![]() ![]() At one point, it was directly affiliated with Presto Recording Corporation, one of the firms that had developed the coated aluminum record that proved the precursor to the vinyl record.īut after some corporate shifts, Bogen quietly became important in its own way. ![]() Let’s start with the device itself: Made by a company named Bogen Communications, the device looks like any standard answering machine, but it actually plays music off a tape for those put on hold.īogen is an obscure brand, still around today, that sells niche audio products. The image doesn’t seem to drop many hints, but diving into the brand names appear to tell one heck of a story. That device was called “Message on Hold,” and it helped to democratize hold music so that even small businesses could use it. Sitting in the National Museum of American History (not currently on view, but there’s an entry online about it) is an item that not many people have actually seen, but if they lived through the ’90s, have likely heard in one way or another. (National Museum of American History) The companies that really helped hold music take off “The caller may not call back, possibly resulting in the loss of good will and business for the subscriber.” “Although the caller may listen for a brief interval regardless of the selection, if the holding interval is prolonged for some time, as is often the case, the caller may hang up, because he grows bored or because he dislikes the program being played,” the patent filing stated. Paul, for a technology that allowed callers to decide which hold music they wanted to listen to. ![]() Two decades after his first patent related to this issue, he filed a second with fellow inventor Jon D. On its own, Levy’s invention would be interesting enough, but he’s fascinating for another reason: He’s a two-time innovator. ![]() The timing of his invention was basically perfect, coming along right as the call center was making its first appearance. “In any event, listening to a completely unresponsive instrument is tedious and calls often are abandoned altogether or remade which leads to annoyance and a waste of time and money.”Ī telephone hold system, he continues, is basically a way to pacify the person waiting for assistance, as it “assures the incoming caller that his call is being held and that he is not disconnected or forgotten.” “Courteous telephone practice requires that a held caller be assured at reasonable intervals that the party to whom he wishes to speak still is busy but the pressure of her duties may prevent the operator from so advising the incoming caller so that he may be bereft of even this small consolation,” the patent filing stated. However, little consideration was being given to the person on the other end of the line, who understandably might get frustrated or concerned the call dropped if they don’t hear back after a while. He noted that switchboards and telephone operators increasingly were using hold buttons, which allow time to properly route calls through a switchboard. Nonetheless, his patent filing, granted in 1966, does a great job of explaining why such a tool is necessary. It might sound far-fetched, but that’s the tale, apparently. Oddly enough, when the wire touched the steel, it effectively turned the building into a giant radio, leading people on hold waiting for phone calls to actually hear music on the line, rather than waiting in silence. That was the point that a man named Alfred Levy made when he filed a patent application in 1962 for the “Telephone hold program system,” which is the very patent that led to the creation of hold music.Ī 2014 Slate piece helpfully filled in the gaps on this story: Levy, a factory employee, stumbled upon the basic idea for hold music after a freak incident involving a wire and a steel girder. Sure that hold music was annoying, grating, a punishment to brain cells, especially if it loops tightly or is particularly in-your-face, but you know what’d be worse? If there was no sound at all. I remember once when I called up a pizza place and the hold music, which played in a 10-second loop advertising the pizza joint, was so brain-numbingly grating that it made me want to stop eating pizza. Recently, I’ve had a lot of opportunities to hear hold music, whether I’m waiting for my next conference call to pop up, I’ve had a question I needed answered, or I’ve been in dire need of customer support (looking at you IKEA). ( PublicDomainPictures/Pixabay) The guy who invented hold music, then reinvented it two decades later ![]()
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