Muzak Llc - Atlanta history

Charged with determining the military potential in the experiments of the Wright brothers, Squier became the first airplane passenger in the world when he hopped aboard a Wright-constructed aircraft for a nine-minute flight in 1908.

Squier patented the invention in 1922 and later in the year sold the patent to a massive utilities combine called North American Company, which backed Major General Squier in launching Wired Radio, Inc.

The year the technology was first tested--in 1934--also marked the year Squier came up with a new name for the company that would employ his patented technology.

Muzak, which had been headquartered in New York since 1936, relocated its corporate offices to Seattle after the signal merger with Yesco and began developing into the sophisticated, diverse communications company that earned Billboard's esteem.

To execute its expansion plan, Muzak developed a franchise system in 1938, enabling it to establish a presence in major United States cities such as Boston, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Detroit, and Los Angeles.

In 1939, Warner Brothers sold Muzak to a triumvirate comprising Waddill Catchings, Allen Miller, and William Benton, founder of Benton & Bowles Advertising Agency, publisher of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and a United States Senator from Connecticut.

Of the three owners, Benton wielded the most influence, and eventually bought out his two partners to gain full control in 1941, when the theory that music in the workplace increased productivity was put to its first great test.

On the technological front, no invention ranked higher during the immediate postwar years than the 1953 development of "M8R," an electronic tape playback system that enabled Muzak to switch its recordings from phonograph to audio tape.

New ownership arrived late in the decade when Muzak, with 150 franchisees in the United States, Canada, and abroad, was sold to Wrather Corporation in 1957.

Founded in 1968, Yesco pioneered the foreground music concept, carving a niche for itself by playing the popular recordings of hits by the original artists rather than instrumental renditions of those hits.

In 1972, Muzak was passed to the hands of another corporate parent when Teleprompter Corporation purchased the company from Wrather Corporation.

In 1981, Westinghouse Corporation purchased Teleprompter and, reportedly, only learned later that it had acquired Muzak Corporation as part of the deal.

In 1984, the company struck a private-label agreement with one of its few competitors, Seattle-based Yesco Audio Environments.

A 1987 merger with Seattle-based Yesco Audio Environments, however, moved the company away from background music into the market for foreground music, or music selections consisting of compositions performed by the original artists.

Of Muzak, Professor Gary Gumpert of Queens College, in a 1990 interview for Britain’s Channel 4, said: “[it’s] a kind of amniotic fluid that surrounds us; and it never startles us, it is never too loud, it is never too silent; it’s always there.”

Additional services to businesses were offered in 1991 when the company launched its ZTV video network, which offered six channels and 11 music formats to night clubs, restaurants, and bars.

Sales by the end of 1992 had climbed to $54.2 million, a total that would increase strongly in the coming years as Muzak broadened its range of services to businesses.

A business arrangement with EchoStar Communications Corporation in 1996 enabled Muzak to expand its music selection to 60 channels by the end of the year, further strengthening its resources for the years ahead.

NBC acquires the broadcast rights to the Olympics through 2008.

On January 28, 2011, Comcast and General Electric complete their transaction to form NBCUniversal, LLC.

It was saved the following year by Mood Media, which preserved elements of the original company but chose to rename it in 2013, consigning the name to history.

The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics reaches more Americans via more platforms than any other Winter Olympics in history with a record 242.3 million media exposures of Olympics coverage across NBCUniversal’s broadcast, cable and digital properties.

Saturday Night Live delivered its most watched telecast in 22 years in February 2015 with its 40th Anniversary show.

NBCUniversal's coverage of the 2016 Rio Olympics become the most successful and profitable Olympics ever with nearly 200 million viewers, $250 million in profit, and a digital record of 100 million unique users and over 3 billion total streaming minutes.

Telemundo Deportes exclusively broadcasts the Spanish-language presentation of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, reaching 37 million viewers and setting network records for all seven days.

Telemundo serves as the exclusive Spanish-language broadcaster for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup™.

Comcast named the presenting sponsor of the Team USA Champions Series through 2020 by The United States Olympic Committee.