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Carole Mikita Reporting In the world of broadcasting, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is a phenomenon. Award-winning journalist Charles Osgood paid that tribute to the choir's historic 75 years of performing "Music and the Spoken Word" today.
What better place to mark broadcasting history than New York City? The Mormon Tabernacle Choir kicked off a whirlwind Northeastern States Tour last summer with a concert there, then with the Boston Pops on the Fourth of July.
But all of this had humble beginnings; the choir's fame began with its weekly program of 'Music and the Spoken Word" first broadcast on July 15, 1929. Today, more than 3, 900 later and still going strong.
Charles Osgood, Guest Narrator: "With hearts full of love and voices raised in the universal language of song, the choir has sustained the longest, continuing broadcast in radio history. In this business, that record is nothing short of a phenomenon."
And wherever in the world the choir is, the weekly broadcast is recorded. In 1998 the singers first stopped in London, then Geneva, and finally Barcelona.
To many, the program is a weekly church service. Families throughout the world continue to gather around radios and televisions to hear them.
Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley: “Sing with grandeur, sing with love, sing with joy. Spread the gospel of peace to a world weary with conflict.”
Choral conductor Robert Shaw said, “in these days of political, personal and economic disintegration, music is not a luxury, it's a necessity.” It was said the Mormon Tabernacle Choir exemplifies that thinking.
The choir has received many honors but the most notable came this anniversary year from President Bush, who awarded the singers the National Medal for the Arts.
