Editing Steve Allen (section)

==== Radio ====
[[File:Steve Allen (signature and handprints in cement).jpg|right|thumb|The handprints of Allen in front of [[Fantasmic!#Hollywood Hills Amphitheater|Hollywood Hills Amphitheater]] at [[Walt Disney World]]'s [[Disney's Hollywood Studios]] theme park]]
Allen became an announcer for radio [[KFAC (radio station)|KFAC]] in Los Angeles, then moved to the [[Mutual Broadcasting System]] in 1946, talking the station into airing his five-nights-a-week comedy show ''Smile Time'', co-starring Wendell Noble. After Allen moved to CBS Radio's [[KNX (AM)|KNX]] in Los Angeles, his music-and-talk half-hour format gradually changed to include more talk in an hour-long late-night format, boosting his popularity and creating standing-room-only studio audiences.<ref name=NYT>{{Cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/01/arts/steve-allen-comedian-who-pioneered-late-night-tv-talk-shows-is-dead-at-78.html | title=Steve Allen, Comedian Who Pioneered Late-Night TV Talk Shows, Is Dead at 78 | author=Richard Severo | date=November 1, 2000 | work=The New York Times}}</ref>

During a show's segment, Allen went into the audience with a microphone to [[Ad libitum|ad lib]] on the air for the first time.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Allen|first1=Steve|last2=Wollman|first2=Jane|title=How to Be Funny: Discovering the Comic You|date=1998|publisher=Prometheus|pages=55–56, 103}}</ref> This became a commonplace part of his studio performances for many years. His program attracted a huge local following; as the host of a 1950 summer replacement show for the popular comedy ''[[Our Miss Brooks]]'',<ref>{{Cite magazine|last1=Morse|first1=Leon|title=The Steve Allen Show|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m_UDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA37|access-date=14 April 2015|magazine=Billboard|date=July 1, 1950|page=37}}</ref> he found himself in front of a national audience for the first time.