2011 HERE Legacy Award to honor broadcaster Wash Allen Oct. 22

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News staff

Rice University’s HERE (Houston Enriches Rice Education) Project will celebrate radio and TV personality Wash Allen and his 45 years in broadcasting Oct. 22 at the 2011

WASH ALLEN

HERE Legacy Award ceremony.

The event will be held at 7:30 p.m. in Alice Pratt Brown Hall’s Stude Concert Hall.

Allen began his career as a 14-year-old broadcaster at WDIA Radio in Memphis, Tenn., and went on to major in speech and drama at Tennessee State University. He has spent more than 45 years in broadcasting and held several managerial positions at radio stations in Nashville, Tenn., Cleveland, Washington, Detroit and Houston. He was syndicated on the ABC Radio Network for 12 years on the Solid Gold Soul format and has worked on the Houston radio scene at KYOK Radio in 1969 and at KCOH Radio since 1971. Allen became Houston’s first African-American TV host with a weekly program called “Talent Unlimited,” which aired from 1971 to 1974 on KHOU, the local CBS affiliate.

Among the guest speakers at the ceremony will be Helen Cavazos, METRO’s vice president and chief diversity officer; Judy Foston, president and founder of Foston International; Anthony Le, president of Double Eight Properties; U.S. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee; Waverly Nolley, attorney at Waverly R. Nolley & Associates; Karen Carter Richards, CEO and publisher of Houston Forward Times Newspaper; and William Terrell, director of African-American Programming at South Carolina Education Television.

Actor and entrepreneur Leon Isaac Kennedy will host the event.

For ticket information, go to www.here.rice.edu/washallen/.

The first Legacy Award was given in 2010 to James A. Prince, founder of Houston’s Rap-A-Lot Records, as part of a larger program that included a panel of central figures involved in Houston’s hip-hop culture.

HERE’s mission is to bridge the gap between Rice and the larger Houston community by fostering dialogue, forging communal solidarity and facilitating goodwill. For more on HERE, go to http://here.rice.edu/.