Longtime Fox 2 Detroit reporter Al Allen dies, leaves behind legacy of devotion to TV news

Yahoo

05-02-2025

When Al Allen braved wind, sleet, snow and hail to cover the weather for metro Detroit, viewers — and his own mother — noticed.
"My mother would call the station, Lord help her. 'Tell that boy to put a hat on his head,' " the veteran WJBK-TV (Fox 2 Detroit) reporter told the Free Press six years after his retirement.
Allen died Tuesday night at age 79 at a local hospital, according to Fox 2 Detroit. A beloved figure in Motor City TV news for almost 30 years, he won several awards and was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame for his dedication to his craft.
During his career, Allen covered a wide array of stories, including the Jimmy Hoffa disappearance and the ceremonies in Washington, D.C., to honor civil rights legend Rosa Parks after her passing.
But he became especially iconic for his live early morning segments on WJBK covering weather and traffic, even in massive blizzards. 'Out of all the stories I've done, thousands, they only remember one. Standing out in the cold, in the snow, (through) all those snowstorms," he said in 2018, during an interview to promote his memoir, 'We're Standing By.'
Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Allen moved to Detroit with his family in his teens. He started reporting while a student at Mumford High School for an internal news broadcast called "Spotlight on Mumford."
After returning to Little Rock to work in radio news for a few years, he came back to Detroit and was a staffer at several radio stations before joining what was then called Channel 2 in 1984.
His book was laced with stories about his lifetime in broadcast journalism. In one, he described changing his name from Andrew because his first radio program manager didn't think it was catchy enough. "Where I got Al Allen from, I have no idea," he said during the 2018 interview.
Another anecdote revealed that former Detroit Mayor Coleman Young nicknamed him Columbo, as in the famed TV detective played by Peter Falk. Explained Allen, 'He said, 'Because you wear that oversized, raggedy-ass trench coat and stand in back of the room and wait until the very end and ask the most asinine question.' And I said, 'Really?' We had some good times."
One of his most memorable encounters was with music superstar Aretha Franklin. When he arrived during a sound check to report on a Detroit concert she was doing, "She saw me coming and she says, 'Oh hello, Mr. Allen.' It caught me (by surprise). I thought, 'She knows my name!' All I could say was, 'Hello, Miss Queen.'"
Although Allen was a warm and engaging presence on television, he took TV news seriously. Surveying the pressure for speed in journalism six years ago, he said. 'We had the three-person rule when it comes to sources. If three people told you pretty much the same thing, then you've got a story.'
Toward the end of his career, he added, 'they'd say, 'Al, go cover this, that and the other.' They'd start getting information, and I'd say, 'Who told you that?' Well, it came across Twitter or somebody emailed. I'd say, 'OK, do we know if this actually happened?'"
Still, Allen loved his job and recommended it to young people. 'You are the voice of the voiceless. You are the hope of the hopeless. When you're standing in the middle of chaos and confusion, you are the calming voice," he told the Free Press.
"They can depend on you. They can rely on you for the information that they need. I think that's a great job."
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Fox 2 Detroit reporter Al Allen dies, remembered for devotion to news