SALT LAKE CITY, Utah—"Music and the Spoken Word” will celebrate its 5,000th episode on Sunday. The weekly broadcast that includes music performed by the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square began on July 15, 1929.
In an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio on Friday, Tabernacle Choir President Michael O. Leavitt said he and the choir have a sense of gratitude to be part of “Music and the Spoken Word” at such an important milestone. Reaching 5,000 episodes couldn’t happen without the continued support of so many people.
“People gain feelings when they listen to the choir that are memorable to them,” Leavitt said. “They don't forget their visit.”
The 360-member volunteer choir and orchestra will perform the 5,000th episode in the Conference Center on Temple Square. The weekly broadcast reaches millions of people in more than 50 countries and on more than 2,000 television and radio stations. “Music and the Spoken Word” is the longest-running continuous broadcast in the world.
Derrick Porter, the voice of “Music and the Spoken Word,” said in a news conference on Friday he has been part of the broadcast for 1% of the episodes. He began his tenure in 2024.
In his first broadcast, he told BYU-Idaho Radio, he was nervous. Sitting near him was President Jeffrey R. Holland, the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is the sponsoring organization of the choir. President Holland whispered to him, “I love you” three times.
“I turn over, ‘President Holland, I love you too,’” Porter said, “and that was my last interaction before I stepped up to that pulpit here with the 21,000 people and delivered my first spoken word. And it filled me. He did it on purpose. He knew what he was doing. Filled me with confidence. It filled me with hope, and it settled any nerves that I might have been feeling.”
Porter says the 5,000th episode will include a pre-show and post-show celebration that people in the Conference Center will get to experience. The pre-show will include stories of orchestra and choir members and the sacrifice they make to volunteer, along with stories of listeners from around the world and how the broadcast has impacted their lives.
The post-show celebration will have video clips and sound clips from past “Music and the Spoken Word” episodes, including sound from the first recorded broadcast from 1933.
“And so, there is a treasure trove of history that is being unrolled as we remember where we’ve been, as we recognize where we are and as we now focus and look to where we hope to go,” Porter said.
During the broadcast itself, Choir Director Mack Wilberg said the choir and orchestra will perform “The Morning Breaks,” which was performed in the first broadcast. He does say the arrangement will be different from that first performance. He will also use the same baton Anthony Lund, who conducted the first broadcast, used in that first episode. Mack said it’s a longer baton than what he uses today. The baton is housed in the Church History Museum, and he will use it for the final song in the broadcast.
The pre-show will begin at 9 a.m. with the broadcast at 9:30 a.m. You can listen to the broadcast on KBYI 94.3 FM or KBYR 91.5 and 90.9 FM. You can also stream it here or watch the YouTube broadcast here.