Keith Van Allen: Midday Host for the Gater 98.7 FM

Please allow me to introduce myself (O.K. that was way too obvious a reference and I promise not to do it again). My name is Keith Van Allen and my broadcast history dates back to the Spring of 1985 when I was working as a bellman at a Ramada Inn in West Palm Beach, Florida and absolutely clueless as to where my career path would end up leading me. Actually, since I had just quit Palm Beach Junior College after three years and three changes of major, I wasn’t exactly on that path at all.

 It was one day at some point during this particular Spring that I heard a spot on the factory installed radio in my Toyota Tercel for The Connecticut School of Broadcasting. Oh sure, I’d heard it plenty of times before but this time I took notice. I was intrigued. There had always been a distant fascination with me for the radio biz. However, there had also always been a paralyzing fear of public speaking. So, a decision had to be made: continue drifting aimlessly or conquer that damned phobia and take the first step down the path I currently wasn’t exactly on.

 That afternoon I made the call to CSB. Shortly after that I enrolled, took the eight week course and graduated the following May.

 

 After spending a better part of the Summer schlepping tapes and resumes to various stations up and down the coast from Port St. Lucie to Pompano, I finally got a call from a guy named Bob Taylor. Bob was a sort of bizarre middle-aged man with a bad combover who owned a sort of bizarre 3,000 watt Top-40 operation in Jupiter called WIXI, 96.7-FM (All Hits, All The Time!). I was hired to do Midnight to 8am on Sunday mornings and became Keith Collins.

 Three months later, Bob changed the format of the station to what is called Easy Listening or “Music of Your Life” and the call letters became WKSY...KOZY 97-FM. Goodbye Madonna, Doug E. Fresh and Bananarama... Hello Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand and Neil Diamond.  Well, as you might imagine, the entire full-time air staff hit the road and I had my first regular six-day-a-week radio gig.

 A year later, KOZY 97 went off the air and I went to work part-time for The Country-K in West Palm Beach where I changed my name to Keith Van Allen (a combination of my real last name, Vanderwende and my brother Kyle’s middle name, Allen).

 

 So, I played Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Hank Williams, Jr. records for about 2 years. Then, bounced over to the West Palm Beach Adult-Contemperary powerhouse WRMF for a while until I scored my next full-time job as Production Director and Midday Air-Talent for 95.5 WOVV in Ft. Pierce which was a full-blown Top 40 outfit.

 Now, bear in mind that the primary reason I had gotten into this business in the first place was to play Rock & Roll and up to this point it had been eight years of Pop, Easy Listening, Country, Adult Contemporary and back to Pop. Bummer... no Rock in eight years! Finally, one day in 1993 there came a ray of hope when my good pal Mick McCabe, who was the Production Director at The Gater 98.7-FM, called me with news that there was a part-time weekend shift opening and a strong possibility that a full-time Midday slot would be available soon.

 

 So, I rolled the dice and left a steady, salaried position with benefits at WOVV to go do weekends and fill-ins at The Gater. This would be great! I would spend a few months handling odd shifts and some occasional promotional stuff, then BOOM! I would become one of the main DJ’s on a major Rock station (at last).

 Well, not quite.

 As the old saying goes, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” And that’s exactly what happened to my seemingly well laid plan. Those few months stretched to a year. Then two. In the meantime I took a full-time Production job at an Oldies station in Ft. Lauderdale...WAXY 106 (which evolved into what is now Big 106). The prospect that this dream job at The Gater would eventually go spiraling down the drain was quickly becoming a harsh reality.

 Sadly, I came to the difficult decision to turn The Gater loose and work exclusively for Big 106. When I met with the new Gater Program Director Gary Allen and explained the situation to him, he turned around and explained to me that he wanted to make me the new Midday host! I accepted immediately.

That was April of 1995 and in the twelve years since I have had one helluva ride.  Not only have I been fortunate enough to be a part of a truly great radio station (is it a coincidence that Gater is an anagram for great?) and playing the music I am most passionate about in sunny South Florida, but it is here where I met my breathtakingly beautiful wife Ginny. Before  she came into my life, I believed that Soul Mates were nothing more than the stuff of urban legend and myth. I was wrong. Not only is she my Soul Mate, she is the girl of my dreams and the love of my life. What she sees in a chucklehead like me is way beyond my comprehension. Yet, here we are, joined at the hip since 1997.

 What a long, strange trip it’s been ( yeah, I know I promised not to do that again-and I swear that’s the last one).