Thomas Cowan

Thomas H. Cowan (1884 - November 8, 1969) was a 20th-century radio announcer, one of the first to broadcast from Newark radio station WJZ. He became known for his role in doing the play-by-play of the first Baseball World Series game to be broadcast, on October 5, 1921. (Evidence suggests he recreated the game from the WJZ studio, rather than doing live play-by-play from the ballpark. He became the chief announcer for the country's first city owned and non-commercial radio station in the United States, New York City’s WNYC, from its first broadcast in 1925. Throughout the years he was the announcer “for the myriad of parades, receptions and celebrations from the 1920s through the 1950s, especially early on when athletes and aviators came to town ( New York City) after making or breaking world records.” Since his career in radio spanned 40 years until his retirement in 1961 at age 77, he was the oldest active announcer in the radio community at the time.

Early life Before Radio

Thomas H. Cowan, everyone called him Tommy was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1884. He attended school until he was 14 years old when he went to work for The World as an office boy. In 1898 he switched jobs and became the receptionist or greeter for Thomas Edison at the Edison Laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey To quote Tommy himself he called it “a kind of Grover Whalen job” where he greeted important visitors to the laboratories of Edison and Westinghouse.

Introduction to radio and the beginnings of broadcasting station WJZ

Station WJZ was licensed on June 1, 1921 and was the first long term, regularly broadcasting New York Area station. The studio and the stations transmitter were located on the roof of Westinghouse Meter Plant in Newark N.J. at the corner of Plane and Orange. Even though the station had been licensed to broadcast in June of that year the station was not ready and did not start to broadcast until October 1921. The station was hastily put together for the upcoming 1921 World Series between the New York Giants and the New York Yankees to cash in on the success that the fight between Dempsey and Carpetier in July of that year, just three months before.

After Westinghouse had chosen the engineer and station manager of the station, Charles B. Popenoe and his assistant engineer, George Blitzoitis, Westinghouse had to choose an announcer. Tommy was chosen for the position even though, like the other people in the studio, had no experience in radio. "On a day in 1921 Tommy was told to go up to the roof, to the shack. They were going to try to "make this thing talk".

The two reasons that everyone agreed to the idea was that first the game was to be set between two New York baseball teams, the New York Yankees and the New York Giants, two very big rivalries. Second the games were to be played at the polo grounds which were right in the stations area and they were the only station close to the event. The only other station KDKA was 300 miles away in Pittsburgh. So the WJZ station had the perfect set up, almost.

Sandy Hunt would go to the game for the Newark Sunday Call as well as for Tommy to relay the game back to him by telephone. The communication between Sandy and Cowan was in one direction and Cowan could not ask questions of Hunt because the audience would hear it and become confused. He wasn't able to write things down or keep score so by the end of the first game he had forgotten the score and was not able to give the final result. The other trouble was the hours of sitting and a phone set against his ear. His hand became numb and his ear sore, but by the second game of the series he had gotten more comfortable by using a headphone and he became more relaxed with his transmission.

After WJZ

Before leaving WJZ in 1925 to join the WNYC Tommy had covered the Democratic National Convention of June 1924 in 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.” Says WYNC’s web article about him. Cowan stayed with the station until his retirement in 1961. During his 40-year career he covered just about every major event in New York City, from parades to presidential addresses.

Death

Thomas Cowan died at age 85 at his home in West Orange, N.J. on Saturday, November 8, 1969 and was survived by his three sisters.