Tony Allan

Tony Allan (September 22 1949 - July 9 2004) was a British broadcaster and voice over artist. He broadcast almost exclusively on pirate radio stations and was highly regarded for his professionalism, his distinctive voice and clear diction, and for his ability to produce highy-professional sounding commercials and promotions.

Allan was only 16 when he landed his first radio job on Radio Scotland (1966–1967). He had originally wanted to work on Radio Caroline but the station's management said he was too young.

When the Marine Offences Broadcasting Act (1967) outlawed the pirate stations, he was the last DJ to broadcast live from the ship before managing director Tommy Shields's pre-recorded closedown programme.

He subsequently worked for Granada Television as a voice-over artist, and in Europe.

In the 1970s Allan worked on the revived Radio Caroline, finally fulfilling his original ambition. When the Dutch Marine Offences Act came into force on September 1 1974 it was Allan who announced that Caroline would continue broadcasting (following in the footsteps of Johnnie Walker who had done the same when the British law was passed in 1967).

When Caroline's owner Ronan O'Rahilly announced that the station was to begin promoting his philosophy of "Loving Awareness", Allan became one of its most enthusiastic advocates, producing some of the most professional and memorable promotional ads for it.

Discussing Loving Awareness with fellow DJ Stuart Russell in 1977, Allan said:

(Recording found on azanorak.com - see External links below)

Allan worked on Caroline on and off between 1973 and 1979. During this time he also worked on The Voice of Peace which broadcast to the Middle East.

In the late 1970s he went to Ireland and worked for Big D and ARD, two of the first 24 hour land-based pirate stations in Dublin. He later also worked for Sunshine Radio, and Chris Cary's Radio Nova amongst others.

He was also for a number of years the voice of the Guinness commercials Worldwide. He returned to Britain in 1990 to work for the now re-launched satellite Radio Caroline but was already ill from cancer. Despite this, he kept working as long as he could attending pirate radio conventions and fundraising events for Caroline until he became too ill to do so.

External links

* [http://www.tonyallan.org Official Tony Allan tribute site] - includes audio clips
* [http://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/tony.htm Tony Allan page] on [http://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/ The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame]
* [http://www.azanorak.com/pub/mno/offshore/ Offshore radio mp3 page featuring numerous Tony Allan recordings among others] - part of http://www.azanorak.com/