Born in Chicago, Elson got into broadcasting by accident. While vacationing in St. Louis in 1928, he took a tour of radio station KWK. A receptionist saw him among 40 men in line for an audition, and thought he was going to audition as well. He became a finalist, and was hired after a vote by listeners. A few days later, officials at Chicago's WGN heard about Elson's victory and wondered what a Chicago native was doing broadcasting for a St. Louis station. They quickly hired him. Starting in 1929, he began calling all the home games of the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox. Such double duty would be impossible today, but in those days the Cubs and White Sox almost never played at home on the same day. They, like most teams, "recreated" road games in the studio using telegraphed messages from the ballpark rather than sending out their broadcasting crew with the team for road play-by-play, to save money. In 1930, he called his first World Series for the Mutual Broadcasting System, the first of 12 in a row. He also called Chicago Bears football games in the 1930s and early 1940s.