George Beverly Shea Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Chicago (1939β1952)=== In 1939 Shea auditioned unsuccessfully for a spot{{Clarify|date=August 2010}} on a [[CBS]] radio program that originated in [[Chicago, Illinois]].<ref name="Ace Collins 1999"/> '''WMBI (1939β1944)''' Soon after Dr. [[William Henry Houghton|Will Houghton]], president of the [[Moody Bible Institute]] (MBI) offered Shea a staff position with "duties that included emceeing, interviewing, news-casting, continuity writing, programming, administration, auditioning, and singing"<ref>Cusic, 182-183.</ref> on radio station [[WXES|WMBI]],<ref name="assistnews.net"/> "the powerhouse of evangelical radio",<ref name="Joel A. Carpenter 1997">Joel A. Carpenter, ''Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism'' (Oxford University Press, 1997):135.</ref> the first non-commercial [[Christian radio]] station in America, which was owned and operated by the [[Moody Bible Institute]] originally on its campus in [[Chicago]].<ref name="villagebiblechurchhsv.org"/> Initially Shea sang on Houghton's ''Let's Go Back to the Bible,'' from 1939.<ref name="Cusic, 183">Cusic, 183.</ref> Later he was also involved in ''Miracles and Melodies,'' which started on 67 radio stations across the USA in 1940, and was broadcast on 187 different stations in 45 US states, Canada, Latin America and China;<ref name="Joel A. Carpenter 1997"/> and in ''Hymns From the Chapel'' each morning at 8:15.<ref name="Cusic, 183"/> '''''Songs in the Night'' (1944β1952)''' On 2 January 1944 Shea began his ministry as a featured soloist on Billy Graham's ''Songs in the Night'' weekly radio program,<ref>Jacob Climo and Maria G. Cattell, ''Social Memory and History: Anthropological Perspectives'', 2nd ed. (Rowman Altamira, 2002):23.</ref> which was broadcast live on Sunday evenings for 45 minutes from 10.15pm<ref name="Betty Drummond 1996">Lewis Drummond and Betty Drummond, ''Women of Awakenings: The Historic Contribution of Women to Revival Movements'' (Kregel Publications, 1996):337.</ref> from the basement of the Village (Baptist) Church at 4475 Wolf Road, [[Western Springs, Illinois]],<ref>Betsy J. Green, ''Western Springs, Illinois'' (Arcadia Publishing, 2002):98-99.</ref> pastored by Graham,<ref>Sandra Donovan, ''Billy Graham'' (Twenty-First Century Books, 2006):39.</ref> and transmitted on radio station [[WMVP|WCFL]] originating from [[Chicago, Illinois]]. The popularity of Shea helped make the previously financially struggling program self-sustaining within weeks.<ref>Deborah Hart Strober and Gerald S. Strober, ''A Day in the Life of Billy Graham: Living the Message'' (Square One Publishers, 2003):27.</ref> The Drummonds indicate that Shea "skyrocketed the broadcast into a great success," so that soon ''Songs in the Night'' was broadcast twice on Sundays.<ref name="Betty Drummond 1996"/> After eight years Shea turned over his duties on this program to Glenn Jorian so that he could devote his energies full-time to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) .<ref name="Cusic, 166">Cusic, 166.</ref> '''''Club Time'' (1944β1952)''' In June 1944 Shea resigned from WMBI to sing gospel on a 15-minute weekday radio program, ''Club Time,'' <ref name="Cusic, 183"/> the second oldest hymn program on commercial radio.<ref name="assistnews.net"/><ref name="villagebiblechurchhsv.org"/> ''Club Time,'' initially broadcast on Radio station WCFL, was sponsored by [[Herbert J. Taylor]] (18 April 1893 β 1 May 1978), a Christian businessman who headed Club Aluminum of Chicago.<ref name="assistnews.net"/><ref name="villagebiblechurchhsv.org"/> According to Cusic: <blockquote>Shea's job was to host the program and sing several songs, including the favorite hymn of various famous people. It was on "Club Time" that Beverly Shea became George Beverly Shea at the insistence of the advertising agency; it seems they felt most listeners were confused by a man named "Beverly."<ref name="Cusic, 183"/></blockquote> ''Club Time'' was broadcast nationally from September 1945 for the next seven years over the [[Citadel Media|ABC Radio]] and [[Armed Forces Network]]s and many independent stations.<ref name="assistnews.net"/><ref name="villagebiblechurchhsv.org"/> This show brought Shea national recognition,<ref name="countryworks.com"/> and by 1951 Shea was the most prominent male soloist in gospel music.<ref>Don Cusic, ''The Sound of Light: A History of Gospel Music'' (Popular Press of the University of Wisconsin, 1990):135.</ref> '''Singspiration (1947)''' By the summer of 1947 Shea was signed to the Singspiration Sacred Recordings label,<ref>James E. Ruark, ''The House of Zondervan: Celebrating 75 Years'', rev. ed. (Zondervan, 2006):100-101.</ref> which had been founded by Dr. Alfred B. Smith (8 November 1916 β 9 August 2001)<ref name="livinghymns.org"/> in 1941, where he sang on a number of [[78 rpm]] albums, including ''Bass Baritone'' (Singspiration "Treasure Chest Series" LP S-100) and ''Lead Me Gently Home, Father'' (Singspiration LP 156).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ncweb.com/biz/neighbor/gospel.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090331103916/http://www.ncweb.com/biz/neighbor/gospel.html|url-status=dead|title=Ncweb.com website|archive-date=March 31, 2009}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! 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