Saturday Night Jamboree
Saturday Night Jamboree, also referred to as the NBC Jamboree, was an early American country music series on NBC-TV from December 4, 1948–July 2, 1949. The name was originally given to an NBC Saturday night radio show in the 1930s, which was broadcast on the WEAF station in New York City.[1][2]
The TV series aired live from New York City from 8–9 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturdays for three weeks in December 1948, with yodeler Elton Britt as host. Beginning in January 1949, the host was Boyd Heath and the program aired from 8–8:30 p.m. until April, when it moved to 9:30–10 p.m. through July 2. The cast included comedian "Chubby Chuck" Roe; Sophrony Garen, vocals; Ted Grunt, fiddle; Eddie Howard, banjo; John Havens, guitar; "Smilin'" Edwin Smith, accordion and Gabe Drake, bass fiddle.[3]
The show's competition included Stand By for Crime on ABC, Spin the Picture on DuMont, and sports on CBS.[4]
Other Saturday Night Jamboree programs
Other programs named Saturday Night Jamboree included the following:
- A program that ran for more than 10 years on WSAZ-TV in Huntington, West Virginia.[5]
- A program that debuted on WFMY-TV in Greensboro, North Carolina, on April 4, 1953.[6]
- A radio program on WOPI in the Bristol, Tennessee-Bristol, Virginia market in the 1940s.[7]
- A radio program on WMAQ in Chicago in the mid-1930s.[8]
References
- NBC Yearbook, National Broadcasting Company, 1937
- Norton, Jack (16 March 2022). Cornstars: Rube Music in Swing Time. Lulu.com. ISBN 9781458340429.
- Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle F. (June 24, 2009). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present. Random House Publishing Group. p. 1195. ISBN 978-0-307-48320-1. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
- Hyatt, Wesley (October 6, 2015). Short-Lived Television Series, 1948-1978: Thirty Years of More Than 1,000 Flops. McFarland. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-4766-0515-9. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
- Tribe, Ivan M. (November 21, 2021). Mountaineer Jamboree: Country Music in West Virginia. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-8737-2. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
- Carlin, Bob (December 24, 2014). String Bands in the North Carolina Piedmont. McFarland. p. 202. ISBN 978-0-7864-8036-4. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
- Johnson, David W. (January 24, 2013). Lonesome Melodies: The Lives and Music of the Stanley Brothers. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-62674-243-7. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
- Dunning, John (May 7, 1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. p. 249. ISBN 978-0-19-984045-8. Retrieved April 4, 2023.