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During the 1950's and 1960's, many popular singers of the era contributed
their talents to a series of public service radio programs sponsored by
various government agencies such as the Army National Guard, the U.S. Air
Force, the Navy and the Marines. Each program ran fifteen minutes
in length, and the singer was usually accompanied by a well known musical
ensemble of the day. These programs were provided to radio stations
around the country on transcriptions to be played at times of their choosing
to fulfill their public service requirement stipulated under the licenses
granted to the stations by the Federal Communications Commission.
You can hear six such programs featuring Peggy, each as briefly described
below. The Navy Swings series dates from 1963, but
The Charlie Barnet Show with Peggy King as guest was recorded
somewhat earlier, probably during the mid-50's. The audio files are
each approximately seven megabytes in size, so please be patient if you
have a dial-up internet connection.
Peggy
also made two appearances on Philadelphia's public broadcasting station
WHYY on their now nationally distributed program Fresh Air,
hosted by Terry Gross. The first consisted of a collection of songs
by Irving Berlin on the occasion of his 100th birthday. The second
featured songs by Peggy's very favorite composer, Jerome Kern. Host
Terry Gross, pictured below, chats with Peggy on the background of some
of the songs included in the broadcasts, as well as on Peggy's return to
performing during the 1980's, after her children were grown.
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