THE SEEBURG 1000
Over the years, it's been call Dentist Chair Music, Elevator Music, Beautiful Music, Muzak and a few names we can't mention here. We hear it everyday everywhere we go, but where does it come from? In the beginning, the music was fed over telephone lines so the quality was not the greatest. Then it was fed by FM Sub-carrier, where clients had special FM receivers to pick up the feeds. The problem was everyone heard the same music, everywhere. In 1959 the Seeburg Corporation, best known for their jukeboxes, developed a specal record player that played custom records at each customers location. There were several models, the BMS 1 which was just a metal box that was stuck in a utility closet, but in 1963 Seeburg released the BMS-2 Seeburg 1000, also known as the Microwave because of its design. It was designed to be displayed in public so people could watch it in action. There was also a version called the Encore which was designed for more upscale establishments. The music you hear comes from the specially designed 9" records that played at only 16 RPM. The record sets were leased by Seeburg to the owner of the machine, could only be placed into service on the date specified on the carton, and had to be returned after a specific period of time. Seeburg offered several different sets of music, tailored towards holidays, type of music, etc. The recordings were generally instrumental covers of recently popular tunes, by unnamed groups.
