HARTFORD, Conn. (WTIC Radio) - WTIC News/Talk 1080 is remembering friend and colleague Mike Alan, who flew WTIC's "Air One" as both a pilot and traffic reporter in a career that spanned decades at the station.
Alan began in August, 1980 as a pilot for traffic reporter Kathy Clark. When Clark left the station, host Ross Miller suggested Alan combine the job into one.
For roughly 38 years, Alan would broadcast from the sky above Connecticut's highways and roadways, reporting on traffic snags and snarls to the motorists listening below to his reports from the sky. This would continue until the plane was grounded in favor of online DOT cameras.
During his career at WTIC, he was witness to some of Connecticut's most identifiable transportation stories in recent decades, including breaking the 2005 Avon Mountain crash that led to greater awareness of runaway ramps for out-of-control trucks, as well as the debut of the I-84 Eastbound to I-91 Northbound flyover ramp in October of 1990, which was originally intended to cut down on traffic in downtown Hartford where no such ramp had previously existed.
Alan left the station a month short of 40 years in July of 2020, re-inventing himself with Habitat for Humanity in Valdosta, Georgia.
After a brief illness, Mike Alan passed away at the age of 68 on December 26, 2024.
Click here to listen to "The Broadcaster at 100" with Mike Alan.