AFKN-FM 1968

Once upon a time, automation wasn't a horrible thing.  We had fun on the AM and the Colonels listened to the FM.  Good trade.  Some day I'll tell you about the first live assist systems...

But in 1968 here were the liners for AFKN-FM.  

AFKN FM 1968

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AFVN Paul Bottoms

We recently lost AFVN vet Paul Bottoms.  A while back he told his story:

By Paul Bottoms,

AFVN Saigon 1968-1970

Well, AFVN meant a lot to me because I spent almost two years ---two tours---on the air in Saigon. We were the network and had seven AM stations up country carrying our signal.  They were required to produce three hours of their own programming each day.  

Music was the central part of what we presented and we tried to emulate stateside radio in its various formats. But besides the music, we copied the elements of programming we had either learned or heard on stateside radio.  

I did the allnight show , The Orient Express from 1 to 4 a.m. for much of the time I was there. I was on the board until 6 a.m. when Pat Sajak (he spelled his name Sadjak then) would take over.  To show you the variety, after my three hour show ended, we had an R&B show by Herman Griffith at 4 a.m. and a country show with Joe Allison at 5 a.m, both shows from AFRTS.

We had a ten minute newscast at 6 a.m., a five minute sportscast then a feature that ran about three or four minutes….a chaplain giving us a dose of religion.  A different chaplain would come in every week and record five programs. Then came the famous "good morning Vietnam" show opening. 

Later, after Pat left, I was moved to days and also did the Dawnbuster which ran until nine (although at 8 a.m., the up-country stations cut away to do one of their local hours).   The war was winding down in 1970 and we had fewer people to work with.  After 9 a.m., there were two hour-long shows from AFRTS then from 11 a.m., we had another local show.  So by 1970 the guy who did the morning show also had to do the 11 to noon show.  There was a half hour newscast at noon and from 12:30 to one, a lady from the USO came in.  One of our jocks, Roger Ashworth married the USO lady at the time.

it was very hard to please everybody.  In fact, we didn’t.  We only had an AM and an FM in each area.  The FM in Saigon had a morning show geared to older people then later in the day, they aired what we call beautiful music.  On the AM, we did what stations did in the old days before a station specialized in just one kind of music: "block programming".  So we'd have a two hour top 40 show from 7-9 p.m., a two hour country show in the afternoon, a morning show that played the top 40 stuff, except the hard stuff,  and even throw in a march.  

We tried to cover all types of music including "underground," those guys were always ticked off at us. They didn't want to hear the hit from the album, they wanted the other cuts. We had a Hispanic sergeant on the weekend with a program of Spanish music called “Bolero."  We also had a two hour oldies show on Saturday night.

We had a good news department.   There was a newscast at the top of every hour around the clock.

They had to walk a tricky line because of what they could report about the war.  We also carried Paul Harvey who didn't like the Vietnam war and kept throwing in phrases like "that dead end war" that they edited out. 

For sports, we also carried some big games live, like the World Series which means that because of the time difference the game might start at 3 in the morning and end about 7 or so.

Radio stations stateside have commercials. But we had PSA’s, public service announcements which stateside broadcasters use for charities and other good causes. They were our commercials. We tried to make them as interesting as possible, often with nothing more than some talented people, an idea, some copy,  music  and  sounds effects.

We made every reference possible to home, stateside, the world.  Getting out of the Vietnam, if even for a week on R&R, was a very big deal and we made it sound as glamorous as possible. We had  announcements about taking the weekly malaria pill (guaranteed to give you the runs although we never brought that up). 

We ran things about the dangers of getting VD, warning to buy savings bonds and announcements about re-upping and doing another tour.  Once, we ran an announcement saying the mayor of Saigon wanted us to ask our maids in our hotel not to hang out uniforms so they could be seen from the street.   It ended with something like "for a better looking Saigon."

I'm very proud of my association with AFVN. In more than 45 years of doing radio, in some pretty big cities like Chicago, D.C., Dallas/Ft. Worth and Phoenix,  I think the audience at AFVN  may have been the most responsive.  But they usually didn't have a lot of choices.  They needed us more.

The Gold Label LIbrary

I saw these at AFKN, did not see the series at SCN. In 1956 a series of 152 of these were issued.   I can only speculate that the new stations that did not have the early P- popular series were sent greatest hits versions of the early library material.  There were many non documented series other than P, W, SP, R, L and misc. 

There was a Standard library series that I never saw in the field, these are the ones with a powder blue label.  100 sides wiith 600 tracks. these were series P-S (Pop) W-S (Western)

Chris Noel 1967

Chris Noel in "Get Yourself A College Girl"

And another great hour of music.  Chris had been doing the show for almost a year and she connects.

Date With Chris - 1967

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Gene Price 1981

Gene Price starts the show and suddenly it's 1981.  Super talent, great memories.

Gene Price - 1981

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AFRS Alaska 1944

TIME OUT from pool game to listen on the radio.  Portable radios are furnished by the Special Service division of the Army.  Radio reception is not too good in most sections of the Highway, due perhaps to mountains, mineral deposits, and Northern Lights.  Pool tables are, however, a late addition to most camps.  They were furnished by the American Red Cross.

(The Alaska Highway "Truck Tracks" 16 Feb 1944)

Iwo Jima 1945

Here's the other one of those USMC official records about the battle of Iwo Jima.  Pretty incredible.  They tell the story and talk to the troops, presumably recorded by the Mosquito Network.

Story of Iwo Jima

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AFVN Gary Gears 1968

After 1968...

So Gary Gears was drafted, promptly aggravated the higher ups and was taken off of his DJ shows.  After that Gary spent a lot of hours in the production room practicing and keeping his chops..

AFVN Gary Gears 1968

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Wolfman Jack 1974

Wolfman, he understands.  Sure does.  Here's another 1974 visit with the Wolf for the US Air Force.  I just located another bunch of these and now have most of the series.  Coming up!

Wolfman Jack - 1974

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John Doremus 1967

It's songs about movement.  Sounds like a simple concept.  John would take the songs and weave them together with poetry and ideas.  He had shows booming across the country for the major airlines. He produced some of the first music on the airlines.  Great talent..

John Doremus - 1967

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