Radio Pioneer Tommy Cowan Announces a Parade of History

Beginning as an office boy for The World, Tommy Cowan went on to be Thomas Edison?s receptionist, greeting important visitors to the inventor?s laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey. From there he was the first announcer on the air in the New York metropolitan area when WJZ Newark started broadcasting in 1921. He announced the first World Series broadcast based on descriptions phoned into him from the game, as well as covering the June, 1924 Democratic National Convention from Madison Square Garden.

WNYC?s founder Grover A. Whalen convinced Cowan to be WNYC's Chief Announcer, and his was the first voice heard when we went on the air July 8, 1924.? In his 1951 oral history session with Columbia University, Cowan talks about being on the air for the myriad of parades, receptions and celebrations from the 1920s through the 1950s, especially early on when athletes and aviators [1] came to town after making or breaking world records. For Charles Lindbergh in particular, he says, WNYC followed the flyer all around the city for a full day-and-a-half. [2] Cowan also recalls that WNYC?s Masterwork Hour, radio?s first regularly scheduled broadcast of recorded classical music in 1929, was a significant influence on pioneering radio engineer John V. L. Hogan, the founder of W2XR, WQXR?s predecessor. ?On a visit to WNYC?s studios Cowan quotes Hogan as saying, ?I?m going to found a radio station on the basis of your Masterwork Hour and present only classical music with no advertising.?[3]

Cowan was well versed in New York City history and an avid opera fan.? At one point he hosted a regular WNYC opera program called Velvet and Gold. In his New York Times obituary he was quoted as saying, ?I don?t live in the past, but I do respect the fact that I came from Adam and Eve, and you have to look back once in a while.?[4] Tommy retired from WNYC in 1961. He died in November, 1969.

Cowan, ever energetic raconteur of the air, was always ready to fill any dead space with a descriptive word picture of the scene before him. To listen to more than 40 broadcasts with Tommy go to: COWAN.

[1] There is an especially wonderful New York Times photo (#3 in the slideshow) of Tommy Cowan gripping two WNYC microphones to the right of aviatrix Amelia Earhart and Mayor Jimmy Walker at City Hall in June 1932. See: EARHART.

[2] Cowan, Thomas H., Oral History, Columbia University, 1951, pg. 54.

[3] Ibid, pg. 90.

[4]?Thomas H. Cowan, First Voice of City?s Radio Station, Is Dead,? The New York Times, November 12, 1969, pg. 47.

Source: http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/archives/2013/may/10/radio-pioneer-cowan-announces-parade-history/

masterchef Dictionary.com Chicago teachers strike september 11 2001 september 11 2001 blake lively serena williams