The Valley has lost a longtime radio voice to COVID-19. Bryan Allen died earlier this month; he was 58 years old.
If you lived here in the early 2000s, odds are you've heard his voice. Bryan Allen hosted Monday through Friday afternoons on Mix 96.9 for nearly 14 years. He had that role from 1999 to 2013.
Those who knew him knew his smile, his big personality and his love for the community.
"He was a beautiful human being that everyone loved and he loved everybody, said Ron Price. "You probably would've heard him talking to people all the time. Every time he was on the radio, he had somebody on the air with him that was a listener."
Price was the program director for Allen's show. They worked together for years.
"He loved to do it, he loved to entertain people and loved to make people happy. He just had this passion for it that nothing got him down as long as he was doing his job," said Price. "He was funny, he was hilarious. He just knew how to make people laugh, he always made me laugh."
Philip Steiner also worked with Allen for years. He said he knew he was going to be friends with Allen the moment he met him.
"Whether you knew him for a minute or 58 years, everybody loved Bryan. Everyone," said Steiner. "Bryan had a unique ability to make everyone better."
His wife Joye Allen said he was the same person off-air.
"Some DJs are big and loud on-air and then they're totally different in person, but that was him, that was his laugh. He loved everybody and he loved music, always always listening to music," she said.
Allen also loved movies, Disney parks and traveling. They had stopped doing that during COVID, but in January, he and Joye contracted the virus.
"He has COPD and he was diabetic, so between those, he was high risk and it just really hit him hard," said Allen.
He had to be hospitalized and put on a ventilator. They thought he was improving when all of a sudden, he got a secondary infection.
"And it just tore through him in a matter of hours," said Allen.
"He was taken from us too soon. We were all made so much better, the world is a better place because Bryan was a part of it. And it was such an honor to be his friend," said Steiner. "There's a big void. There's never going to be another Bryan Allen, they broke the mold."
Allen worked at two different valley stations until he retired in 2017. Since his passing, Joye's been hearing from listeners and friends about the impact Bryan had on so many.
"I think he would've been floored to see the outpouring of love and support that he had."