Marlin Taylor
American radio broadcaster and executive / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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,"[1][2][3] 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.
Marlin Taylor | |
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Born | Marlin Raymond Taylor (1935-08-26) August 26, 1935 (age 88) |
Occupations | |
Years active | 1956–2015 |
Employer(s) | Various radio stations (1956–1970) Bonneville (1970–1987) XM/SiriusXM (2000–2015) |
Known for | Creator of beautiful music format |
Website | marlintaylor |
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.