Bill "Hoss" Allen - Surviving The Purge

Surviving The Purge

In the early 1970s, Allen chose to adjust to new management's direction and adjusted to playing more funk and smooth soul offerings, discontinuing most of the oldies. His longtime cohorts Richbourg and Nobles decided to quit rather than change their programs. New management wanted the station schedule to conform to a pop hits format.

By early 1975, "the Hossman" was the lone jockey working at WLAC who had been there as long as five years. After a brief absence from the airwaves, Allen reformatted his show as Early Morning Gospel Time With The Hossman, a showcase for national and regional black gospel acts. In addition, he moved the show from late evening to the overnight shift. Since he had been taping his programs since about 1970, he didn't have to adjust his personal schedule. For about ten years, Allen had a lower public profile. In off-station time, he worked as a music producer for several local acts.

In the mid-1980s, WLAC's sister station, WLAC-FM (now WNRQ), used Allen's voice in a promotional campaign. His memorable drawling sound was brought back to public consciousness. Ad agencies enlisted Allen to supply voiceovers on various radio and television commercials. For several years, this became a quite lucrative sideline.

Allen continued his gospel show until 1993, which was a favorite among his longtime African-American listeners. This was more than a decade after WLAC dropped all other music in favor of news and talk format in the daytime and paid religion in the evening hours. Although in 1986 and 1987 Allen made an attempt to revive his R&B/soul/blues show on Saturday evenings, the show failed due to lack of promotion and pre-emptions by Vanderbilt football and basketball coverage.

After retiring from the show on radio, Allen continued his instantly recognizable voiceover projects until about a year or so before his death. Allen was the final survivor of the four disc jockeys who comprised "the 50,000 Watt Quartet." In 1994, Bill "Hoss" Allen was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.