August 26, 2019 … the 17th anniversary of Escape, SiriusXM’s Beautiful Music/Easy Listening channel!
Yes, the launch came on August 26th, 2002 … eleven months after the official launch of the brand-new radio programming service known as XM Satellite Radio, of which the 1940’s Channel/Savoy Express was one of the original 100 channels of programming being offered!
Quoting from my memoir, beginning on Page 195:
“Meanwhile, in the middle of 2002 … it was announced that although Easy Listening was not part of the original XM channel lineup, subscriber demand was such that an Easy Listening channel was to be included with three other genres when the channel lineup was realigned in August of 2002, carrying the name of SUNNY.
I quickly discovered that Lee Abrams and the rest of management really didn’t recognize what kind of musical sound was being asked for, so it was time for me to become an advocate for what the subscribers really wanted; considering that the “father of the format” was already on staff, they had no choice but to place the channel under my auspices.
It wasn’t that I really needed something more to do. However, I was confidently able to tell them that if they began airing the format they had in mind, to be provided by an outside source I’ll discuss in a moment, the company would be losing two ways: (1) we’d not be delivering the product being requested, and (2) valuable bandwidth (which was already in scarce supply) would be eaten up by a format which wasn’t necessarily desired.
That outside source was the terrestrial station operator Clear Channel Broadcasting (now known as iHeart Media), who had bought into the company when it needed funds for construction and, as part of the deal, got ownership of several channels to program as they chose. XM management’s idea—since it was a format they had little personal interest in—was to let Clear Channel handle it. And that’s how the channel got the SUNNY name; it was a format name they owned and wanted used.
Once I got the go-ahead, we had barely a month to assemble the musical library and structure the format. Fortunately, from decades of experience, I knew exactly what to play and that the greatest percentage of the recordings sat on CDs in my basement, so the task was not daunting. It was an immediate hit, and when subscriber listening was surveyed a few months later, SUNNY was among the dozen most-listened-to channels. Its popularity continues without waning to this day.”
For reasons which I detail in my book, the day came when the format needed to be “disconnected” from Clear Channel involvement, which meant moving to a new channel and assuming a new name, Escape.
Sadly, for the devoted long-time listeners, over the years senior management — both the original XM and the Sirius team following the merger of the two companies — have demonstrated their disdain for the format by “borrowing” the channel for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to air another type of programming they wanted to temporarily offer … and, come August 2015, they sought to eliminate the genre completely. However, the Beautiful Music channel’s vast audience spoke with such force through cancellation of subscriptions, the channel was restored within a matter of days … and there’s been no trifling with it since.
Turning 80 that month and knowing it was time for a new direction for my life … and having served this Company well for nearly 15 years … it was more than time to gracefully depart!
Only issue I have with present management of the channel is their failure to continue playing several of Beautiful Music’s “greatest hits,” such as “The Lonely Shepherd,” “Ballad For Adeline” and the “Midnight Blue Theme,” to name just three.
Yet, there’s still a good helping every day of John Fox recordings, who’s along with the great string arrangements of Norrie Paramor, Percy Faith, Manuel and few others, has been the glue that’s held the format’s “comforting” sound together ever since I was blessed with the intuitive senses to birth it in Philadelphia in 1963.
That’s right … even as the titles have changed over the years, arrangement styles have evolved, with many artists added and a fair number having disappeared, the basic structure and “roots” have not changed.
Whether it’s called Good Music, Easy Listening, Beautiful Music or even Elevator Music … it’s still “comfort food for the ears” day after day for tens of thousands of music lovers living all across North America!
