TONY ALLAN

Tony Allan was born in London on 22nd September 1949 and educated at Sloane Street School. He was keen to work in offshore radio but was consistently told he was too young. Finally Radio Scotland relented and Tony joined the crew on the Comet. He referred to himself as “your mighty mouse on the wireless” and his theme tune was Flamingo by Herb Alpert.

When Radio Scotland closed down in August 1967 he worked as a continuity announcer for a number of television stations, including Granada and Grampian.

Tony returned to sea with Radio Northsea International in February 1971, as part of the team that re-launched the station. He left around April/May as a result of ‘internal problems’, but returned albeit very briefly in the summer of 1971, when he was sacked following an ‘on air incident’ with Andy Archer.

On September 30^th 1972 Tony officially opened RNI2, a radio station which was only on the air for two days. Radio Veronica, the Dutch offshore station, changed frequency to 538 metres and as soon as the old ‘192’ transmitter from Radio Veronica left the air, RNI2, came on.

He also spent a great deal of time with Radio Caroline during the seventies and was an early presenter on Israel's first offshore station The Voice of Peace. In 1975 he joined Edinburgh's Radio Forth to present an afternoon show but soon returned to Caroline.

During the eighties Tony worked on Scottish Television and a few Irish commercial radio stations like Radio Nova , Sunshine Radio and South Coast Radio. He was also heard at the same time on Irish Public Radio RTE as a voice over artist. In 1995, he presented one show during the 1995 Caroline, from the Ross Revenge, anchored in the Docklands. However, his outspoken tongue landed him in trouble & the then program director Johnny Reece told him to leave the ship and never return. It would take years before Tony was invited again to do programmes on the satellite version of Radio Caroline.

As the decade closed, so it was learnt that Tony had throat cancer. After a long struggle, including painful operations, he died around noon on Friday 9 July, 2004, in The Marie Curie Hospice, Hampstead. He was 54. Earlier, he had written on the message board at chriscary.com: “cancer is still one of those taboo subjects for some reason. In fact there are over 200 common varieties of the illness - and that's all it is - an illness. Sometimes it can be cured and sometimes not. In my case, apparently not. If my being upfront about the whole thing gets the subject discussed in an open way, then I'll have accomplished one decent thing before I shuffle off this mortal coil.”

Tony presented a one hour show on our 2001 RSL and it certainly proved one of the highlights of the broadcast. Despite it being a considerable effort on Tony’s part, it didn't show. In what seemed like an effortless show & to the listener, all the old magic and humour was there. Our special thanks to certainly went out to Tony Currie for securing the services of this RNI ‘trooper’ T.C's very personal tribute to Tony Allan now follows:

Tony was a kind, generous and loyal friend and a wild, and at the same time, a rebellious and dangerous man. I first met him shortly after he left Radio Scotland (the shipborne version). He was young, bright, gregarious and I was briefly in awe of him. He was just a year or so older, but here was I, a hospital radio DJ straight from school; and there is Tony, a veteran of pirate radio. He immediately gave me the nickname of 'Shitfeatures'. I liked that.

Over the years we worked together rarely, but often met up, spoke, compared notes, and despaired at the state of the world. When he was at Radio Forth, (a square peg in a round hole if ever there was one) he suddenly decided to walk out and never come back - but I felt honoured that he rang me beforehand to tell me what he was planning.

Years later, after battling assorted demons, we worked on a documentary about radio jingles that I did for Chris Cary's satellite version of Radio Nova. Chris later told me how much it had meant to Tony to work with me on the project. The feeling was entirely mutual. A couple of years ago, after he'd taken ill, I persuaded Tony (with the help of Eljie) to come on board the LV18 and host a show once more on RNI. We had a wonderful day together, which culminated in shepherd's pie and rollups in the galley.

He had one of the most distinctive voices on the radio, and despite living much of his life apparently with a finger on the 'self destruct' button, he had a distinguished career on alternative stations around the world. I was more than fond of Tony Allan. I loved the man (he always respected - if failed to understand - my heterosexual view of the world) and I am glad I knew him.

Finally, these words from Andy Archer: "Of all of the people I met and worked with during my "pirate" radio years, Tony Allan was the most extraordinary. He was charming, erudite - and wickedly witty. Like many talented people - and Tony was VERY talented - he could have his temperamental moments and throw the odd "wobbly". These were largely as a result of his own professionalism which would not allow him to suffer amateurs gladly".