In his first year at CBS , he announced the crash of the '' Hindenburg '' when the station cut away from singer Kate Smith 's show . He first became a national celebrity when he ad libbed for a half-hour during the rain-delayed Vanderbilt Cup from an airplane . In 1939 , he was the announcer for the Warner Brothers & Vitaphone film musical short-subject , '' On the Air '' , with Leith Stevens and the Saturday Night Swing Club
the crash
Hindenburg disaster
Mel Allen