Powers Gouraud
1950
Powers Gouraud. "The Old Night Owl," began some of his earlier nightly commentary on WCAU radio, which was sponsored by Yellow Cab, with "Yel-low, night owls and night owlettes, yel-low!"
On March 2, 1951, Powers did a recorded broadcast, rather unusual at the time. It was transcribed at the Ben Franklin Hotel in Philadelphia. There are several guests including Ed Sullivan and contains a brief conversation with a WCAU announcer by the name of Ed McMahon. (We won't say whether this is the same Ed McMahon of "The Tonight Show" fame, but if he introduced Gouraud, he could have said "Heeeeeeeeeeeere's Powers.")
This broadcast is the only one we found complete with commercials. The sponsor was the Yellow Cab company, of course. By the way, it's interesting to note that at the end of the broadcast, the announcer was doing the closing announcement when Powers thought of something else to say and had the broadcast given back to him.
From the official archives of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
Audio clip originally donated by Broadcast Pioneers member Gerry Wilkinson
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