Allan King

Allan is well known as a presenter of award-winning television news, having been a main Sky News presenter for more than 14 years, often fronting the technology show, Technofile.

He is exceptionally knowledgeable about cars, consumer electronics (yes, including gadgets!) and anything electronic – as he says, ‘if you can put batteries in it or plug it into the mains, I like it and understand it!’ This love of technology extends to the ancient as well as the modern, as he is an avid collector and restorer of 1920s – 60s radios, gramophones and telephones, and is a licensed radio ‘Ham’ callsign G4BKM.

A large part of Allan’s career – which spans more than 35 years to date - has been spent in business and management. At 22 years of age he was running a radio station, and trained a large proportion of the presenters who founded the UK commercial radio network in the late 1970s.

In 1974 he formed Group K Broadcasting Ltd, and is now the company’s CEO. Group K provides services to radio and television, and training courses in communication including press, online, and broadcasting to clients such as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

During the 1980s the company held the contract to provide newsreading services to LBC Crown FM, a role that involved recruiting, training and employing the presenters. This was followed in 1991 by a contract to supply a full news service to Melody FM, a London radio station owned by Hanson PLC.

In the same decade Allan was also Managing Director of The Complete Radio Company Ltd, a production house making features for the independent radio network.

More recently, Group K Broadcasting was commissioned by the Government of Gibraltar to conduct a complete review of GBC, the Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation. Running on similar lines to the BBC, GBC is a particularly interesting business hybrid as it is funded by a mixture of state finance and advertising. The full story was covered by the Gibraltar Chronicle. The Gibraltar Magazine had previously published a Personality Profile.

Allan has also been involved in the record industry, releasing Bollywood music before than name Bollywood was invented and, in 1986, charting on his label Somebody To Call My Girl sung by world champion boxer Barry McGuigan (if that sounds unlikely, remember that Barry was a singer before he was a boxer, and comes from a family of superb Irish musicians!)

At Sky News he anchored many major breaking stories, including the terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport, winning a BAFTA in 2008.

He was on-air when the Queen Mother’s death was announced, and received praise in several newspapers for his sensitive handling of this sad event; coverage can be seenhere and here.

In the 1970s and 80s Allan was a familiar voice on national commercial radio as a main newsreader with IRN (Independent Radio News), and in London presented a wide range of programmes on LBC Radio.

Examples of Allan's work are available online here.

Allan obtained a Private Pilot’s Licence in 1980.