Champion Spark Plug Hour
Champion Spark Plug Hour was a music radio program sponsored by Champion. It was broadcast on New York's WJZ and WGY during the late 1920s and early 1930s. An entry in "The Chronicle-Telegram" (Elyria, Ohio) for October 4, 1926, indicates the show aired on Tuesday afternoons at 5 p.m. By 1928, they were heard Wednesday evenings at 8 p.m. on the NBC Blue Network. The program featured the Champion Sparkers Male Quartet and an orchestra conducted by Walter Gustave "Gus" Haenschen. Personnel in the band included Sam Lewis (trombone), Earl Oliver (trumpet), Merle Johnston  (saxophone) and Phil Gleason. Irving Kaufman (1890-1976) was a featured vocalist with the band. The "Oswego Palladium-Times" (Oswego, New York) offered a description of the program for December 27, 1928: Haenschen, who was also the program's director, composed the show's theme song, "The March of the Champions" (aka "Champion Sparkers March"). The orchestra and quartet recorded for Brunswick Records in 1931, including "William Tell Overture", "The Mikado", "Peer Gynt Suites", "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers," "Just Bubbling Over with Love" and "Lilting Lucia."