TV Exec Bill Allen to Lead Effort to Sell Valley’s Image

Veteran television executive Bill Allen was named Tuesday to lead a new private-sector push to market the San Fernando Valley as an entertainment, technology and tourism center.

As the first president of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, Allen, 39, will head a largely volunteer effort to “give [the Valley] an image and manage it as a corporate brand,” he said.

The Van Nuys-based Alliance was formed three years ago by a coalition of local business groups to promote economic recovery following the Northridge earthquake.

It has since raised about $2 million from industry to expand into a nonprofit marketing group.

“Nobody has ever marketed the San Fernando Valley,” Allen said. “If you ask about Beverly Hills, if you ask about Hollywood, they conjure up visual images. But no one knows what the Valley is. People are hard-pressed to describe it. One of our challenges is to give the Valley an identity that’s marketable.”

The alliance plans to launch a glossy, promotional magazine about the Valley.

But boosterism is not the only goal. “We will not just rah-rah cheerlead and say, ‘Isn’t the weather nice?’ We will help businesses,” Allen said.

To that end, the alliance has thrown its support behind such causes as the legalization of home-based businesses, user-friendly city services and industry training programs, he said.

A longtime Encino resident, Allen, the son of entertainer Steve Allen, attended film school at the University of Southern California and worked for CBS. More recently, he left his post as president of MTM Television to form his own television production company.

He will earn $180,000 per year as president of the alliance. The group has a $7.5-million fund-raising goal. David W. Fleming, chairman of the alliance, said Allen was chosen because “he is an innovative, creative individual” who “knows everyone in entertainment.”