1. Allen, take us through your long career and don't leave anything out!
I would never have landed at KING if it hadn’t been for the Veritable Quandary. I managed to parlay an Ivy League education into a 7-year stint as a bartender in my hometown of Portland, OR, most of it at the venerable VQ, a popular downtown lunch spot and late-night drinking joint. I worked the day shift for years and some of my regular afternoon customers were news-peeps from KOIN, Channel 6, just down the street. I got to know them pretty well (Kirk Mathews, Linda Cobell, Phil Volker and others) and after a while realized they were normal folks just like me, doing something that was probably more interesting than what I was doing. And if THEY could do TV news, well, so could I. So I went back to school, got a Master’s Degree in Broadcast Communications at San Francisco State University and went to work. First job in Bend, OR; second job in San Luis Obispo, CA; third job at KING and thank you Bob Jordan for that! Did 21 years at KING, reporting on all kinds of different beats, issues and events, including seven Olympic Games. It was one of the best jobs in the business; a dynamic newsroom at a legacy station with tremendous professionals everywhere you looked, really good people and really good friends. Hard to beat. I loved it. And after two decades i just needed a change. Frankly I forget exactly how it happened but I got a call one day from Kristin Fraser who was setting up the Aljazeera America Seattle bureau. I jumped at the chance to try something new and very different. It was a two-and-a-half year thrill ride and a total blast. If somebody in Qatar hadn’t pulled the plug in early 2016 I’d still be working that beat. We were a three-person bureau with plenty of autonomy and a collective nose for interesting PACNW stories that the News heads back in New York loved. We would hire other shooters, producers and reporters when necessary but mostly it was Kristin, photographer Jose Cedeno and me covering stories of national interest in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and British Columbia. We worked our butts off, got along well as a unit, didn’t complain much and earned the trust of our bosses back east. That led to other assignments outside the region as well as an occasional visit to the Mother Ship for Big Apple- based reporting. The best gig of all was being assigned as part of the network team covering memorial services for Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Two and a half weeks in Johannesburg, Soweto, Pretoria, Mthata and Qunu. It was a peak professional and personal experience. We were chosen to go to the Rio Olympics in 2016 but about the time we started wondering why nobody would answer our questions about logistics, editorial direction etc. for Brazil, we got word that the network was bailing out. Bummer. It was a great gig. I managed to do a lot of freelancing in the following couple of years, mostly for Aljazeera English, their international platform, sort of a BBC clone. Worked from home but flew wherever in the US they needed me and occasionally worked out of DC (the US headquarters of the Doha-based network) doing pkgs of international interest or working the anchor desk as the American “face” that night. Really fun stuff but they eventually cut back on hiring freelancers (or maybe just THIS freelancer) and the work dried up. Meanwhile my wife Cyndy and I moved to Central Oregon and I ended up with a four-year stint as an anchor and reporter at Central Oregon Daily News, a fairly new news operation. It was a tremendous way to end my career; a small (very!) market newsroom with a remarkable commitment to long-form storytelling and with leaders willing to take chances and allow people to explore sometimes zany ideas. Such a great time! And we won a few Emmys competing against the Big Boys in Portland and Seattle. That felt good..
2. What do you miss most about your time in the biz?
What do I miss most? The people, always the people, in the building and out there in the world. It is such a remarkable community of people who populate and drive the energy in broadcast newsrooms, at least the newsrooms I was in. Didn’t matter what the job was; reporting, anchoring, reading, writing, field producing, whatever,. The people I was doing it with is who and what I miss. Same with the folks out there in what we oddly call “the field”. I loved the constant interaction with an ever-changing cast of characters in the local community. It was such a treat, such a privilege to meet and get to know, to one degree or another, those thousands of people.
3. Give us your fondest memory of your work in Seattle.
Fondest memory of working at KING is hard to nail down to a single event or situation or assignment, there are just so many good memories. But I would have to broaden the response and include all of my Olympic work. Getting to know all those amazing athletes and their families and coaches and human support systems was such a treat. We were able to tell some amazing stories about those folks, some of whom I still connect with these days and am delighted to call my friends. And going to the Olympics? That was the big payoff of course. Sydney, Athens, Beijing, London...that’s a pretty good summer itinerary. Salt Lake City, Torino Italy, Vancouver, pretty nice places to land in for coverage of winter sports. It was also the most physically and emotionally draining thing I ever did in the news business. Looooong days, endless live shots, a constant churn of coverage, writing, story-digging, logistical challenges and remembering to east and rest. Fortunately, sleep just makes me irritable. And again, the people made it all work, the extremely talented photographers and producers I was connected with made the coverage sing and dance. Loved it all.
4. Bring us up to date on life right now.
Right now I am enjoying retirement. I golf occasionally, hike occasionally, walk the dogs and tickle the cats and spend as much time as possible with Cyndy, who I spent so much time away from during 35 years of newsing. I am a VTA (Volunteer Trail Ambassador) at the fabulous Smith Rock State Park north of Bend, OR. Tough job: hike, connect with park visitors, answer questions, advise people on different trail options and challenges, take group photos, smile and nod and remind people to pick up trash and keep their dogs on a leash. It is so much fun and I get to put in a ton of miles in a really gorgeous place. Come on out and visit!
Thank you, Allen. Your energy and enthusiasm show through so strongly.
What an adventure, that continues on!!!!
One editori's note. Allen was inducted into the NATAS Silver Circle in 2024.
Allen always found a way to make KING's coverage of the Olympics unique and interesting. He was a solid utility player at KING, from reporting to anchoring and even hosting the long defunct (and very much missed) Upfront political program. I'm glad to hear he is doing well.
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