[HN Gopher] United Biscuits Network
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       United Biscuits Network
        
       Author : cnorthwood
       Score  : 48 points
       Date   : 2024-02-21 09:26 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (en.wikipedia.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (en.wikipedia.org)
        
       | eschneider wrote:
       | I'm always shocked more companies don't do things like this,
       | especially now that it's so much cheaper. Yes, yes, everyone has
       | their own playlists, but an employee-run, company-wide streaming
       | station is a cheap moral builder.
        
         | qmarchi wrote:
         | There's one that immediately pops into mind: Walmart Radio.
         | 
         | It's hosted in Bentonville, but distributed to all the stores
         | in the US, as well as some international locations.
         | 
         | Associates (Employees) can call in and request certain songs,
         | give shout outs to another associate, etc.
         | 
         | https://www.walmartworld.com/content/walmart-world/en_us/rad...
         | 
         | Disclosure: Used to work at Walmart Corporate.
        
         | mikestew wrote:
         | In the 90s, Microsoft support had a DJ spinnin' tunes while you
         | waited:
         | 
         | https://www.wired.com/1994/04/radio-microsoft/ (check out those
         | single-digit wait times.)
         | 
         | I worked there when it was still going, but I don't recall if
         | it was employee-accessible or not. I seem to have some vague
         | recollection of having heard it, but I might have been actually
         | making a support call for a product.
        
         | qingcharles wrote:
         | When I worked in a factory they piped the local pop station
         | over the PA system all day. At first it is really cool, but
         | then when you've heard Alanis Morrisette for the 112th time
         | that day, it can grate. And there is no escape :(
        
           | dessimus wrote:
           | > And there is no escape :(
           | 
           | From the irony? ;)
        
           | PastorSalad wrote:
           | It's the jingles that got me. They still visit me in my
           | dreams all these years later..
        
           | 01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote:
           | When I was younger I did gymnastics and the gym coach had
           | some local pop station set up.
           | 
           | 3 days a week for what felt like a whole year I was hearing
           | that "Hot and fresh out the kitchen" song. I think it was
           | about sex.
        
         | rwmj wrote:
         | My university had a radio station. Still around:
         | https://www.icradio.com/
        
       | dduugg wrote:
       | TIL. I thought this would be related to King Biscuit Time, "the
       | longest-running daily American radio broadcast in history", but
       | apparently it's just a coincidence:
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Biscuit_Time
        
         | mikestew wrote:
         | _The King Biscuit Flour Hour_ certainly did come to my mind
         | when I saw the headline for TFA:
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Biscuit_Flower_Hour
        
       | weinzierl wrote:
       | In the 90s I worked at a pharmaceutical factory. They had little
       | autonomous electric line follower vehicles that transported
       | samples through the halls.
       | 
       | Because these moved very silently, every one of them had small
       | transistor radio attached (in a makeshift way) that blared music
       | through the buildings.
        
       | jdietrich wrote:
       | See also:
       | 
       | LEO, the first business computer system in the world, built in
       | 1951 by J. Lyons & Co to calculate the cost of cake ingredients.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LEO_(computer)
        
       | Animats wrote:
       | There were various lo-fi business music systems. Muzak, like
       | United Biscuits, distributed over telephone lines. There were
       | self-contained systems. Seeburg, the jukebox maker, made one, the
       | Seeburg 1000. It wasn't random access like a jukebox. It just
       | played a stack of records over and over with a relatively simple
       | mechanism.
       | 
       | Seeburg's had their own orchestra, in Chicago, and recorded their
       | own records. They just had to buy a "mechanical license" from the
       | songwriters, which in the US costs a fixed rate set by law. So
       | they owned rights to the content. To protect it, they recorded it
       | on a nonstandard sized disk (9 inches), a nonstandard hole size
       | (2 inches) with a nonstandard speed (16 2/3 RPM, rather lo-fi)
       | and a nonstandard stylus size (5 mils). They didn't copyright the
       | content; that cost money back then.
       | 
       | Someone collects these obsolete machines, restored a Seeburg
       | player, and modified a modern turntable to play them. They stream
       | it out, legally.[1]
       | 
       | [1] https://radiocoastcom.godaddysites.com/
        
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       (page generated 2024-02-22 23:01 UTC)