AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – The Parade of Quartets has been a part of the WJBF family for 71 years and is the longest running gospel TV program in the country. It airs each Sunday on WJBF NewsChannel 6.
Rev. Karlton Howard, Executive Producer and Host of The Parade of Quartets, tells us, “The program was actually on the radio, WGAC radio and when television came about and when he started WJBF, he brought the quartets over with him. When we had the conversation with Mr. J.B. Fuqua, he made it known that the ‘Parade of Quartets’ came on when television came on in November of 1953. And his vision was just to have the community involved and have quartets available. And from his testimony we learned that it was something that he wanted to do, to make sure that the community was being heard and had visibility.”
“Mr. Steve Manderson…he started the program back with Mr. Fuqua and it ran for years with them doing that and quartets coming in and out of the studio and after Mr. Manderson left, my father took over somewhere in the early 60s, and we’ve been doing it ever since.”
“1982 was when I started, in August. It was some rare circumstances where I got a phone call at 11 o’clock on Saturday night and my daddy told me I would be on television the next morning.”
“Well folks would say, listen ‘we had to sit down and watch the Parade of Quartets while we were getting ready for church and while Momma was cooking’ or whatever. We still hear those stories. It has impacted the lives of so many people, their spiritual lives.”
“Chicago, New York and all those major places, L.A. they don’t have nothing like this. We tell everybody about the Parade of Quartets,” said music legend James Brown when he appeared on the show.
“The Godfather. One Sunday we had already planned the program out and knew what was gonna happen, but all of a sudden a bus pulled up in the parking lot, unannounced, uninvited and he walks in and says that he wants to sing.”
“People will say ‘the songs that you sing, you bless our hearts’. I mean people in the hospital, people in nursing homes and you know that this program reaches,” said Flo Carter, of Today in Dixie and Parade of Quartets.
“Soul Train was on for 35 years. American Bandstand was on for 37 years, that’s 72 years. We’ve been on, this is our 71st year. It means that we’re doing something right and it has impacted the lives of so many people, their spiritual lives as a matter of fact because they hold on to what they heard back then and they’re still in the faith community. So that means a lot to us to know that we’ve impacted the community like that.”