Brett Allen

Brett Allen grew up in the upper Midwest and started in radio as a dee jay in Duluth, Minnesota at the age of 16. The radio markets he worked in included Omaha, NE, Minneapolis, MN, Rockford, IL, Billings, MT and St. Louis, MO. The most popular of his radio shows was in Duluth, MN in 1999 as The Loose Man on The Chitlins Radio Show on The Bear - 102.5 FM, a 100,000 watt station. The show aired from 9 AM - Noon, Monday - Friday from April 1st - June 23rd, the exact date range of the Arbitron spring book ratings period. That was the prerequisite of him doing the show, that he would not do a day more than the spring ratings period. The show began on a Thursday and ended on a Wednesday. It was the highest rated show in the history of Duluth radio receiving (core demo, males 18-22) an 87 share. The show was highly controversial due to a variety of factors. The show drew the ire of Minnesota's newly elected Governor, Jesse Venture, in which The Chitlins Show had a character called "The Governor", who sounded identical to Jesse Ventura. The mayor of Duluth at the time, Gary Doty, was also critical of the show after one of the episodes where The Loose Man made a prank phone call on the air to, as it turned out, the mayor's mother's home. Brett Allen gained television experience on a cable show called Twin Parks, in Rockford, IL. It was a show developed with a radio colleague, Dave Gerard, whom also had no prior television experience until that time as well. The show was short lived, after the UHF station that produced the show filed for bankruptcy. A few years later in St. Louis, Brett Allen while still working in radio, developed a new local cable TV program called Explore St. Louis. It was a magazine style show covering places of interest in St. Louis Bob Costas, who worked for NBC Sports at the time, appeared on one of the episodes posing as a fan of the Explore St. Louis show, tongue in cheek, which he had never seen. Brett Allen later produced another cable show in St. Louis called The St. Louis Show. It was after this, in 2007, that he created The Official Best Of, a national travel award show that aired on network television in addition to The Travel Channel. In 2010, the show moved to The Discovery Channel after Scripps Network acquired The Travel Channel from Discovery Inc., after which Brett Allen found it difficult to work with the new owners. In December, 2016 due to programming changes at Discovery Channel, the series left the channel and remained solely on network television. In 2019, the series changed its name to Official Best Of America and continues to air in markets nationwide with the same staff. Official Best Of America has produced over 100 half hour episodes and is one of America's longest running travel shows that focuses solely on the United States. There are plans to expand coverage to other countries in 2020.