Recent from talks
Marlin Taylor
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Marlin Taylor
Marlin Raymond Taylor (born August 26, 1935) is an American former radio broadcaster, program director, and radio executive who is credited as the "father of beautiful music," an update of the older easy listening radio format popular from the 1960s to the 1980s. He initially developed the format, which primarily featured instrumental versions of popular songs and classical melodies, while working at WDVR in Philadelphia between 1963 and 1966.
Ratings success there and at Boston's WJIB led him to a position as general manager of the Bonneville International Corporation's New York FM station, WRFM, in 1969. With Taylor's "beautiful music" format, WRFM became the third-most listened to station in New York City by the fall of 1970. Taylor then formed and became the president of Bonneville Broadcast Consultants (BBC), a new Bonneville division that syndicated his beautiful music format to stations across the country. At its height, BBC provided beautiful music programming to almost 200 stations in the United States, Canada, and Australia.
Taylor left Bonneville in 1987, but returned to radio programming in 2000 with XM Satellite Radio. He developed XM programming for three stations: '40s Junction (big band), Escape (beautiful music), and enLighten (southern gospel). He officially retired from radio broadcasting in August 2015. Taylor was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame in 2015 and the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2021.
Marlin Raymond Taylor was born on August 26, 1935 in Abington Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He grew up in nearby Bucks County primarily in the towns of Feasterville and Newtown located north of Philadelphia. He was raised by his mother, Marian Ivins Taylor. Taylor received his first radio when he was 11 years old and developed an interest in the medium throughout the 1940s. Although he lacked formal training or education, Taylor sought employment in the radio industry after high school. In 1956, he found a part-time job as technical operator at WTNJ-AM in Trenton, New Jersey. There, he engineered and produced a yearlong series of remote broadcasts and served as a control room and transmitter operator.
In the Spring of 1958 when Taylor was 22, he was drafted by the United States Army and later assigned to the Thule Air Force Base in Greenland for a year. While there, he worked as an on-air announcer for Armed Forces Radio at the base's radio station, KOLD. His stint in Greenland ended in April 1960, and Taylor went on to attend the U.S. Army Information School at Fort Slocum in New York. He finished his military service at Fort Meade in Maryland where he worked as a radio show producer for the Second U.S. Army Recruiting District.
In early 1961, Taylor applied to be the program director at the newly-built WHFS station in Bethesda, Maryland. It was the first stereo FM station to serve the Washington, D.C. market, and began operating with Taylor as station manager and program director in November 1961. Taylor was responsible for the station's day-to-day operations including programming the music and some announcing. WHFS played a mix of classical, jazz, and pop.
In 1963, Taylor joined WDVR-FM in Philadelphia as station manager and program director and partnered with sales manager Jerry Lee. WDVR was another newly-formed station without a set plan for programming. Taylor developed the new station's sound, which updated the easy listening format and later became known as "beautiful music." Taylor's format called for instrumental versions of popular songs with light classical melodies and some solo vocals with arrangements by composers and bandleaders like Percy Faith, Mantovani, Ray Conniff, and Bert Kaempfert. It also minimized announcer comments and advertising breaks. The station launched with that format on May 13, 1963 and became Philadelphia's first 24-hour music outlet. Initially, the station did not air news segments, but Taylor later introduced pre-recorded weather and news summaries that aired every three hours. He eventually added live, local announcers to allow for breaking news reports, such as during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963. In 1966, when the American Research Bureau (ARB) published the first Arbitron ratings, WDVR had the highest average listenership of any FM station in the nation.
After leaving WDVR in 1966, Taylor had management stints at two radio stations before taking a position as program and music director at WJIB-FM in Boston in 1967. A new joint venture between Kaiser Broadcasting and The Boston Globe, WJIB sought to incorporate a format similar to the one developed by Taylor at WDVR. He later had a role in supervising Kaiser's sister station, KFOG-FM, in San Francisco. At WJIB, Taylor launched the roll out of his beautiful music programming in the fall of 1967. By early 1968, the station was rated seventh in the market according to the Hooper Radio Audience Index.
Hub AI
Marlin Taylor AI simulator
(@Marlin Taylor_simulator)
Marlin Taylor
Marlin Raymond Taylor (born August 26, 1935) is an American former radio broadcaster, program director, and radio executive who is credited as the "father of beautiful music," an update of the older easy listening radio format popular from the 1960s to the 1980s. He initially developed the format, which primarily featured instrumental versions of popular songs and classical melodies, while working at WDVR in Philadelphia between 1963 and 1966.
Ratings success there and at Boston's WJIB led him to a position as general manager of the Bonneville International Corporation's New York FM station, WRFM, in 1969. With Taylor's "beautiful music" format, WRFM became the third-most listened to station in New York City by the fall of 1970. Taylor then formed and became the president of Bonneville Broadcast Consultants (BBC), a new Bonneville division that syndicated his beautiful music format to stations across the country. At its height, BBC provided beautiful music programming to almost 200 stations in the United States, Canada, and Australia.
Taylor left Bonneville in 1987, but returned to radio programming in 2000 with XM Satellite Radio. He developed XM programming for three stations: '40s Junction (big band), Escape (beautiful music), and enLighten (southern gospel). He officially retired from radio broadcasting in August 2015. Taylor was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame in 2015 and the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2021.
Marlin Raymond Taylor was born on August 26, 1935 in Abington Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He grew up in nearby Bucks County primarily in the towns of Feasterville and Newtown located north of Philadelphia. He was raised by his mother, Marian Ivins Taylor. Taylor received his first radio when he was 11 years old and developed an interest in the medium throughout the 1940s. Although he lacked formal training or education, Taylor sought employment in the radio industry after high school. In 1956, he found a part-time job as technical operator at WTNJ-AM in Trenton, New Jersey. There, he engineered and produced a yearlong series of remote broadcasts and served as a control room and transmitter operator.
In the Spring of 1958 when Taylor was 22, he was drafted by the United States Army and later assigned to the Thule Air Force Base in Greenland for a year. While there, he worked as an on-air announcer for Armed Forces Radio at the base's radio station, KOLD. His stint in Greenland ended in April 1960, and Taylor went on to attend the U.S. Army Information School at Fort Slocum in New York. He finished his military service at Fort Meade in Maryland where he worked as a radio show producer for the Second U.S. Army Recruiting District.
In early 1961, Taylor applied to be the program director at the newly-built WHFS station in Bethesda, Maryland. It was the first stereo FM station to serve the Washington, D.C. market, and began operating with Taylor as station manager and program director in November 1961. Taylor was responsible for the station's day-to-day operations including programming the music and some announcing. WHFS played a mix of classical, jazz, and pop.
In 1963, Taylor joined WDVR-FM in Philadelphia as station manager and program director and partnered with sales manager Jerry Lee. WDVR was another newly-formed station without a set plan for programming. Taylor developed the new station's sound, which updated the easy listening format and later became known as "beautiful music." Taylor's format called for instrumental versions of popular songs with light classical melodies and some solo vocals with arrangements by composers and bandleaders like Percy Faith, Mantovani, Ray Conniff, and Bert Kaempfert. It also minimized announcer comments and advertising breaks. The station launched with that format on May 13, 1963 and became Philadelphia's first 24-hour music outlet. Initially, the station did not air news segments, but Taylor later introduced pre-recorded weather and news summaries that aired every three hours. He eventually added live, local announcers to allow for breaking news reports, such as during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963. In 1966, when the American Research Bureau (ARB) published the first Arbitron ratings, WDVR had the highest average listenership of any FM station in the nation.
After leaving WDVR in 1966, Taylor had management stints at two radio stations before taking a position as program and music director at WJIB-FM in Boston in 1967. A new joint venture between Kaiser Broadcasting and The Boston Globe, WJIB sought to incorporate a format similar to the one developed by Taylor at WDVR. He later had a role in supervising Kaiser's sister station, KFOG-FM, in San Francisco. At WJIB, Taylor launched the roll out of his beautiful music programming in the fall of 1967. By early 1968, the station was rated seventh in the market according to the Hooper Radio Audience Index.