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.”[2] 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.
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.
It was alleged that the first words uttered on the air waves by Cowan was “ You are listening to the radio telephone broadcasting station, WJZ, in Newark, N.J.”.
His voice would be the one doing the talking and not the person on the phone as he would put the plays on the air with his own words to describe the action.
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.
Around 4000 pieces of mail flooded the station thanking them for their public service for the many folks that couldn’t make it to the game.
Even though Thomas Cowan and WJZ weren’t the first people to put sports on the air waves they were the ones to make it successful and practical.
In the following years radio would be used to cover large events, bringing the news and accomplishments of the world to even larger audiences.
"Radio exploded across America, broadcasting the first-ever radio commercial in 1922, the 1925 Cubs-Pirates season opener, the 1925 Scopes monkey trial, the Charles Lindbergh cross-Atlantic Paris landing in 1927, the 1927 Jack Dempsey "long-count fight" and much more, all while inventing the sit-com as we know it with the forerunner to "Amos 'n' Andy" in 1926 and then "The Goldbergs" in 1929.
"[9] Before leaving WJZ in 1925 to join the WNYC Tommy had covered the Democratic National Convention of June 1924 in Madison Square Garden.
[2] 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.