Allen was reared in the small town of Gallatin, some 35 miles northeast of Nashville, by an African-American domestic who worked for his grandparents.

Because of their closeness, Allen identified primarily with black youngsters as playmates and peers, an orientation unusual in the segregated South.

When peace came, Allen enrolled as an English major at Vanderbilt University, where he developed a reputation as a strong amateur actor.

"Hoss" Allen then established himself in that slot, peppering the playing of numerous songs by Ray Charles, Little Richard, Fats Domino and John Lee Hooker with "jive talk"-style commercials.

His most prominent sponsors were Royal Crown Hair Dressing (unrelated to the cola drink) and Buckley's Record Shop, a Nashville-based mail-order business.

Jarrett turned the "hep cat" language Allen had used to a younger direction, staging sock hop dances, rotating more rockabilly and rock and roll into the blues/R&B playlist, and using sexually suggestive phrases in the product advertisements.

[citation needed] Allen kept spinning the newest releases from Sam Cooke, Muddy Waters, and Aretha Franklin, while paying attention to the new soul scenes developing in the mid-1960s in two nearby cities: Memphis and Muscle Shoals.

Unlike fellow station disk jockeys Richbourg, Nobles, and Grizzard, Allen's playlist emphasized newer releases on his one-to-two-hour shows, heard six nights per week.

According to Wes Smith, in his The Pied Pipers of Rock 'n' Roll: Radio Deejays of the 50s and 60s,[5] "the Hossman" took full advantage of his fame to indulge in drinking and womanizing.

[citation needed] In the early 1970s, Allen chose to adjust to new management's direction and moved toward more funk and smooth soul offerings, discontinuing most of the oldies.

This was more than a decade after WLAC dropped all other music in favor of a news and talk format in the daytime and paid religion in the evening hours.

Although in 1986 and 1987 Allen made an attempt to revive his R&B/soul/blues show on Saturday evenings, the show failed due to lack of promotion and pre-emptions by Vanderbilt football and basketball coverage, the rights to which WLAC held at the time (the station regained the rights in 2012 and broadcasts Vanderbilt sports as of 2021).

[7] "All around, down for Royal Crown"--said during commercials for the hair-care product, used by some African-American youngsters in the 1950s and 1960s; product is still sold as of 2007 "Bless your heart"--Allen used this phrase constantly; derived from a traditional Southern religious greeting "Camelot time"--informal name for his nightly shows "Git down time"--phrase originally referred, in the mid 20th-century, to the beginning of prostitution activities at nightfall in places like Gallatin and Nashville; later became a teenage/African-American slang term for dancing, thanks to Allen's frequent use "Just a touch ... means so DOG-GONE much!"

--the closing catch phrase used on 60-second commercials for Randy's Record Shop, a sponsor of "The Hossman"'s (and also Gene Nobles') program for many years on WLAC "...then YOU have a DISEASED SCALP!

--another catch phrase used in the middle of a 60-second spot for a certain mail-order product used to treat psoriasis voiced by Hoss Allen.