Thirty years in media is just part of what makes Jim Allen a natural fit as host of The Signs of The Times and News Director for The new Heaven 1580 AM Inspirational Talk format. With an eye on current events, Capitol Hill, local government operations and with an education initiative focused on area youth, Jim has reprised the former Signs of the Times Newshour – which formerly aired weeknights on Heaven 1580 from 2001-2004.

He also currently serves as Director of Media Relations for CleanSkies.tv – a broadband network covering energy and the environment news – and is a contributor to NBC 4’s Reporter’s Notebook program. Jim has also written guest columns for the Washington Informer and the Washington Afro-American newspapers.

From 2005-2007, Jim served as Special Reports Editor/Media Relations for The Hill newspaper in Washington, DC. During his time there, he created dynamic platforms for the political debate in Washington, featuring guest-column contributions from such notables as President George W. Bush, cabinet secretaries, Senate and House leadership and other influential lawmakers and policymakers.

He also secured placement of The Hill’s stories and/or reporters on other media such as Hardball, MSNBC, Fox News Network, PBS, NPR, Sirius Satellite Radio, BBC, ITN, Inside Edition and ABC News in addition to DC and New York-market television and radio stations.

Jim was the award-winning News and Program Director for WOL AM 1450 Washington, DC from 1991-1995 and 1996-97. He served as co-host and news anchor of Jones and Company The DC Morning Show on DC’s then-number-one-ranked morning show on Majic102.3 FM with Larry Jones and Lorna Newton from 1994 to 1995.  

In addition, he news anchored and guest hosted The Cathy Hughes Morning Show from 1991-94 and in 1996-97, co-hosted The Morning Show with Bernie McCain and Jim Allen on WOL (later called the WOL Newstalk Network) – a network he developed for Radio One, Inc. (by converting stations from music to talk format) more than 10 years ago that still serves the DC and Baltimore areas.

While at Radio One, his awards included The Washington DC Teacher’s Union Media Relations Award for excellence in news coverage of education-related issues, on the occasion of their 25th anniversary. He was also recognized as one of a very few programmers in the nation to broadcast the O.J. Simpson trial live and gavel-to-gavel (on WOL) earning the station record-high ratings.

Jim was also the Program Director of WRC AM 980 (DC) from 1995-96, served as press secretary for former Ward 7 DC City Councilmember Kevin Chavous’ 1998 mayoral campaign and earlier as a press aide, by invitation, for Rev. Jesse Jackson’s tour of South Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew.

He began his media career as an announcer and Public Affairs Director for what is now WFOG AM Suffolk/Norfolk, VA. He then served as an announcer and Public Affairs Director for WSTU Stuart, FL before becoming a news reporter for WPEC TV in West Palm Beach, FL.

Jim left Florida for Southern California where he lived for 8 years. He worked for the Los Angeles Times from 1981-1986 and had something of an acting career in Hollywood (including being picked for a date on one of the first Love Connection shows). He also competed as a top-ten ranked amateur boxer in the AAU Southern Pacific Association – moving up to the number-two spot in the novice division before hanging up the gloves. He also studied the martial art of Kenpo.

He moved to the Washington, DC area in 1989 and served as Coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic Region for CBS National Television Sales, later as Associate Editor of Radio Business Reports Magazine and as Director of Broadcast and Media Services for Campbell and Company Communications (C&C). 

At C&C, he was media consultant to U.S. Surgeon General’s Office of Population Affairs, American Diabetes Association and DC Healthy Families. Also while there, he shared a national media award from The American Academy of Nursing for his contributions to a multi-media, social marketing campaign C&C crafted for the American Social Health Association – designed to stem the spread of STDs among teenagers in Jackson, Mississippi.

Born in Norfolk, VA, Jim grew up mostly in the Tidewater area of Virginia and also lived in Atlanta, GA as a child. He is the son of the Sepia radio pioneer and pastor the late Rev. James Oliver Allen, Sr. and gifted music educator Ruby L. Allen.

Though he came from a good home, let’s just say, Jim hit some rough patches as a teenager and left home. He worked afternoons at a downtown Norfolk shoe store in the afternoons and from midnight to 6 a.m. he was “slipping” ads into classified sections at The Virginian Pilot-Ledger Star newspaper. He hardly went to school. 

But he did show up to take the SAT, scored very high on the tests and was recruited by several Ivy League schools. But, being away from home, socially distracted and failing to realize the gift he had been given, he didn’t follow up. 

He graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in Norfolk, VA, and worked as a pot washer at the Cavalier Hotel in Virginia Beach.

Late in the summer after his graduation, coming home covered in grease and smelly, though it was an honest living, Jim realized he didn’t have much of future as a pot washer. All of the scholarship offers had dried up except for one HBCU.

He attended Delaware State University with music scholarship assistance as a trumpet player and later transferred to Virginia State University where his earned his undergrad degree in English/Television Production and performed with the concert, marching and pep bands. He is currently a third-year law student at Concord University School of Law – expected to complete his law studies in 2009.

Jim has a passion for music and has performed on bass guitar and/or keyboards with musical greats such as Stevie Wonder, Shirley Berkely, Dorian Holley (back-up singer for Steely Dan, Michael Jackson, American Idol, Don Henley), Richard Smallwood and Rick Astley. 

In Sydney, Australia he arranged and led private tours for members of the Michael Jackson 1987 World Tour – including the Sydney Opera House.

He is a member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc.

Jim is married to native Washingtonian Antoinette Kim Allen who is the Endowment Fund Accountant for Howard University. He is the loving father of a son, Stephen, daughter-in-law, Jennifer, two daughters, Khera and Candace and three grandchildren, Dallas, Lailah and Morgan.

He has one brother, David, a former broadcaster, who served in the Chaplain’s Office in the U.S. Army at Ft. Campbell, KY and is a former Chaplain for the City of Portsmouth, VA.

Jim has come through a number of what he calls largely self-generated personal and professional challenges over the years and describes his life as a mixture of grace, blessings, pain, survival, missteps, sweat equity and adventures.

He’s still pressing on and encourages everyone he meets to do the same. You can reach him at jim.allen@cbsradio.com.