Cities Service Concerts
Encyclopedia
The Cities Service Concerts were musical broadcasts which had a long three-decade run on radio from 1925 to 1956, encompassing a variety of vocalists and musicians.

The concerts began with trial broadcasts in the New York area during 1925 and 1926
Graham McNamee
Graham McNamee
Graham McNamee was a pioneering broadcaster in American radio, the medium's most recognized national personality in its first international decade....

 was the announcer for the brass group of Edwin Franko Goldman
Edwin Franko Goldman
Edwin Franko Goldman is one of America's prominent band composers of the early 20th century. He composed over 150 works, more notably his marches. He is known for founding the renowned Goldman Band of New York City and the American Bandmasters Association...

 when the hour-long program began February 18, 1927 on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

, expanding to a symphonic sound with Rosario Bourdon
Rosario Bourdon
Joseph Charles Rosario Bourdon D.Mus. was a French Canadian cellist, violinist, conductor, arranger and composer. He was a child prodigy skilled with many musical instruments...

 and a 30-piece orchestra that summer along with the Cavaliers quartet.

On January 3, 1930, Jessica Dragonette
Jessica Dragonette
Jessica Dragonette was a singer who became popular on American radio and was active in the World War II effort.-Early life and career:...

 brought her repertoire of 500 songs to the series, often doing duets with Frank Parker and generating top ratings during the 1930s. She was replaced by soprano Lucille Manners in 1937. Other performers during this period were Robert Simmons and James Melton
James Melton
James Melton , a popular singer in the 1920s and early 1930s, later began a career as an operatic singer when tenor voices went out of style in popular music around 1932-35...

. Along with the Cities Service Singers, baritone Ross Graham (1905-1986) arrived in 1939. Graham was also heard on Show Boat. Maestro Dr. Frank Black headed the show from at least 1938 to 1942 along with Manners and Graham.

The title changed to Highways in Melody in 1944 when Paul Lavalle
Paul Lavalle
Paul Lavalle was a conductor, composer, arranger and performer on clarinet and saxophone. He was born Joseph Usifer on September 6, 1908 in Beacon, New York and died in Harrisonburg, Virginia on June 24, 1997....

was the orchestra leader. Lavalle continued after the show was retitled yet again as The Cities Service Band of America. The series came to an end on January 16, 1956.
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