Muzak Corporation, the company that provides background music to more than 250,000 businesses such as Dinosaur Bar-B-Q in downtown Syracuse and all GAP Inc. stores worldwide, is currently installing a new music system at Tennity Ice Skating Pavilion.

The system features a multi-option long play music program that should eliminate the burden of CD changing when the rink plays music during weekdays and theme nights, Tennity manager Nick Wetter said.

‘We’re going to have different types of music,’ Wetter said. ‘When we have theme nights, we’ll have music we can choose from that’s already made up for that theme. I won’t have to buy a bunch of Beatles’ CDs like I did for Friday night’s Beatlemania theme.’

Wetter said Muzak is currently connecting cables and providing a satellite dish for the entire system. The system should be complete and functional by summer and Tennity employees will be trained to operate it. In addition, the rink will pay a subscription fee of $65 per month.

In the meantime, Tennity plans on using its current stereo system and CD player. Tennity employees usually select the music or summon a disc jockey from Z89 to play music during theme nights and special events.

‘At times we’d want to use (DJs),’ Tennity employee Skip Meyers said. ‘And if we don’t have a DJ, we can use the system to play music for up to four hours. It’s more or less so we don’t have to monkey around with the (system) during the day.’

Muzak, based in New York City, supplies background tunes to almost all of the ice rinks in upstate New York. The company’s audio architecture — design for music –— gives Tennity a myriad of music choices through a satellite dish. Whether it’s current Top 40 hits, classic rock, techno or rap, the options are endless.

‘People use Muzak to enhance their clients’ experience,’ said John Romig, president of Functional Communications Corporation, part of three Muzak franchises in upstate New York. Muzak’s Syracuse franchise is located at 5900 S. Salina St.

‘There’s far less repetition and more selection of programs,’ Romig said. ‘The radio is a terrible medium for public spaces and businesses because it’s set up to advertise. That’s why we’ve been so successful and we can cater to any demographic, any experience, any theme.’

When people walk into Wegman’s or Price Chopper to do their grocery shopping, Romig said the music they are listening to is provided by Muzak.

Lysander-Radisson Ice Arena, located about 14 miles north of Syracuse, also subscribes to Muzak’s services.

The Baldwinsville rink has been around for 12 years and had Muzak install their music system about a year and a half ago, general manager Michael Lane said.

‘It’s an OK system, for what you use it for,’ Lane said. ‘We have it piped into our lobby areas, pro shops and for our public skating.’

Aisha Mohammed, a sophomore computer graphics major, is usually the emcee at theme night events held every weekend at Tennity.

Mohammed said Tennity owns five volumes of NOW, which are CDs compiled from pop music hits. The benefit of a service such as Muzak is that people can listen to new hits and still enjoy the old ones without hearing the same songs repeatedly on the compilation CDs, she said.

‘This will be a good investment because there are a lot of songs that will be updated and will have the newest music,’ said Mohammed, who has worked at Tennity since it opened in October 2000.

‘It’s better than building a CD collection. I hope they use the NOW CDs as frisbees,’ she added.

Published on April 13, 2002 at 12:00 pm