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3 Cities Service
succeeded Black as the conductor* of a 36-piece string orchestra in a new version of the Cities Service program called "Highways in Melody." The Friday night programs starred a number of operatic singers on a rotating basis. Vivian della Chiesa, Annamary Dickey, Dorothy Kirsten, Muriel Angelus, Genevieve Rowe, Robert Merrill, Leonard Stokes, Thomas L. Thomas, Earl Wrightson, Conrad Thibault and others graced NBC's spotlighted stage in studio 8-H, Radio City, New York. Two years later on Oct. 25, 1946, a baritone, Mac Morgan, replaced the guest stars.
Early in June, 1948, Cities Service was looking for a Summer¬ time musical program to substitute for "Highways in Melody." They de¬ cided to return to their first format, a brass band - "a basic Ameri¬ can institution," the announcement read - and thus on June 4, 1948, the Cities Service Band of America was formed, with Paul Lavalle as bandmaster. Ken Christie's chorus, renamed the Green and White Quartet, remained on the half-hour of music. Tenor Floyd Sherman, second tenor Edward Hayes, baritone Leonard Stokes and J. Alden Edkins, bass, still harmonize on barbershop tunes, spirituals and cheerful melodies today.
The original "Cities Service Concert" series was the first broadcast sponsorship contract signed by NBC's first president, M.H, Aylesworth. Aylesworth currently serves as broadcasting consultant to the Cities Service organization. Originally 16 NBC stations carried the program. Over the quarter-century it has been on the air, the program's network has been enlarged until at present 107 stations offer the marching rhythms of the Band of America to listeners in most regions of the country (9:30-10:00 p.m., EST) as part of NBC's "Monday nights of music." For several months late in 1949 s the "Band of America" was simulcast on both radio and television.
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NBC -New York, 2/4/52