Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Is there a radio station that broadcasts commercial-free music for when you are on hold?
Matt:
Today, knowing I would have to wait a while, I called two companies at the same time using two phones, one in each ear. When the hold music came on both phones, it was identical! I listened for five minutes, and the Muzak song changes were the same. It was no coincidence. These companies (Union Bank and Blue Cross of CA) don't seem connected in any way. I can't stop wondering...is there a radio station that broadcasts commercial-free Muzak hold music?
-- Keith Boudreau, Leucadia
You industrious multitasker, Keith. Whadda guy. The only thing worse than listening to 100 violins playing "Wind Beneath My Wings" is listening to it in both ears. I applaud your stamina. Of course, there are lots of ways to get tunes through your phone. (It's called MOH, music on hold. There's a whole tunes-through-your-phone industry, natch.) The fastest, cheapest, most illegal method is to jack your radio into a special MOH hookup in your phone system and pirate the tunes off the air. You'll probably be whistling along with the Carpenters when the guy shows up with the copyright-infringement lawsuit. Businesses can get software from their phone-system installer that will pull up melodies for the entertainment of waiters-on-line. Or have your own disc prepared by one of the MOH companies. These can include sales messages and other customized chatter spliced between Eagles hits or rehearsal tapes by your kid's garage band.
Union Bank and Blue Cross aren't so cheap or stupid that they'd pick option one. Options two and three are out of the question, based on the odds of the programming being identical. So that leaves us with number four, which we like to call the Big Mac option, or the Cantonese-food option: one central source with pipelines to various outlets, providing an identical experience, no matter where you are. Muzak is one of the sellers of such licensed programming. It's broadcast specifically for MOH use by subscribers (retail outlets, fitness centers, etc.). It's just one more reason why peace and quiet is such a rare commodity. That and the new gas-pump TV. What's next?
Here's something you might be interested in.
Is there a radio station that broadcasts commercial-free music for when you are on hold?
Is there a radio station that broadcasts commercial-free music for when you are on hold?
Matt:
Today, knowing I would have to wait a while, I called two companies at the same time using two phones, one in each ear. When the hold music came on both phones, it was identical! I listened for five minutes, and the Muzak song changes were the same. It was no coincidence. These companies (Union Bank and Blue Cross of CA) don't seem connected in any way. I can't stop wondering...is there a radio station that broadcasts commercial-free Muzak hold music?
-- Keith Boudreau, Leucadia
You industrious multitasker, Keith. Whadda guy. The only thing worse than listening to 100 violins playing "Wind Beneath My Wings" is listening to it in both ears. I applaud your stamina. Of course, there are lots of ways to get tunes through your phone. (It's called MOH, music on hold. There's a whole tunes-through-your-phone industry, natch.) The fastest, cheapest, most illegal method is to jack your radio into a special MOH hookup in your phone system and pirate the tunes off the air. You'll probably be whistling along with the Carpenters when the guy shows up with the copyright-infringement lawsuit. Businesses can get software from their phone-system installer that will pull up melodies for the entertainment of waiters-on-line. Or have your own disc prepared by one of the MOH companies. These can include sales messages and other customized chatter spliced between Eagles hits or rehearsal tapes by your kid's garage band.
Union Bank and Blue Cross aren't so cheap or stupid that they'd pick option one. Options two and three are out of the question, based on the odds of the programming being identical. So that leaves us with number four, which we like to call the Big Mac option, or the Cantonese-food option: one central source with pipelines to various outlets, providing an identical experience, no matter where you are. Muzak is one of the sellers of such licensed programming. It's broadcast specifically for MOH use by subscribers (retail outlets, fitness centers, etc.). It's just one more reason why peace and quiet is such a rare commodity. That and the new gas-pump TV. What's next?
Comments