Steve Allen was an innovator in many ways. Whether it was as a comedic writer, radio host, the inventor of late night television, author, prolific composer, or jazz musician, Steve always had a certain stylistic flair and undeniable intelligence in everything that he did. While he was a very funny man, he was nobody's fool and under that humor was a scholar who took his craft and the state of the world very seriously.

I had the good fortune of being granted a one hour interview with TV superstar Steve Allen in November 1986. My colleagues Joe Oleksiewicz and John Curtis of KCHO-FM radio along with myself spoke with Steve over the phone on a variety of topics, many of them quite serious in nature. Snippets of the interview ran on KCHO Sunday Nite during the last few weeks of 1986. Here are each of the segments that aired plus a bonus one that never ending up airing. In addition, we hear from Steve Allen and some of his favorite musician friends from a recording "party" they put together in 1958.

The Jazz musician, scholar, and stand up comic while at first blush may seem to be three completely unrelated personas, yet after a bit of reflection it becomes obvious that they are cut from the same cloth. Each is a story teller charged with explaining what is happening at the present and adapting it to the audience based upon an indelible understanding of the past. The communication is real time, adapted from and for the moment, with a language and literary toolkit that has developed over and stood the test of time.

How many times has history been changed by someone telling a story that at first might have seemed innocuous but after it had been told had a far more dramatic impact because it came from someone who was supposed to only have been "entertaining" the audience. Beware of jazz musicians and comics, and the stories that they tell, they might just be a lot more serious than you had bargained for; Steve Allen was one of those folks.