Allan Lotsberg

Inducted September 18, 2021

Allan was born in 1932, a scrappy and cherubic street kid who was picked at the age of 7 by the Angel Space gang to be their lookout while they hit a convenience store. He escaped delinquency with a love of theater. He was in shows most of his life, starting with appearances in high school plays, such as “The Man Who Came to Dinner.” After service in the army artillery at Fort Sill during the Korean War, he went to the U of M where he studied art and economics. Theater lured him; starting in the early ‘60s he was involved with Theatre in the Round, Minneapolis Repertory, Bloomington Civic Theater, Chimera Theater and St. Paul Civic Opera.

He began working for WCCO-TV in 1961 in the promotion department with Tom Cousins and he was a booth announcer. Then, in 1963 he became “Willie Ketchem,” the sidekick to “Clancy the Cop,” a daily kid’s show. He was responsible for many of the plotlines and weird, wonderful props. Allan also hosted “Comedy and Classics” on Friday nights. He went on multiple star junkets where he had a blast interviewing stars such as Bob Denver, Julie Newmar, Paul Ford, Bob Crane, and Richard Crenna. When “Clancy & Willie” was cancelled in 1977, he had a solo show called “Allan’s Window.”

From 1994 to 1997 he co-hosted the WCCO Radio Music Challenge with Dan Hertsgaard and Pat Proft. When WCCO cancelled the show, the whole format moved to Ruth Koscielak’s RBN network.

In 1993 he developed what became Allan Lotsberg’s NEW Fogey Follies, a senior theater company. The Follies closed in 2007, but Allen did one final show in 2010 called “Radio Daze: The Musical.” It was a remembrance of old radio shows of the thirties, forties, and fifties.

Allan passed away from Alzheimer’s in 2019. Even in his last days, he could sing along with “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”