--- description: For the 15th time in as many years, Fred Allen announced last week that he was quitting radio. The satchel-eyed comic told New York Post Columnist Earl Wilson: "I'm going to sit around and... title: Radio: Mr. Allen Regrets image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Radio: Mr. Allen Regrets by [TIME](/author/time/) Dec 13, 1948 5:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Dec 13, 1948 5:00 AM CUT For the 15th time in as many years, Fred Allen announced last week that he was quitting radio. The satchel-eyed comic told New York Post Columnist Earl Wilson: “I’m going to sit around and think, and see what’s going to happen with television.” And he “may write. I have four chances to do books.” The reasons for retirement this time seemed to add up to equal parts health, pique and finances: “I’ll work on until June and then, because of my blood pressure, I’ll quit for a year at least.” He added bitterly: “When Stop the Music can give three iceboxes away instead of two and get listeners, it’s a silly business to be in anyway.” And what about death & taxes? “You wind up being a sieve for the Treasury Department . . . All you’re working toward is a coffin, and I never saw one with a built-in safe.” Did Allen really mean it?\* “Uncle Jim” Harkins, his business agent and friend, said: “Honest to God, I don’t know. He talks it very convincingly each year.” \*In 1943, after suffering a series of dizzy spells, Allen quit radio for a year. During his vacation he went to Hollywood to make Love Thy Neighbor, and returned with a few Alienisms on the West Coast. Sample: “California is a wonderful place to live—if you’re an orange.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6601832/radio-mr-allen-regrets/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6601832/radio-mr-allen-regrets/"},"headline":"Radio: Mr. Allen Regrets","datePublished":"1948-12-13T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-25T03:40:49.883Z","description":"For the 15th time in as many years, Fred Allen announced last week that he was quitting radio. The satchel-eyed comic told New York Post Columnist Earl Wilson: \"I'm going to sit around and...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6601832/radio-mr-allen-regrets/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6601832/radio-mr-allen-regrets/","name":"Radio: Mr. Allen Regrets"}}]}] ```