don't know what the songs are supposed to sound like.
 
"In nearly every store I go into that has music, almost all of them have only one channel of the audio hooked up by some idiot that is too cheap to go to radio shack and buy a wye adapter. *snip* Most PA systems are mono anyway."

This was exactly how the DMX Prodisc DS CD-Interactive player was hooked up at the Red Robin property I used to work at before I arrived. All the Prodisc machines had/ve stereophonic RCA-jack audio outputs (as did Muzak's CD-I machine, the CDI-1000 which had exactly the same Plextor motherboard and electronics internally, just had a different BIOS and style of front panel.)

Well, the squeaky-voiced 22-year old kid DMX initially despatched from the local Muzak office (apparently some Muzak offices also work under contract with DMX to perform hookups and the like) was too dumb to figure it out himself, simply connected the amp cable to the right-channel output of the CD-I and called it done. When I later on asked him how much it would cost for him to actually hook it up properly, he gave an "estimate" of $45, just for the wye itself! After dismissing him from the property, I visited the Electronics area of the Fred Meyer's down the road, bought a $2.50 wye connector, inserted it between the machine and the cable. The whole job took me all of five minutes and didn't cost Red Robin one penny!

They have since acquired a Profusion D, which, although *technically* possessing a stereophonic audio output, actually puts out the main audio programming on one channel and an optional "on-hold" programming on the other; the idea being that you're supposed to hook up the one channel to your amp and the other to your phone system. So in practise, it's supposed to serve as a monophonic machine even though it really isn't.
 
F.Y.I. before I forget, most of the Muzak programmes that go out via DBS are mono. If you have access to a DiSH Net receiver, you probably can get most of them depending on which pay-package the receiver is subscribed to (they are in the lower portion of the 900's block, and have "AUD##" callsigns.)

Not sure about the Encompass LE-format satellite programmes; I believe they might all be in mono.
 
"Muzak FM1" is played throughout all the Burlington Coat Factory stores. Boring! Sounds like a ton of Indy artists and songs which no one has ever heard off, mixed with a few 70's and 80's classics....here and there.
 
By chance, has anyone ever heard the alternate feed of FM1 Muzak. Occasionally, the main signal goes out and then it'll be dead air for a minute or two, then totally different music (of the softer hit variety) will come on instead. Also, there are 2-3 second gaps of dead air between songs, unlike the regular feed, where one song blends into each other.

I've heard this feed before and there are some very interesting songs that normally you'd rarely hear in a business today.

Theme from "Summers Place" - Percy Faith
Why do Fools Fall In Love - Frankie Lymon & Teenagers
Sunshine Superman - Donovan
The Coast - Paul Simon
Do You Know the Way to San Jose - Dionne Warwick
Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head - BJ Thomas
Natural Woman - Aretha Franklin

And a string of songs from 1981.

Just too many to list here
 
oldies76 said:
"Muzak FM1" is played throughout all the Burlington Coat Factory stores. Boring! Sounds like a ton of Indy artists and songs which no one has ever heard off, mixed with a few 70's and 80's classics....here and there.
Click to expand...
Not boring to me, if that is indeed what I am hearing at the grocery, but annoying. I wish they had more of those classics. It's not as loud as AC radio, but there sure are a lot more of what sound like newer AC songs than AC stations seem to be playing these days.
 
oldies76 said:
By chance, has anyone ever heard the alternate feed of FM1 Muzak. Occasionally, the main signal goes out and then it'll be dead air for a minute or two, then totally different music (of the softer hit variety) will come on instead. Also, there are 2-3 second gaps of dead air between songs, unlike the regular feed, where one song blends into each other.

I've heard this feed before and there are some very interesting songs that normally you'd rarely hear in a business today.

Theme from "Summers Place" - Percy Faith
Why do Fools Fall In Love - Frankie Lymon & Teenagers
Sunshine Superman - Donovan
The Coast - Paul Simon
Do You Know the Way to San Jose - Dionne Warwick
Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head - BJ Thomas
Natural Woman - Aretha Franklin

And a string of songs from 1981.

Just too many to list here
Click to expand...
Sounds good to me. Better for an office environment than even FM1.
 
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