The Final Guy Lombardo New Year With Ben Grauer Reporting Live

By the next new year, both Guy and Ben would have passed away, but this was the night of December 31, 1976. Below is some history on the Lombardo broadcast years and some things about Ben Grauer that you may never have known.

The band’s first New Year’s Eve radio broadcast was in 1928; within a few years, they were heard live on the CBS Radio Network before midnight Eastern Time, then on the NBC Radio Network after midnight.

On December 31, 1956, the Lombardo band did their first New Year’s TV special on CBS; the program (and Lombardo’s 20 subsequent New Year’s Eve TV shows) included a live segment from Times Square that during the early years were hosed by pioneer broadcast journalist Robert Trout . In later years, another longtime newsman, Ben Grauer, reported from Times Square, though Grauer worked for NBC.

Grauer’s greatest fame lies in his legendary 40-year career in radio. In 1930, the 22-year-old Benjamin Franklin Grauer joined the staff at NBC. He quickly rose through the ranks to become a senior commentator and reporter. He was the designated announcer for the popular 1940s ‘Walter Winchell’s Jergens Journal’. Perhaps, most importantly, he was selected by Arturo Toscanini to become the voice of the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Grauer took over as announcer in 1940 and remained until the orchestra was disbanded in June 1954. Toscanini said he was his favorite announcer.

Starting in 1932, Grauer covered the Olympic Games, presidential inaugurations and international events. During his radio career, Grauer covered nearly every major historic event, including the Morro Castle fire, the Paris Peace Conference and the US occupation of Japan.

Millions remember his NBC coverage of the New Year’s celebrations on both radio and TV. Between 1951 and 1969, Grauer covered these events 11 times live from New York’s Times Square. He continued covering New Year’s Eve for Guy Lombardo’s New Year’s Eve specials on CBS in the 1970s, with his last appearance on December 31, 1976, the year before both he and Lombardo died.

From the mid-1950s until the mid-1960s, Grauer’s reports were part of the ‘Tonight’ show, where he worked with Johnny Carson and prior to that, Jack Paar, and Steve Allen. Grauer was also one of NBC Radio’s Monitor “Communicators” from 1955 to 1960.

Grauer provided the commentary for NBC’s first television special, the opening in 1939 of the New York World’s Fair. In 1948, Grauer, working with anchor John Cameron Swayze, provided the first extensive live network TV coverage of the national political conventions.

In 1954, NBC began broadcasting some of their shows in living color, and in 1957, the animated Peacock logo made its debut. It was Grauer who first spoke the now famous words, “The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC,” behind the Peacock graphic. Enjoy, share and Happy New Year! -Bobby Ellerbee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBD1yHHgaEk

From Dec. 31, 1976, here is the CBS coverage of New Years Eve at Times Square with Ben Grauer (who passed away a few months later) and Guy Lombardo, who also…

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