Met Opera Announcer's Career Begins in a Swimming Pool.

In this April 19, 1942, WQXR broadcast, Milton Cross and WNYC's Tommy Cowan (formerly of WJZ Newark) re-enact their chance meeting in early 1922 at a YMCA swimming pool. During that encounter, Cowan invited the young singer to join him on the air at WJZ, the New York metropolitan area's first radio station (where Cowan was the station's first and only announcer at the time), effectively launching Cross's renowned broadcasting career. Cross later became the first official voice of the Metropolitan Opera, where he announced regularly for forty-three years before both NBC and ABC microphones.

Although Milton Cross would become known as the 'dean of announcers,' his relationship with the broadcast microphone began at WJZ as a tenor soloist and continued for a couple of months on various music programs. As he explains to Cowan in this somewhat hokey recreation, the 24-year-old's modest aim in life was to be a public school music teacher. But this was the dawn of broadcasting, and radio's popularity was growing with each day. By mid-March of 1922, Cross was hired as WJZ's second announcer, and it wasn't long before his career goal shifted, as he became convinced that radio announcing was as much an art as singing.  

The scripted program, Stars Are Made, takes us briefly through Cross's broadcasting milestones and advice for would-be announcers, including women. So it's no surprise the show was produced and sponsored by John F. Gilbert, the Director of the School of Radio Technique at Radio City in Rockefeller Center. Announcer Don Rich hosts it, a graduate of the school and editor of the syndicated newspaper column Radio By Rich. We also hear from Mrs. William Francis Gibbs, President of the New York Metropolitan Opera Guild and Association, who praises Cross and presents him with an award.

The School of Radio Technique was billed at the time as America's oldest school devoted exclusively to radio broadcasting. In 1947 the school produced and marketed the 'Oralexicon,' the first recorded pronouncing dictionary for classical music. The four 12-inch Vinylite records were recorded by their 'oralexicographer,' Milton Cross.

Another item from Milton Cross's sonic legacy.

(A. Lanset Collection)