Leland (Lee) Hansen, (born on March 26, 1944, in

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Cana ...

) is an American radio personality and

voice actor Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...

best known for creating the popular ''

Alien Worlds ''Alien Worlds'' is an American science fiction anthology comic that was published by Pacific Comics and, later, Eclipse Comics, in the early 1980s. It was edited by Bruce Jones and April Campbell.Johnston, Rich"When Diamond Comic Distributor ...

'' radio drama in the late 1970s.

Background

Hansen grew up on a farm in Tekoa, WashingtonAlien Worlds - San Francisco Chronicle Dateline Tribute Review
Retrieved 2018-12-18. and began his radio career at

KCLX KCLX (1450 AM broadcasting, AM) is a radio station broadcasting a classic country format. Located near Colfax, Washington, United States, the station serves the Pullman-Moscow area. The station is currently owned by Inland Northwest Broadcasting, ...

while still attending Tekoa High School. After graduation he went to South Vietnam to serve in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

, and in 1963 he became a founding member of Armed Forces Radio Saigon (AFRS). The radio network would eventually spread and serve over 500,000 GI's, and Hansen hosted the station's very first morning show in Saigon. After his discharge, Hansen worked as a

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile ...

for major Top 40 radio stations around the country, until he was hired in 1970 by Mel Blanc Audio Media. He served as both their Creative Director and Studio Operations Manager, and a year later he was appointed Director of ''The Mel Blanc School of Voice and Commercials.'' He joined Watermark Studios in 1973. He became studio manager and worked as a producer and co-producer for several syndicated radio shows. Also at Watermark, in 1977 he became best known for creating, producing, and directing the popular dramatic radio series '' Alien Worlds – On The Threshold of The Unknown''. The stories were written by Hansen and Ron Thompson with a variety of other co-writers including

Babylon 5 ''Babylon 5'' is an American space opera television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski, under the Babylonian Productions label, in association with Straczynski's Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Warner Bros. Domestic Tele ...

writer J. Michael Straczynski. The

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

drama was eventually picked up by more than 1500 stations worldwide.

Later career

''Alien Worlds'' ended in 1980 and he went on to

UCLA Film School The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (UCLA TFT), is one of the 12 schools within the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) located in Los Angeles, California. Its creation was groundbreaking in that it was the first time a leadi ...

. He later gained prominence with his production company “GDE” as a writer, producer and director for film and TV features centered around the

US Space Program The space policy of the United States includes both the making of space policy through the legislative process, and the implementation of that policy in the United States' civilian and military space programs through regulatory agencies. The earl ...

and Aerospace Industry. Hansen is currently the CEO of Addlink, LLC, a Hollywood production firm.

Radio work

As a DJ

Colfax, Washington Colfax is the county seat of Whitman County, Washington, United States. The population was 2,805 at the 2010 census. The population is estimated at 2,911 per the State of Washington Office of Financial Management in 2018 making Colfax the secon ...

* AFRS in Saigon,

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

WGBA WGBA-TV (channel 26) is a television station in Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Appleton-licensed independent station WACY-TV (channel 32). Both stations share studi ...

in Columbus,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

* WQXI in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

* KASH in Eugene,

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

KENO Keno is a lottery-like gambling game often played at modern casinos, and also offered as a game in some lotteries. Players wager by choosing numbers ranging from 1 through (usually) 80. After all players make their wagers, 20 numbers (some va ...

KLUC-FM KLUC-FM (98.5 MHz) is a legacy commercial radio station located in Las Vegas, Nevada. KLUC airs a Top 40 (CHR) music format. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station's studios are located in the unincorporated Clark County area of Spring Valley, w ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

* KUTE FM in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

As a producer

*'' American Top 40'' with

Casey Kasem Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014) was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio personality, who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably ''American Top 40''. He was the first actor to voice No ...

* ''

American Country Countdown ''American Country Countdown'', also known as ''ACC'', is a weekly internationally syndicated radio program which counts down the top 40 country songs of the previous week, from No. 40 to No. 1, according to the ''Billboard'' Country Airplay ch ...

'' with

Bob Kingsley Robert Gibson Kingsley (March 19, 1939 – October 17, 2019) was an American country music radio personality and a member of the National Radio Hall of Fame. He was best known as the host of two nationally syndicated radio programs: ''American Cou ...

* ''The Robert W. Morgan Special of The Week'' * ''The Elvis Presley Story'' * '' Soundtrack of the '60s'' with

Gary Owens Gary Owens (born Gary Bernard Altman; May 10, 1934 – February 12, 2015) was an American radio announcer, personality, disc jockey and voice actor. His polished baritone speaking voice generally offered deadpan recitations of total nonsense, wh ...

* ''

'' with

Linda Gary Linda Gary (born Linda Gary Dewoskin, November 4, 1944 – October 5, 1995) was an American actress. Career Live-action appearances Gary worked as a voice-over artist in animation and also appeared in two live-action films, 1977's ''Joyride T ...

* ''The Rock Files'' with Keith Austin

References

External links

Alien Worlds official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hansen, Lee American radio DJs American radio producers American male screenwriters American Top 40 American male voice actors Male actors from Spokane, Washington Living people 1944 births Screenwriters from Washington (state) People from Tekoa, Washington