Louis Cowan is associated mainly with the creation of various quiz shows, both for radio and later for television. However, Cowan himself was most interested in creating shows with an intellectual slant for popular audiences. Along those lines, Cowan was influential during World War II in helping to promote positive portrayals of African-Americans and military personnel on radio programs.

     Louis Cowan was born Louis Cohen in Chicago in 1909. While a student at the University of Chicago, Cowan was influenced by the noted communications researcher Harold Lasswell and gained an interest in how communication could shape opinion. After graduating in 1931, he changed his name to Cowan and began his own public relations firm. One account he gained was publicity for the radio program Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge. Cowan later formed his own independent production company, Louis G. Cowan Productions, and in 1940 he created his first radio hit, The Quiz Kids, which ran on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) Blue network. Cowan's concept for this program was to feature a panel of bright children, none older than 16, fielding questions sent in by listeners. The program was an early example of Cowan's attempt to blend his intellectual interests into a program aimed to appeal to a mass audience.

     During World War II, Cowan moved to New York and volunteered his services to the Office of War Information (OWI). Cowan became a consultant and director of domestic affairs, working under Edward Kirby, who had transferred to the public relations division of the OWI from the National Association of Broadcasters. One assignment Kirby gave to Cowan was to encourage radio producers to develop positive portrayals of African-Americans; it was hoped that this would help decrease agitation and tension at a time when all branches of the U.S. armed forces were segregated. Cowan decided that the greatest prejudice and resistance to African-Americans was often found among lower-middle-class Americans, and he knew that these people could be reached effectively through daytime soap operas. Cowan therefore convinced Frank and Anne Hum­ mert, the creators of many serials, to incorporate some African-American characters in their soap opera storylines-a very unusual occurrence at that point in radio history. In one case, the Hummerts introduced into Our Gal Sunday a young African-American in military training, Franklin Brown, who appeared intermittently during furloughs. In an even more elaborate effort, the Hummerts had the heroine in The Romance of Helen Trent rescued by an African-American doctor after she fell into an abyss; afterwards, she found a job for this doctor as a staff physician in a wartime factory.

     While working at the OWi, Cowan also sought to promote the general image of all military personnel. He convinced the Hummerts to create a new serial around a comforting and problem-solving army chaplain. This concept became Chaplain Jim, which started on the NBC Blue network in 1942. Cowan had one other interesting assignment relating to this serial. He was given the task of briefing the newly appointed psychological warfare officer, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) president William Paley, on the purpose of this program. This would not be the only time the two men's paths crossed.

     After the war, Cowan went back to independent production of radio programs. Acting on his interest in intellectual and issue-oriented programming, Cowan in 1946 created The Fighting Senator, a show that featured a principled state senator battling corruption around him. Around the same time, Cowan's wife, Polly, was producing a talk show called Conversation, which brought together writers, college professors, and other celebrities to discuss various topics. Though winning accolades, neither program attracted large audiences. Cowan did have one more radio hit, again with the quiz show format. Stop the Music! premiered on the American Broadcasting Companies (ABC) network in 1948 and quickly attracted a large following. The premise of the show was simple: an orchestra played popular songs and was periodically interrupted by the program's host, Bert Parks, who shouted, "Stop The Music!" A phone call was then made randomly somewhere in the United States, and if the person who answered could identify the song that had just been interrupted, he or she would receive a number of expensive gifts. Stop The Music! was initially scheduled to air opposite Fred Allen's popular comedy show. Allen's program ratings fell so drastically as a result that his show was cancelled·in 1950.

     During the 1950s, Cowan turned his attention to television and created what became the first large-prize TV quiz show, The $64,000 Question. This program was purchased by CBS in 1955. A few weeks after it premiered, Cowan sold his production company and accepted a job at CBS as vice president in charge of creative services. Two years later, in March 1958, he was promoted to president of CBS-TV. When it was discovered at the end of the decade that many of the big TV quiz shows, including The $64,000 Question, had been rigged, Cowan was dismissed by CBS. This was done despite the fact that Cowan had no association with The $64,000 Question after he sold his production company, and there was no evidence that Cowan ever knew about the rigging.

     In his latter years, Cowan taught at Brandeis University and in Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. He also started his own publishing company and was cofounder of the American Jewish Committee's William E. Weiner Oral History Library. In 1976 Cowan and his wife died in an accidental fire in their apartment. Ironically, it was suspected that the fire was caused by faulty wiring in their television set.