Howard "Tommy" Longsworth
Howard "Tommy" Longsworth was born in 1909 to a pig farming family in Van Wert County, Ohio. After the Longsworth family’s livestock was plagued with Cholera, the business was ruined and Longsworth Senior picked up a job with the railroad, moving the family from their small Ridge Township farm in Ohio to Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Tommy Longsworth stayed back in Ohio for one year before moving out of state to be with his parents. During that year, Tommy Longsworth stayed with a doctor and his wife, where he helped with the house and office work.
Longsworth’s love for music and radio began in high school when his quartet won a competition, earning them a spot on WOWO. He accounts his first memories with radio broadcasting down to just a few stations outside of St. Louis, Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and one in Kansas City, Missouri, which broadcasted from a prison. Before his family secured a radio set themselves, Longsworth would go over to friends’ houses or the local drug store to listen. Radio at the time was still very trivial, but Longsworth was captivated by the new technology. The first radio set the Longsworth family got had headphones. Tommy Longsworth recalls placing the headphones into a bowl to amplify the sound to two or three listeners.
After graduating high school, Longsworth worked 60-hour weeks at Perfection Biscuit Company, earning about $12.50 a week on late-night shifts. Realizing he didn’t want a career in factory work, he pursued music, eventually leading him to radio broadcasting.
Longsworth started working with musicians and performers who played for entertainment, which ultimately led him to radio broadcasting; WOWO Fort Wayne. With the radio station, Longsworth got involved with one band in particular called Earl Gardner, nicknamed “band with a million friends,” who would play for commercials.
During the Great Depression, Longsworth traveled with big bands, playing with groups led by Miley Kaufman and Henry Lang in cities like Savannah, Cleveland, and Saratoga Springs. He also worked with musicians and performers in Fort Wayne, including Earl Gardner’s band, which played for commercials. In addition, he performed with Fred Tangeman, Maury Cross, and Dick Galbreath as part of "The Kroger Country Club," the first commercial program Kroger ever aired, featuring Fort Wayne socialite Mary Berghoff as the vocalist.
The radio work at WOWO was very trial-and-error and very little of it was planned. At the time, there weren’t any sound effects for commercials. Longsworth would bark for the Wayne Dog Food programming and would get paid for it – he recalls that as a highlight of his career.
As it was the Great Depression, Tommy Longsworth would come and go at WOWO. At one time when he had left, Longsworth would travel with big bands, he calls the time the “big band era.” He worked in places like Savannah, Cleveland, and Saratoga Springs.
Longsworth’s radio career at WOWO Fort Wayne began in 1936 when Westinghouse acquired the station and hired him as a staff musician. He recalled the early, makeshift days of radio, performing in a small studio above the Main Auto Supply Company, where street noise often interfered with broadcasts. In 1937, WOWO moved into new studios and joined the NBC-Blue Network, significantly expanding its reach.
Longsworth became a regular performer on “The Hoosier Hop,” a nationally broadcast country music program. At WOWO, much of the work was trial-and-error. Before sound effects were available, Longsworth would create them himself—for instance, barking for the Wayne Dog Food commercials, an odd but memorable highlight of his career.
Recognizing the industry’s changes, Longsworth transitioned into sales in the 1940s, rising to General Sales Manager in 1946, a role he held until his retirement in 1972.
Beyond his radio career, Longsworth was active in the National Guard and involved in numerous organizations, including the Masonic Lodge, Scottish Rite, Royal Order of Jesters, Elks Lodge, and Musicians Union.
Howard “Tommy” Longsworth passed away on February 26, 2002, at the age of 93.
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By Grace Romine
Information obtained from "In the Public Interest: Oral Histories of Hoosier Broadcasters" and Indiana Broadcast Pioneers
Last update: March 2025
Edited by Katherine Maners