{"id":1465,"date":"2012-05-06T18:26:14","date_gmt":"2012-05-06T22:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=1465"},"modified":"2024-12-03T16:52:42","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T21:52:42","slug":"since-1929","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=1465","title":{"rendered":"Since 1929"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Linda Burton posting from Salt Lake City, Utah<\/em> \u2013\u201cIf you\u2019re going to cough, now would be a good time,\u201d advised our host. Live broadcast #4,312 was about to begin, and the perfect acoustics in the Tabernacle required that we not applaud or talk during the performance. No cell phones, of course; and no photography. I snapped as many photos as I could as the orchestra assembled and people took their seats; the balcony was filling fast. Our tour guide had slipped us into a third-row pew behind a walkway, almost in the middle. It was a great seat for listening, but as usual I wound up behind a tallish bald-headed man. Not so good for the bottom fourth of pictures of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! I retrieved a cough drop from my bag; now I was thinking about Not Coughing. I set my camera on the seat and tried to divert my thoughts by reading the program. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The first broadcast was July 15, 1929, I read. It was a hot summer afternoon in the Tabernacle, and the announcer had to climb a ladder to speak into the radio station\u2019s only microphone, which was suspended from the ceiling. The poor man stayed perched on the ladder through the entire performance! The audio engineer was alerted by telegraph when to begin. The announcer was cued by hand signals. Primitive beginnings, but not a Sunday performance has been missed since, and here I sit today, waiting for Performance 4,312 to begin.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Instead of a ladder, I see a CamMate, what I believe to be a camera at the end of a long pole that can go right, left, up, 0r down (I don\u2019t know movie-making jargon); instead of telegraph signals and hand cues, I see people wearing headsets, rolling balcony cameras on either side of the stage, cameras made for walking; uncounted mikes hanging from a mass of ceiling wires, positioned for catching the tiniest nuance of sound. No wonder we shouldn\u2019t cough! The crew is ready, the choir is seated, the orchestra is poised, and we have been welcomed. I close my eyes as the music begins. I am ready too.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the crossroads of the West, we welcome you to a program of inspirational music and spoken word.\u201d For more than eighty years these words have opened the program. Music and the Spoken Word<\/em> is the world\u2019s longest continuing network broadcast, carried on more than 2,000 radio and television stations and cable systems. Times have changed. Technologies have changed. But the power of the music remains gloriously unchanged. \u201cGod be with you till we meet again,\u201d was the sing-out number after the recording stopped and we could use our cameras once again. I tucked the cough drop back into my bag and moved towards the front like the rest of the crowd, wanting to be closer to the inspiration.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Here are some facts I looked up for you:<\/p>\n