MILWAUKEE – There’s never a good time to lose your job, but for former TMJ4 Sports Anchor Lance Allan, they may have been a better time than now. Just this year his twin sons joined their older sister as college students. “August 31st, they’re off to college. September 1st, dad is technically unemployed,” Allan tells WTMJ’s Wis. Morning News. “That’s the reality, but nobody’s there to cry for you. You gotta pick yourself up.”
Allan, who was let go last month after 28 years at the Milwaukee NBC Affiliate, has been busy as ever taking opportunities to work where they presented themselves. “Badgers Radio Network, IndyCar asked me to do some things. I’ve had a lot of freelance opportunities,” Allan said. He’s mostly continuing conversations about long term work in sports broadcasting, though he isn’t shutting the door on something new altogether, saying many people have reached out for conversations. “Being invested in the community for 28 years, I’m willing to listen and I think there’s a lot of really good ideas out there.”
Allan surprised local viewers with a social media message months ago, that TMJ4 was letting him go. If there are hard feelings there, he’s not saying so publicly. “Would I have liked it to end differently, absolutely,” Alan admitted. He then quickly pivoted to gratitude. “I think overall I was blessed,” he said of working so long in Wisconsin’s largest media market. “A kid that grew up in this state to work and cover basically everything you ever wanted. I covered every major event except a world series and hopefully that happens at some point.”
Alan also share a long list of former colleagues with who he was honored to work, noting it was Wisconsin Broadcast Legend Jim Irwin who was among the first to welcome him when he arrived at TMJ4. Alan recalls running into Irwin in the hallway and Irwin telling him, “‘Lance, they hired you for a reason. You’re my peer not my understudy,’ and that meant the world to me.”
After Allan announced his impending departure from TMJ4 in April, the station issued this statement, “We can confirm that we exercised an early out on Lance’s contract. We mutually agreed that he will stay on air through August. We value his contributions and service to this community.”
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