These packages, usually of music or variety acts interspersed with subtle commercials for the sponsor, were then placed on Radio Luxembourg and similar longwave broadcasters who could be heard in the UK.
In this position, he came to the attention of the BBC, and he began to submit scripts and programme ideas to them while continuing to work for the international commercial broadcasters.
This move was criticised as it led to boredom amongst the listeners during the Phony War, who were also faced with cinemas and sporting events being closed "for the duration" and the loss of the competition to the BBC.
On occasion this was no talent at all, and Thomas later told of an edition made up of him and his co-producer playing "Shove ha'penny", which had the side effect of reintroducing the game to the population.
He created a radio programme for her called Sincerely Yours, Vera Lynn where she sang popular tunes of the time, read out letters from servicemen and introduced entertainers.
The show was a hit, both with the forces and the country at large, although the senior officers of both the British Army and the Royal Navy strongly objected to the sentimental and "soppy" music and presentation.
The show also cemented Vera Lynn's title of "forces' sweetheart" and ensured that she would remain, as of 2006, something akin to a national treasure in the UK.
To assuage critics of Sincerely Yours, Thomas introduced the programme I Am John Bull, featuring military marches and "strong" music.
The show featured a mixture of music, singing, comedy and information (in the form of a "ship's newspaper") as well as providing a platform for discussion of issues of interest to the sailors.
As conceived by Howard Thomas and Douglas Cleverdon, The Brains Trust was a simple mixture of light panel game entertainment and heavier discussion of items of scientific, legal, medical and social importance.
At that time, there was much discussion in the UK about the shape of the world and the country after the war, which reached its peak with the Beveridge Report and the 1945 landslide election of Attlee's Labour government.
The programme featured Professor Cyril E. M. Joad, previously rejected for radio for his strange speaking voice; the writer and zoologist Julian Huxley; and the loud and entertaining Archibald Bruce Campbell.
Howard Thomas was appointed as managing director of the company and hired Sydney Newman and Brian Tesler as his controllers of drama and light entertainment respectively.
The London split would change to Friday evenings (rather than the self-contained weekend it had previously been) and the midlands and the north would be redivided into three whole-week regions.