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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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