Allan Loudell
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Allan Loudell is a News Anchor / Interviewer host here on 1150 AM WDEL.
He anchors the "WDEL Delaware News at Noon", the "WDEL Delaware
Afternoon News" 4-6pm, and the "WDEL Delaware Evening News" 6-6:30pm.
From time to time, Allan has taught broadcast newswriting at The University of
Delaware. He has served in various leadership positions at Delaware Press
Association, including Vice-President, Programs; a Board member of The Society
of Professional Journalists, Philadelphia chapter; and Past President of the
Corporate Board, The Delaware Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership.
Allan has been on-the-air -- more or less continuously -- since the age
of thirteen! He has been on-the-air in the Wilmington market since 1987,
and joined WDEL / Delmarva Broadcasting Company in September 2005.
Before his arrival in Delaware, he spent ten years on-the-air in Memphis,
Tennessee, including as morning news-anchor for the nation's first urban
(Black)-formatted station, WDIA. His first boss in Memphis was the late
Sam Phillips, owner of the legendary Sun Records studio, who discovered
such rockabilly artists as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl
Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis! Allan believes he was first on-the-air
with word of Elvis Presley's death!
Allan has won dozens of awards over the years. Readers of DELAWARE TODAY
magazine have named Allan "Best Radio News Anchor (Upstate) for three
consecutive years. From Delaware Press Association in 2011: 1st place,
"On-the-scene Spot Report, Radio", for Election Day reports; 1st place,
"Interview, Radio", for Senate campaign interviews; 1st place, "Best Newscast,
Radio" for the "WDEL Delaware News at Noon"; 2nd place, "Best Presentation,
Radio", for anchoring during the "WDEL Delaware News at Noon"; and 2nd place,
"Blogs", for the WDEL.com Allan Loudell blog. From NFPW (the National Federation
of Press Women) in 2010, a national 1st place for "Best Newscast, Radio". The
Delaware chapter of People to People International awarded Allan its statewide
"People Helping People" award for promoting international understanding through
his global interviews, which also earned a gubernatorial proclamation from
Governor Jack Markell.
Allan grew-up in the Chicago area and got his start in radio in the
Chicago suburbs, beginning with his high school radio station, WLTL.
(His high school -- Lyons Township High School -- inducted Allan into
its Hall of Fame of the century in 1996.) He received his B.S. in
communications -- with special emphasis on history and political science
-- from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1977; he spent
all four years as a news anchor, and also served as news director and
talk-show host for the student-run commercial radio station, WPGU.
Allan has covered -- or even interviewed -- many historic figures:
Presidents Ford, Carter, and Reagan; Al Gore as a U.S. Representative
and Senator from Tennessee; the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley; the
late Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat; the Dalai Lama; the Coptic Pope
Shenouda II; retired South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu; the
Swedish King and Queen; the late Lesotho King Moshoeshoe II; former
Polish President & Polish Solidarity leader Lech Walesa; and various
Commonwealth Prime Ministers (including a former Australian Prime
Minister, just hours before the biggest scandal in that politician's
career!)
Indeed, Allan has contacts around the world: Just after 9/11, Pakistani
journalist Hamid Mir interviewed Osama bin Laden. Only Loudell and CNN's
Larry King landed an interview immediately afterwards with that Pakistani
journalist. During the Soviet coup-attempt, Loudell landed an interview
with Mikhail Gorbachev's former press secretary, Gennadi Gerasimov, from
the (then) Soviet Embassy in Lisbon.
Allan started "High School Student Journalists' and Communicators' Hour"
on Delaware radio. He guest-lectures at many area high schools and
colleges (Commencement Speaker at Goldey-Beacom College in the 1990's).
He helps judge the annual high-school newspaper competition in Delaware,
sponsored by Delaware Press Association. He also has pioneered
broadcasting from many of the area's church and ethnic festivals.
Allan Loudell is married to wife, Barbara, who teaches at Our Lady of
Fatima School in Wilmington Manor. They have two children, Allison and
Michael. Completely outside the realm of broadcast journalism and
community service, Loudell is passionate about a number of subject areas,
including African and Middle-East studies; comparative religion;
international broadcast listening (DX'ing); entomology (insects),
particularly lepidoptera (butterflies & moths); nature photography;
vexillology (flags); model railroading; and license plates.
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