Beautiful music
Encyclopedia
Beautiful music is a mostly instrumental music format
Radio format
A radio format or programming format not to be confused with broadcast programming describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. Radio formats are frequently employed as a marketing tool, and constantly evolve...

 that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s. Mood music
Mood music
Mood music may refer to:* Beautiful music* Easy listening* Exotica* Light music* Joe Budden's set of 4 mixtapes, 1 remix mixtape, 1 album, and 1 mixtape awaiting release....

, easy listening
Easy listening
Easy listening is a broad style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the 1950s, evolving out of big band music, and related to MOR music as played on many AM radio stations. It encompasses the exotica, beautiful music, light music, lounge music, ambient music, and space age pop genres...

, and the often derogatory terms Muzak
Muzak
Muzak Holdings LLC is a company based in metro Fort Mill, South Carolina, United States, just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded in 1934, Muzak Holdings is best known for distribution of background music to retail stores and other companies....

and elevator music
Elevator music
Elevator music refers to instrumental arrangements of popular music designed for playing in shopping malls, grocery stores, department stores, telephone systems , cruise ships, airports, doctors' and dentists' offices, and elevators...

are other common terms for the format and the style of music that it featured. Beautiful music can also be regarded as a subset of the middle of the road radio format.

History

Beautiful music initially offered soft and unobtrusive instrumental selections on a very structured schedule with limited commercial
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

 interruptions. It often functioned as a free background music service for stores, with commercial breaks consisting only of announcements aimed at shoppers already in the stores. This practice was known as storecasting and was very common on the FM
Frequency modulation
In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant...

 dial in the 1940s and 1950s.

Many of these FM stations usually simulcast their AM
Amplitude modulation
Amplitude modulation is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave. AM works by varying the strength of the transmitted signal in relation to the information being sent...

 station and used a subcarrier (SCA
Subsidiary Communications Authority
Subsidiary Communications Authorization in the United States, and Subsidiary Communications Multiplex Operation in Canada, is a subcarrier on a radio station, allowing the station to broadcast additional services as part of its signal.-Background:"Subsidiary Communications Authorization" is the...

), to transmit a hitch-hiker signal to a store receiver by subscription. The signal was usually a slow-moving audio tape of 'background music' or Muzak-type service, which was independent of the simulcast AM signal.

Some FM stations made more income from these music subscriptions than from their main programming. WITH-FM, in Baltimore, Maryland (1950s and 1960s), had to keep its FM carrier on the air until 2 a.m. for restaurant subscribers, and could not sign-off the main FM carrier until that time and thus had to run a repeat of its previous day's evening concert on its main FM program line.

Growth as a radio format

One of the first Beautiful Music radio stations in the U.S. was KIXL in the Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas area. As early as 1947 it had pioneered playing orchestral music on AM radio (1040), and later on FM (104.5). The station played that format through a name change to KEZL (as in "Easy Listening") in 1973, but ended its long run with a change to Adult Contemporary in 1976.

In 1959 Gordon McLendon, who had interests in Top-40 radio in Dallas as well as other markets decided to "counter-program" in San Francisco since several Top-40 stations were already there. Taking a clue from KIXL in Dallas, McLendon surprised everyone with the establishment of a Beautiful Music AM station named KABL (a tribute to the famous San Francisco Cable Cars) which became a successful legend in the city through the 1990's. It then experimented with combining elements of Big Bands and soft rock until its demise in the early 21st Century. However, it was reborn as an Internet Radio Station where it can be heard today.

In the early 1960s, the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...

 adopted a standard for transmitting and receiving stereo
Stereophonic sound
The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...

 signals on a single channel of the FM band. In addition to delivering stereo sound, FM broadcasting provided a clearer sound quality and better resistance to interference than AM, thus being the ideal vehicle for broadcasting the beautiful music format.

In 1963, Marlin Taylor created a custom-designed beautiful music format at Philadelphia's WDVR
WBEB
WBEB is a radio station broadcasting a Soft Rock/Adult Contemporary format. Licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it serves the Greater Philadelphia metropolitan area. It first began broadcasting in 1963 under the call sign WDVR. The station is currently owned by Jerry Lee...

-FM, and within four months, WDVR became the #1 rated FM station in the Philadelphia market, becoming not only one of the first big successes in FM broadcasting but instrumental in establishing the viability of the FM band. WDVR was a resource for mature listeners who were driven away from AM radio at the time when WFIL and WIBG (and others) were going to rock 'n' roll programming. WDVR's many large roadside billboards made the adult audience aware of the new station.

Declining years

Peters Productions was one of several radio format syndicators -- including Schulke Radio Productions (SRP), Bonneville Program Services (BPS), and Century Broadcasting -- who created automated tape reels for hundreds of radio stations across the U.S. during the 1960s and 1970s. The company supplied music tapes as well as pre-recorded announcements of the time of day, and other announcements used to promote the format. Peters' beautiful music format was first called "Music Only For A Woman" and later "Music Just For The Two of Us." Peters was the first beautiful music syndicator to sell out its library in the late 1980s to Broadcast Programming, Inc. -- known in the industry as BPI -- which snapped up several other syndicators within the next few years. (BPI is now part of Jones Radio Networks
Jones Radio Networks
Jones Radio Networks & Jones Media Group were branches of Jones International before being sold to Triton Media Group. JRN and JMN provide local radio stations with satellite-delivered formats. They also offer other services to local radio such as news and talk programs, syndicated radio shows,...

.) Bonneville, which had acquired the SRP and Century catalogs in the 1980s, itself sold its beautiful music related assets to Broadcast Programming in November 1993.

Some beautiful music stations did make a successful transition into adult contemporary formats, although often not without call letter changes to drop the identity of being a so-described "elevator music
Elevator music
Elevator music refers to instrumental arrangements of popular music designed for playing in shopping malls, grocery stores, department stores, telephone systems , cruise ships, airports, doctors' and dentists' offices, and elevators...

" station.

Beautiful music today

The beautiful music format did not die completely. Today's smooth jazz
Smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is a genre of music that grew out of jazz fusion and is influenced by R&B, funk, rock, and pop music styles ....

 radio stations maintain the structure and style of the beautiful music format. And although today there are only a handful of true beautiful music stations still on the air, the format still lives on a few non-commercial radio stations, including WKTZ (90.9 FM) in Jacksonville, Florida, which is owned by Jones College
Jones College (Jacksonville)
Jones College is a private for-profit college founded in 1918 in Jacksonville, Florida. The college is not regionally accredited, but is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools . The college's main "Arlington Campus" is located on the east bank of the St. Johns...

 and also streams its programming online. WKTZ plays many pop-standard selections and some big band material, as was common on many beautiful music stations during the 1960s and 1970s. Other non-commercial stations offering the beautiful music format include KLUX
KLUX
KLUX is a radio station serving the Corpus Christi area of Texas with a secular, light adult music format. It broadcasts on FM frequency 89.5 MHz and is under ownership of Diocesan Telecommunications....

 (89.5 FM) in Corpus Christi, TX, KHOY
Khoy
Khoy is a city in and the capital of Khoy County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 178,708, in 45,090 families....

 (88.1 FM) in Laredo, TX, KNCT-FM
KNCT-FM
KNCT-FM is a public radio station broadcasting a Easy Listening format. Licensed to Killeen, Texas, USA, the station is currently owned by Central Texas College. The studio is located on the campus of Central Texas College in Killeen. The transmission facility is located in Belton....

 (91.3 FM) in Killeen, TX and WJMJ
WJMJ
WJMJ is a non-commercial radio station licensed to St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield, Connecticut, broadcasting on 88.9 FM. WJMJ started broadcasting in 1976 and operates out of the Seminary building. The tower is located on top of Johnnycake Mountain in Burlington, Connecticut...

 (88.9 FM) in Hartford, CT. WREK
WREK
WREK is the radio station staffed by the students of the Georgia Institute of Technology. It is located at 91.1 MHz and on channel 17 on the Georgia Tech cable TV network, GTCN...

 (91.1 FM, Atlanta) plays big band and cocktail jazz on Saturday evenings (6PM - 10PM), as a homage to the format and its roots.

Some commercial beautiful music stations do still exist as well, often in areas with large retiree populations, and are often very popular in the markets they serve, especially with older listeners. An annual influx of vacationers from colder climates has helped such stations as "Wave 101" WAVV
WAVV
WAVV is a commercial radio station located in Naples, Florida, broadcasting to the southwestern Florida area on 101.1 FM. WAVV airs an easy listening music format.WAVV 101.1 FM is Southwest Florida's most listened to radio station...

 (101.1 FM) Marco Island (Naples), FL. Most of the non commercial beautiful music stations that still exist are primarily in markets with major resorts that attract vacationers from colder climates who come for relaxation. Today most stations that play beautiful music are either characterized as nostalgia, smooth jazz or easy listening.

Beautiful instrumental music can also be found on Internet radio
Internet radio
Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...

 feeds such as Live365's
Live365
Live365 is an Internet radio network where members can create their own online radio station or listen to other Live365 broadcasters' online stations. As of October 2006, there were about 6,500 active stations, some of which play niche genres seldom heard on AM/FM radio...

 (BEAUTIFUL instrumentals). Using Bonneville and SRP veterans, Sirius XM Satellite Radio programs a dedicated beautiful music channel, Escape, for its subscribers, and such services as Music Choice
Music Choice
Music Choice is a United States company that programs music and produces music-related content for digital cable, cell phones, and cable modem subscribers in the US. Music Choice programs dozens of audio music channels for digital cable subscribers, as well as programs and produces music-related...

 and DMX
DMX (music)
DMX is a "multi-sensory" branding agency based in Austin, Texas. DMX also provides music for cable and satellite television networks worldwide, including DirecTV.-History:...

 provide the format as part of their offerings to cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...

 and satellite
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...

 television subscribers. Muzak
Muzak
Muzak Holdings LLC is a company based in metro Fort Mill, South Carolina, United States, just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded in 1934, Muzak Holdings is best known for distribution of background music to retail stores and other companies....

 also provides several beautiful music channels which are described as "environmental" background music channels.

See also

  • Light music
    Light music
    Light music is a generic term applied to a mainly British musical style of "light" orchestral music, which originated in the 19th century and had its heyday during the early to mid part of the 20th century, although arguably it lasts to the present day....

  • Lounge music
    Lounge music
    Lounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a type of mood music meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place — a jungle, an island paradise, outer space, et cetera — other than where they are listening to it...

  • Easy listening
    Easy listening
    Easy listening is a broad style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the 1950s, evolving out of big band music, and related to MOR music as played on many AM radio stations. It encompasses the exotica, beautiful music, light music, lounge music, ambient music, and space age pop genres...

  • Mantra
    Mantra
    A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of "creating transformation"...

  • Heart sutra
    Heart Sutra
    The Heart Sūtra is a Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtra. Its Sanskrit name literally translates to "Heart of the Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom." The Heart Sūtra is often cited as the best known and most popular of all Buddhist scriptures.-Introduction:The Heart Sūtra is a member of the Perfection of...


Further reading

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