SALT LAKE CITY - A radio program that first went on the air before the start of the Great Depression is being inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters' Hall of Fame, a second national honor for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
The Choir's "Music and the Spoken Word" program will be inducted April 20. Earlier this month, President Bush awarded the Choir the National Medal of Arts in a White House ceremony.
The weekly program, which began three months before the October 1929 stock market crash, is broadcast from the Tabernacle on Temple Square. It features music by the choir and a spoken inspirational message.
"We are so pleased and grateful to be chosen by the NAB for this honor," said Craig Jessop, the choir's music director. "It becomes even more significant for us to receive it during our 75th anniversary year, and when we consider the long list of accomplished names that are part of the NAB Hall of Fame roster."
Other inductees include broadcasting legends Bob Hope, Edward R. Murrow, Jack Benny, George Burns, Paul Harvey, Bing Crosby and Benny Goodman.
The first broadcast involved a KSL radio employee climbing a tall ladder and suspending a microphone above the pulpit to capture the sound of both the choir and the announcer.
"We obviously have come a very long way since that day," said Gregg Garber, vice president of Bonneville Communications, which produces and distributes the show. "But it's the enduring values conveyed and expressed through the choir's music and the message in each broadcast that have made, and will continue to make, this program appreciated and loved by listening audiences around the world."
