[22] Moving to Cleveland in 1917 with his first wife, Mary Elizabeth Carter,[23][22] Settle studied at the Moody Bible Institute after being inspired to improve his education; he took classes in the evening and worked as a metallurgist[23] in a foundry during the day.

[55] CBS picked up the program, renamed Wings Over Jordan, for national distribution on January 9, 1938;[24][12] it was the first show independently produced and hosted by African Americans to be broadcast nationwide over a radio network.

[65] His original four-week stint as Wings choir director lasted for four years,[57] and his knowledge of radio production and musical sensitivities set a standard emulated by subsequent conductors.

Imagine your disgust, in tuning in a late evening dance program, to hear ... the blatant strains of a band "jiving" "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" or "The Old Rugged Cross" ... you would run immediately to the telephone to protest such irreverent expression of musical prowess".

The tour included cities in Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama, with Settle arranging for choir members to stay in the homes of Black families if the organizations hosting them could not provide lodging.

[13] W. O. Walker's April 12, 1941, Call and Post column noted that Black actress Ethel Waters was the first person of color to host a sponsored (by the American Oil Company) radio show in 1933, but it was cancelled after protests by southern stations.

[119] Seltzer's column, "There Is A Foundation," was an emotional response to a Wings recital at the Hotel Cleveland; he wrote that the choir and its repertoire complemented Arab's laments in William Saroyan's play, The Time of Your Life.

[117][120] Alber, who had managed Will Rogers, Lowell Thomas, Vilhjalmur Stefansson and William Howard Taft,[118] said about Seltzer's column: "if you'll read this, you'll understand ... the world needs what this Negro Chorus has to give as never before in my lifetime.

[57] Researchers had studied how to counteract Adolf Hitler's efficiency with multifaceted propaganda, and saw the unintended terror sparked by Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast as a testament to radio's effect on the public.

[154] The OWI's task, under director Elmer Davis (a former CBS newsman), was to influence and control American popular opinion via radio; the office recognized Wings' sizable Black audience.

[161] The parents of Doris Miller, the first Black recipient of the Navy Cross for operating an anti-aircraft gun against Japanese bombers during the Pearl Harbor attack with no experience, were honored guests on the May 10, 1942, program.

[190] The following year, Harlem-based producer Dick Campbell—the USO's coordinator of Camp Show Negro talent—staged the musical Porgy and Bess in a six-month tour;[191] Campbell was also tasked with overseeing the choir's activities during their engagement.

[214] The rare integrated front lines were said by Pittsburgh Courier war correspondent Collins George to resemble "a League of Nations, what with Japanese-Americans, American Negros, whites, Brazilians and the British all joined in the inspired race to cover the territory in Northern Italy".

[212] The division was tasked with returning to Genoa a golden urn reportedly containing the remains of Christopher Columbus in an outdoor ceremony on June 6, 1945, with the 370th Infantry Regiment assisting and the choir performing for 5,000 servicemen and the city's residents.

[225] Settle called the MTO tour "the grandest six months of our career" and prayed for every serviceman to return home to their native land as soon as possible for "a greater opportunity to serve humanity's cause in a lasting peace, for which they have nobly fought".

[225] Along with existing material recorded for the VOA, several performances were broadcast live over AFRS (including the Genoa concert and a Christmas program with Red Skelton, Mickey Rooney and Fred Waring's orchestra);[227] the Christmas program was transcribed for broadcast in the U.S.[228] When the ETO phase of the USO tour ended on January 27, 1946, the choir had performed in Le Harve and Paris, the Belgium towns of Brussels, Liège and Antwerp, and the German cities of Bad Nauheim, Frankfurt and Stuttgart.

[243] Construction was underway on a new office building in Cleveland for the choir, and Settle announced plans for a shrine honoring his mother which would include an auditorium with a pipe organ and radio facilities.

[252] Original member Tommy Roberts rejoined the choir for the postwar tour as a featured soloist and recruited his wife, Evelyn Freeman Roberts—a classically trained pianist and swing bandleader—as an arranger.

[261] On August 24, 1947, two weeks after the show's 500th episode, the choir staged a walkout against Settle; refusing to perform at the San Diego CBS affiliate, they left the previous night for Los Angeles.

[7] Although guest speakers were still a core feature of the program, their emphasis shifted from discussion of issues facing Black people to "the life stories of prominent American Negroes in words and song".

[298] The choir's reputation preceded itself as the USO invited Wings to again perform for overseas personnel (this time stationed in Hawaii, the Philippines, South Korea and Japan), beginning on December 15, 1953.

From national and international tours, world recognition and musical artistry, the singers that were integral parts of this choir have gone their separate ways—some to fame and fortune, some to death, to prison; some to routine living and all to reminiscing.

[315] Both choirs continued touring nationwide over the next few years, singing for audiences of various sizes; promotional stories typically read, "The sponsors have expressed confidence that, with this group's fame going ahead of them, the ... auditorium will be filled to capacity".

[318] The two no-shows prompted requests for the Georgia State Patrol to search for the missing group, but an all-points bulletin was never issued due to lack of information (including the license plate number of the tour bus).

[322] Settle continued to be involved with the choir and music ministry until his death on July 16, 1967; a week earlier, he had directed the First Baptist Church's ninth annual Brotherhood Festival in Song.

Their radio broadcasts were eagerly awaited each week by an integrated public moved by the power and beauty of true American music and the deep richness of faith with permeates the Negro's love for God and their country ...

[336] Public support by prominent whites (including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and Cleveland Press editor-in-chief Louis B. Seltzer),[337] coupled with the weekly radio program's popularity among Blacks,[13] demonstrates the choir's tangible, lasting interracial impact.

[102] After the death of station founder George A. Richards in 1951,[348] WGAR was sold to the antecedent of Nationwide Communications in 1953;[349] ended its CBS affiliation in 1962;[350] moved its studios to Broadview Heights in 1971,[123] and began simulcasting WGAR-FM in 1986.

[354] KCBS-TV in Los Angeles (CBS's West Coast television flagship station) produced Wings Over Jordan: We Remember, a half-hour documentary on the choir which aired on February 18, 1989[355] and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award later that year.

[373] Zora Neale Hurston has said that no genuine performance of spiritual music (including in a concert hall) has taken place since the Fisk Jubilee Singers; composers have based their printed compositions on an art form which cannot be duplicated.