Programming Note: Music & the Spoken Word is broadcast live every Sunday morning at 11:30am ET/9:30am MT on BYUtv and BYU Radio.

Before you watch a new Music & the Spoken Word this Sunday morning, discover some things about the Mormon Tabernacle Choir that you may not have known:

- What rare honor does the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Barbara Streisand and Stephen Colbert share? All are winners of Grammy, Emmy and Peabody Awards. The Choir earned a Grammy for its recording of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" in 1960. The Choir won an Emmy Award in 1987 for "Christmas Sampler," a musical special. And it received two Peabody Awards for service to American Broadcasting in 1944 and 1962.

- The Choir recorded its first song in 1910, with "Let the Mountains Shout for Joy". But only 300 of the then 600 members showed up for the recording!

- The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has sung for every president of the United States beginning with President William Howard Taft.

- Some visitors to Utah at beginning of the 20th century criticized the Salt Lake Tabernacle as "a prodigious tortoise that has lost its way" or "the Church of the Holy Turtle". But Frank Lloyd Wright, the most acclaimed architect in America's histoy, dubbed the Tabernacle "one of the architectural masterpieces of the country and perhaps the world." 

- The roof of the Salt Lake Tabernacle was built with almost no nails, which were scarce in 19th century Utah.

- The organ in the newer Conference Center is actually called the Schoenstein Organ. It's about two-thirds the size of the Salt Lake Tabernacle organ in terms of the number of pipes.

- The Choir performed over 20 times at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, including at the Opening Ceremonies, where they sang the national anthem and the Olympic Hymn under the direction of John Williams.

- G'day! Inspired by the design of the Boston Music Hall organ, the original organ in the Salt Lake Tabernacle was built in 1867 by an Australian, Joseph Ridges. 

- The Choir performed during both the American Bicentennial in Washington, D.C. (July 4, 1976) and the U.S. Constitution's bicentennial celebration at Independence Hall in Philadelphia (1987).

- There are 27 husband-wife combinations that sing in the Choir.

- Members of the Choir are limited to only twenty years of participation, or until the member reaches the age of 60.

- The minimum age for participation in the choir is 25.

-  Since its first broadcast, Music & the Spoken Word has run continually for 80 years and has been broadcast over 4,000 times. The unbroken length of broadcasts makes Music and the Spoken Word the oldest continuous nationwide network broadcast in the world. 

Sources: Wikipedia