Champion Spark Plug Hour was a music radio program sponsored by Champion

Champion (spark plug)

Champion is an American brand of spark plugs.Originally Champion was a Fortune 500 Company founded by Robert A. Stranahan and Frank D. Stranahan in 1908 in Boston, MA and then moved to Toledo, OH in 1910 to be close to the Willys-Overland Auto Company....

. 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

Elyria, Ohio

-Community:Elyria has an extensive, although financially burdened, community food pantry and "Hot Meals" program administered through the Second Harvest Food Bank and several churches Elyria is served by Elyria Memorial Hospital.-Recreation and parks:...

) for October 4, 1926, indicates the show aired on Tuesday afternoons at 5:00pm. By 1928 they were heard Wednesday evenings at 8:00pm on the NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 Blue Network

Blue Network

The Blue Network, and its immediate predecessor, the NBC Blue Network, were the on-air names of an American radio production and distribution service from 1927 to 1945...

.

The program featured the Champion Sparkers Male Quartet and an orchestra conducted by Gustav "Gus" Haenschen

Carl Fenton

Carl Fenton born as Walter G. Haenschen, was an American bandleader, composer, and radio musician.- Name origin :The Carl Fenton Orchestra was a title given to Brunswick Records studio bands through the 1920s...

. 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

Oswego, New York

Oswego is a city in Oswego County, New York, United States. The population was 18,142 at the 2010 census. Oswego is located on Lake Ontario in north-central New York and promotes itself as "The Port City of Central New York"...

) offered a description of the program for December 27, 1928:

The Champion Sparkers will present Ed Smalle. singing comedian as featured soloist during thelr program which will be heard from WHAM and other stations of the NBC System at 8 o'clock tonight. Smalle's numbers include "Happy Days and Lonely Nights," "All By Yourself in the Moonlight" and "The Sun is at My Window." The delicate "Valse Viennese" is offered in an interesting arrangement for saxophones.

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

Brunswick Records

Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...

 in 1931, including William Tell Overture

William Tell Overture

The William Tell Overture is the instrumental introduction to the opera Guillaume Tell by Gioachino Rossini. William Tell premiered in 1829 and was the last of Rossini's 39 operas, after which he went into semi-retirement, although he continued to compose cantatas, sacred music and secular vocal...

, The Mikado

The Mikado

The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...

, Peer Gynt Suites

Peer Gynt Suites

Peer Gynt, Op. 23 is the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's 1867 play of the same name, written by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg in 1875. It premiered along with the play on 24 February 1876 in Christiania ....

, "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers

Parade of the Wooden Soldiers

Parade of the Wooden Soldiers is a 1933 Fleischer Studios animated short film starring Betty Boop. It is now public domain.The instrumental title theme, "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" , was composed by Leon Jessel.-Synopsis:A large factory complex struggles to produce a single package, which is...

," "Just Bubbling Over with Love" and "Lilting Lucia."