November 14, 1971, the day before the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., was an evening Phoenicians will remember for years. That night was proclaimed "Lloyd Steinkamp Night." It was organized by fellow Desert Knights member Sam Aramian to honor one of the Phoenix Saguaro Chapter's staunchest members. Lloyd never suspected a thing. There were guests--live and on tape--from all over the country to add to the auspicious occasion on which Lloyd was presented with a Life Membership in the Society. Everybody who was there was proud to be a Phoenician and a member of SPEBSQSA.

Sam Aramian was elected to the Far Western District Hall of Fame at the 1972 .Spring Convention, and two quartets--The Stage Four and the Command Performance--finished in the top ten.

1972: International Chorus Championship #1

On June 26, 1972 Don Richardson hit the air waves with "Close Harmony," a half-hour radio program of barbershop music in "Living Stereo" on local NPR Affiliate Station KCMR; it also carried on stations KSTM in Apache Junction and KXCV in Maryville, Missouri. An interesting sidebar is that, during the premiere broadcast, Don predicted that the Phoenicians would win in Atlanta. The show ran regularly for eleven years until 1983 when KCMR switched its format to jazz and became KJZZ.

That fall, the Phoenicians travelled to Bakersfield, California to perform on the evening show at the FWD Convention, and to cheer for The Stage Four as they became the 1972 FWD Quartet Champion.

Phoenix added more than twenty new members in 1973. The Stage Four qualified to compete at the International Convention in Portland, Oregon, and Command Performance was alternate quartet. The Western Continentals announced their retirement and sang their swan song at the Portland convention; the Phoenicians bowed out of their championship year by presenting "The Making of a Champion," a retrospective look at what it took to get Phoenix from nowhere to International Chorus Champion of 1972, compiled by Lloyd Steinkamp; and Sam Aramian was elected International Vice President.

The International Mid-Winter Convention was a highlight of 1974. The top quartets of the Society, including the O.K. 4, the Boston Common, and the Dealer's Choice sang in Phoenix on the Mid-Winter show. Convention Chairman was Sam Aramian.

Three Phoenix quartets qualified for the top ten at the 1974 FWD International Preliminaries, and Lloyd Steinkamp was elected to the Far Western District Hall of Fame. Phoenix sponsored the Pinal County (Arizona) Chapter in May of that year, and the Prescott (Arizona) Chapter in September. The Command Performance finished eighth in their first international competition that summer in Kansas City.

The 1974 FWD Convention was held in Pasadena, where Phoenix won its fifth district championship, and the Command Performance won the quartet competition by a margin of 425 points, the largest ever. They were the fifth quartet champion from Phoenix. The Sound Committee was also in the top five.

Four Phoenix quartets qualified for the top ten at the 1974 FWD International Preliminaries, with the Command Performance going on to finish 7th at Indianapolis and the Sound Committee quarter-finalist. In the chorus contest, the Phoenicians got to hear the choruses which sang after them, and for most there was no doubt that they had been outsung; all it took was the announcement to make it final. Not resting, the chorus returned to competition in Sacramento in the fall and won their sixth FWD championship.

The Best of Barbershop

The Phoenicians sang on the El Paso "Border Chorders" annual show in May; it was Joe Salz's last appearance with the chorus and with Nostalgia as he had already transferred to Sacramento.

Dayton Shipley, a Phoenician for many years, died of a heart attack just before the international competition in 1976. Dayton had helped prepare the bicentennial handout.

1976: International Chorus Championship #2

Sam Aramian became International President in 1977, and the annual show in February - "It's Entertainment" - contained a tribute to him. The chorus sang on many Arizona-Nevada Division shows that year, including Prescott, Las Vegas, and Pinal County, and also appeared at the FWD International Quartet Preliminaries. In addition, they bussed to Pasadena, California to sing two shows with the Pasadena Chorus. The Phoenicians joined the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra for two special "Pops" Concerts held in early April. The major trip of the year, however, was to the International Convention in Philadelphia where they presented their Entertainment Package and handed the chorus trophy on the 1977 winner.

Irving Berlin was invited to appear on the 1978 annual show, "Berlin on Broadway," but he declined. The International Mid-Winter Convention was held in Tucson that year, and the Desert Knights, the Western Continentals, and Nostalgia sang on a special Arizona Night show.

Both Nostalgia and The Sound Committee qualified to compete in the 1978 International Quartet Contest at Cincinnati. The Sound Committee finished in eleventh place. Nostalgia dropped out after the quarter finals, they finished 24th out of 48 quartets, leading them to claim the title "International Middlist Quartet." Since they happened to be in town at the time, Nostalgia also sang the National Anthem for a Cincinnati Reds baseball game.

The Phoenicians returned to district competition in the fall of 1978 at the convention held in Long Beach. They won again, but by a margin of only four points. The Sound Committee and Nostalgia were third and fourth, respectively, in the quartet contest. The Phoenicians went on to compete at the 1979 International Convention in Minneapolis where they came in fourth.

A newly defined quartet, Remember When, sang at the Phoenix "Park Central Mall" on December 22, 1979, and impressed everyone in attendance. Tenor Dean Voss had bowed out because of health problems, and had been replaced by Al Mau, former tenor of the Western Continentals.