Graham McNamee was the announcer and the Goldman Band conducted by founder Edwin Franko Goldman performed when the hour-long program began February 18, 1927, on NBC; it changed to a symphonic sound with Rosario Bourdon conducting a 30-piece NBC house orchestra that summer along with the Cavaliers Quartet.
[1] On January 3, 1930, Jessica Dragonette brought her repertoire of 500 songs to the series, often doing duets with Frank Parker and generating top ratings during the 1930s.
The title changed to Highways in Melody in 1944 when Paul Lavalle was the orchestra leader.
Lavalle continued after the show was retitled yet again as The Cities Service Band of America which experimented with simulcasting (audio broadcast separately over the radio) in 1949 and 1950.
[1] A review in the trade publication Variety described the 1948 version of the program as having "gone back practically to the Gay '90s" in offering music that was often heard in public squares three or four decades earlier "and which since has retained a certain following in a number of small towns.