Joe
Allison was born on October 3, 1924 in McKinney,
TX. After graduating from Murray Jr. College in
Tishoming, OK, he worked as a commercial artist
before taking his first radio job at KPLT, Paris,
TX in 1943.
A
year later, he was hired at KMAC in San Antonio,
TX, where he met Tex Ritter. He toured the US and
Canada as MC for Tex Ritter’s show. Allison
worked in Memphis radio during the late '40s. In
1949 he moved to Nashville and broadcast "Noontime
Neighbors" and "Tin Pan Valley" on
WSM and worked as a DJ on WMAK. In 1953, he moved
to KXLA in Pasadena, CA. and also hosted the “Country
America” show for ABC television. He wrote
best selling Country songs including “Live
Fast, Love Hard, Die Young” for Faron Young, “Teenage
Crush” for Tommy Sands and “He’ll
Have To Go” for Jim Reeves, subsequentlyrtecorded
by Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby, Guy Lombardo, The
Mills Brothers, Tom Jones, Eddy Arnold and over
one hundred different artists world wide, . In
1960 he moved top KFOX in nearby Long Beach. That
same year he founded the Country department at
Liberty Records and signed Willie Nelson. In 1964
he won CMA\Founding Presidents Award (now called
the Connie B. Gay Award). Allison returned to Nashville
in 1965 to head the Country division of Dot Records
and in 1967 he became heads of the Country division
of Capitol Records. He retired in 1974 and worked
as an antique dealer. Joe Allison was inducted
into the Country Music D J Hall of Fame in 1976.
Allison died on August 2, 2002 in Nashville, TN.
