Born Harold Wallace Lee and a native of Lakeland, Florida, Collins got his first job in radio at age 14.

[1] Collins worked early in his career for a radio station in Tampa, Florida, at WKGN Knoxville, Tennessee and then took a job as a disk jockey in Milwaukee at WOKY and WRIT.

[1] He enjoyed flying his Zlin 242 L airplane,[1] riding his Honda[5] Gold Wing and the Chicago Cubs.

Collins attempted to steer his plane to a safe landing, but it crashed and burned atop a nearby hospital, killing him and a passenger and injuring five people on the ground.

Many of Collins' friends and co-workers worked in his memory to have radar and other safety tools installed at the Waukegan Regional Airport to prevent further tragedies.