Charmain Z. Brackett Staff Sgt. Dana Fischl, who plays clarinet with the U.S. Army Signal Corps Band, sings “The Christmas Song” during a joint concert held Monday. Local TV anchors Richard Rogers and Meredith Anderson were part of a holiday themed broadcast Monday at First Baptist Church of Augusta.

“This is a lost broadcast from 2,000 years ago,” said Rogers as he opened the U.S. Army Signal Corps Band holiday concert which was broadcasted live on WRDW-TV at 7 p.m. Monday. The band was joined by members of the Augusta State University Wind Ensemble.

Using the backdrop of a news broadcast, Rogers and Anderson, along with some of the performers introduced each song as it were a news story.

Rogers said breaking news on the night included the appearance of a new star in the sky and some rumblings from a grassroots organization about a new king.

In addition to Christmas, the Jewish celebration of Chanukah was included in the program.

“There was only enough sacred oil for one night, but miraculously, it lasted eight nights,” said Anderson when describing the Chanukah and introducing the second song performed in the program, Richard Wernick’s “Chanukah Festival Overture.”

The program included a mix of traditional Christmas carols. The Christmas rhapsody featured songs such as “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” “Joy to the World,” and “The First Noel” along with scripture narrations by Rogers.

There were also secular Christmas musical selections performed.

As the hour-long broadcast drew to a close, Rogers and Anderson bid the audience farewell and gave them the sounds of the traffic outside for the Serge Prokofiev piece titled “Troika.”