Allen first worked as a nightclub disc jockey where he met Dale Winton and subsequently joined the United Biscuits Network, a radio station broadcasting to workers in the United Biscuits factories. His voice was heard in Scotland, Liverpool, Manchester and London. UBN closed in 1979, and Allen joined LBC as presenter of the Night Extra programme. He then moved on to present The Night is Young on the station. When LBC was separated into two stations- 1152 AM and 97.3 FM, Allen presented the afternoon show for 'London Talkback Radio' and Saturday Night Out. Allen has also worked for Blue Danube Radio in Vienna, a station sponsored by the United Nations. Currently, Allen presents the early breakfast show on LBC between 4am and 7am on weekdays. He also presents on a Sunday between 5am and 7am. In addition to these shows, Allen pre-records another programme for LBC- Steve Allen In Conversation. Each episode of this weekly show is an hour long and features Allen conducting interviews with two guests from the world of entertainment. The show airs at 6am Saturday morning and 9pm Sunday evening. In 2006 and 2007, he embarked on a live tour visiting theatres around the London area. In 2009 and 2010, Allen continued his sell out 'audience with' stage shows at the Queen's Theatre in Hornchurch and at the Mermaid Theatre in Central London. He was supported by fellow LBC presenter Anthony Davis. In February 2011, he performed again at the Mermaid Theatre, supported by mind-reader Graham P Jolley. In 2015, Allen released a book entitled So You Want to be a Celebrity?.
Allen is the only presenter on LBC who does not take listeners' calls during his programmes, although he does read out texts and tweets. Each of his early breakfast shows involves discussion of stories from the day's newspapers, Allen's personal anecdotes, his gripes about daily life, and his often critical and derogatory comments about celebrities, with Katie Price and Sarah Harding being two of his most frequent targets.
TV experience
Allen was one of five presenters of 5's Company, a magazine programme broadcast on Channel 5 when it was launched in 1997.
Diabetes
He has been diagnosed as diabetic and has since promoted testing on and off air.
