On this date, in 1950, the musical program Your Hit Parade began its regular weekly broadcasts on NBC Television. The show aired on Saturday nights, from 10:30 to 11:00, following Your Show of Shows. The program's original starring singers were Eileen Wilson, Snooky Lanson, and Dorothy Collins; the show's Lucky Strike Orchestra was led by Raymond Scott.
The Hit Parade had aired on radio since 1935. During the summer of 1950, there were four experimental television broadcasts of the show, originating from New York's International Theatre, at Columbus Circle. The experimental TV shows were successful, and the program became a permanent part of the NBC schedule in October. It was telecast, for its first few years, from New York's Center Theatre, at Rockefeller Center--aside from a brief period, in 1951, when the program moved to NBC's famed Studio 8-H, at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
