Collins began his professional career as a disc jockey at a
bluegrass music station in
Logan, West Virginia; by 1943, he was at
WKPA in
Pittsburgh, moving in 1945 to
WIND in
Chicago, and in 1946 to
KNAK in
Salt Lake City. In 1950 he moved to
New York City, where he was hired by
WNEW and became one of the "communicators" on
Monitor when it began in 1955. He made several appearances on
The Tonight Show with
Steve Allen in the early 1950s. In 1953, Allen recited jazz versions of nursery rhymes such as "Little Red Riding Hood". In 1957, NBC-TV hired him for five weeks as the host of the
Tonight show when it was known as
Tonight! America After Dark in the period between hosts Steve Allen and Jack Paar. In 1957, Collins starred in an episode of
NBC Radio's science fiction radio series
X Minus One. By 1959, he was with
KSFO in
San Francisco. On television, he hosted
The Al Collins Show, which aired on
KGO-TV. The format included appearances by celebrities such as
Moe Howard of
The Three Stooges. Later, in the 1960s, he was the host of
Jazz for the Asking (
VOA), and he worked with several Los Angeles stations late in the decade:
KMET (1966),
KFI (1967), and
KGBS (1968). Collins changed the spelling of his name to "Jazzbeaux" when he went to
WTAE in Pittsburgh in 1969. He moved to WIXZ in Pittsburgh (1973), before returning to the West Coast three years later. While in Pittsburgh, he briefly hosted a late night television show titled
Jazzbeauxz Rehearsal, an eclectic sampling of anything that caught Collins's interest. In 1976, he returned to San Francisco, working at
KMPX, followed by an all-night program at
KGO; he began the program with "Blues in Hoss Flat" by
Count Basie. He also worked a late shift at
KKIS AM in Pittsburg, California, in 1980. After a stint in New York and WNEW (1981), he was back in San Francisco at KSFO (1983) and
KFRC (1986). Then he worked at WNEW (1986–90), KAPX (Marin County, California) in 1990, and hosted a weekly jazz show at
KCSM (College of San Mateo, California) from 1993 until his death. Late in life, Collins also narrated ''Jazzbo's Swingin' Soundies'', a series of short 'filler' features for the
American Movie Classics cable network, in which he introduced some of the
Soundies jukebox musical film shorts from the 1940s. ==Personal life and death==