‘Music & the Spoken Word’ Reaches Historic 5,000-Week Milestone

Bonneville International’s Music & the Spoken Word will reach a historic broadcast milestone on Sunday, July 13, as the syndicated program airs for its 5,000th consecutive week, featuring The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.

First heard on July 15, 1929, the program began with a microphone suspended from the ceiling of Salt Lake City’s KZN and a 19-year-old announcer, Ted Kimball, perched on a ladder.

Throughout its 95-year run, Music & the Spoken Word has marked many pivotal historical moments from the end of World War II and the moon landing, to the Olympics and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Following President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, the show aired its first nationwide television broadcast as a tribute. In 1986, after the Challenger disaster, the program paid tribute with a patriotic musical selection sent to the families of the astronauts.

In 2001, in the wake of 9/11, the show’s team assembled a revised broadcast to reflect the national grief, beginning with a solemn three-minute bell toll in memory of those lost, including one of the Choir’s own ushers.

Heard by more than five million people each week, Music & the Spoken Word airs in more than 50 countries and, since 2023, also broadcasts in Spanish via the Choir’s dedicated YouTube channel.

The Tabernacle Choir Music Director Mack Wilberg said, “Everybody on earth responds in some way to music. Newborn babies react to music. We never stop. Music just becomes a part of us, it was a part of our ancestors, and it will be a part of the world long after we are all gone. This is why it is such an integral part of the enduring power of Music & the Spoken Word and its ability to heal, uplift, and unlock motivation to do good. As we look ahead to the 5,000th broadcast, we are reminded of the timeless, magical power of music and how it has a place in every single soul.”