Stephen Allen (born 17 March 1954) is an English
radio presenter
A radio personality (American English) or radio presenter (British English) is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host, and in India and Pakistan as a ra ...
. He hosted the early morning breakfast show on
LBC
LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadca ...
until 2023 and was the station's longest-serving presenter.
Radio career
Allen first worked as a nightclub
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 ...
where he met long-time friend
Dale Winton
Dale Jonathan Winton (22 May 1955 – 18 April 2018) was an English radio DJ and television presenter. He presented the shows ''Dale's Supermarket Sweep'' from 1993 until 2001 and again in 2007, the National Lottery game show '' In It to W ...
and subsequently joined the
United Biscuits Network
United Biscuits Network (UBN) was an internal radio station serving the factories of United Biscuits (UB) in Britain that operated from 1970 to 1979.
In 1970 the BBC had a monopoly on radio broadcasting in Britain, although there were a few off ...
, a radio station broadcasting to workers in the
United Biscuits
United Biscuits (UB) is a British multinational food manufacturer, makers of McVitie's biscuits, Jacob's Cream Crackers, and Twiglets. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In ...
factories.
His voice was heard in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
,
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
and
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
.
UBN closed in 1979, and Allen joined LBC as presenter of the ''Night Extra'' programme. He then moved on to present ''The Night is Young'' on the station. When LBC was separated into two stations- 1152 AM and 97.3 FM, Allen presented the afternoon show for 'London Talkback Radio' (later known as LBC London News 1152) and ''Saturday Night Out''. Allen has also worked for
Blue Danube Radio in Vienna, a station sponsored by the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
.
Allen presented the early breakfast show on LBC between 4am and 7am from Monday to Friday. On 24 February 2023, he announced that he had stepped down from LBC, after presenting his last show on 17 February.
In addition to these shows, Allen pre-recorded another programme for LBC – ''Steve Allen in Conversation''. The final episode of this show was broadcast in spring 2020.
Allen won the Gold Award at the 2016
Arqiva
Arqiva () is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom. The company is headquartered at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority headquart ...
Commerical Radio Awards.
In a
Radio Times poll that year, he was voted readers' tenth favourite male radio voice.
In 2006 and 2007, he embarked on a live tour visiting theatres around the London area. In 2009 and 2010, Allen continued his sell out 'audience with' stage shows at the
Queen's Theatre in Hornchurch and at the
Mermaid Theatre
The Mermaid Theatre was a theatre encompassing the site of Puddle Dock and Curriers' Alley at Blackfriars in the City of London, and the first built in the City since the time of Shakespeare. It was, importantly, also one of the first new the ...
in Central London. He was supported by fellow LBC presenter Anthony Davis. In February 2011, he performed again at the Mermaid Theatre, supported by mind-reader Graham P Jolley.
In 2015, Allen released a book entitled ''So You Want to be a Celebrity?''.
Style of radio show
Allen did not take listeners' calls during his programmes, although he did read out texts and tweets. His early breakfast shows involved discussion of stories from the day's newspapers, Allen's personal anecdotes, his gripes about daily life, and his often
critical
Critical or Critically may refer to:
*Critical, or critical but stable, medical states
**Critical, or intensive care medicine
*Critical juncture, a discontinuous change studied in the social sciences.
*Critical Software, a company specializing in ...
and
derogatory
A pejorative or slur is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a ...
comments about celebrities.
Writing in ''The Guardian'',
David Hepworth observed that "listening to him is like being taken to the airport by an opinionated
cabbie who doesn’t require you to respond in any way."
Controversy and criticism
In 2015, the
RMT union complained to
Ofcom that Allen's comments about striking
London Underground
The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England.
The ...
workers were "likely to encourage or incite crime". Ofcom's investigation found that Allen did not breach the
Broadcasting Code
The Broadcasting Code2017 is a code of practice issued by the Office of Communications (Ofcom) in the UK that requires standards of good conduct for broadcasters. This elaborates on the Communications Act 2003 section 319 and others, on duties of ...
.
In 2018, Ofcom found that Allen's comments about the
traveller community had breached the
Broadcasting Code
The Broadcasting Code2017 is a code of practice issued by the Office of Communications (Ofcom) in the UK that requires standards of good conduct for broadcasters. This elaborates on the Communications Act 2003 section 319 and others, on duties of ...
. LBC argued that "listeners would have considered these comments in the context of Steve's familiar style of fast-moving, continuous rhetoric that rarely dwells significantly on any subject."
In the same year, he was also found to have breached the code by appearing to mock a blind
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
'', were the subject of some media attention. Ofcom received 860 complaints, which where not upheld "given the brevity of the comments and the likely audience's expectations of this provocative presenter and programme".
Allen was one of the presenters of ''5's Company'', a magazine programme broadcast on