RIP Bernie Allen

From Robert Feder's column. Sad news about one of big names in early rock radio...

Memorial services will be held December 6 for longtime Chicago radio personality Bernie Allen, who hosted middays during the golden era of Top 40 WLS AM 890 in the 1960s. He died November 16 of pulmonary fibrosis at 86. Allen, whose real name was Bernard Hallenberg, worked as a child actor in Hollywood on the “Our Gang” comedy series in the 1930s and in radio as a regular on “Screen Guild Theater” and the “Jack Armstrong” series. Back home in Chicago, he joined WBEZ FM 91.5 and later worked for WIND AM 560 and the former WJJD before joining WLS in 1963. With subsequent stops at the former WCLR, WLAK and WCFL, he retired from WJJD in 1990. “Golf and bowling are my sports,” Allen once said, “but record hops can be just as much fun.”

I tried to contact Bernie a few times over the past few years to do an interview, but alas, never made the connection.