Nobody quite knew with television when it first appeared; the most popular ideas seemed to be adapting past radio shows for the new visual format. Song countdown programs, where hosts would play the favorites in order of popularity “counting down” to #1, were quite common across the radio spectrum, and thought to be the easiest to adapt for the visual medium.

On this day, July 10, in 1950 “Your Hit Parade”, the countdown show that ran on radio since 1935, premiered on NBC, taking the top 7 songs each week before a live audience.

To make the show visually appealing, the top three of the top seven were more dramatized, giving audiences a chance to speculate on the song and how long it would stay at the top of the charts. In between the songs a variety of musical “extras”, featuring American standards and old ballads popular with the audience were performed by the show’s regular cast.