Fun In 1981

There's always time for Charlie. For so many years Charlie really was the voice of the network. Everyone remembers the Charlie Tuna Show.

Charlie Tuna 1980


A lonely GI really wants to hear a female voice, Mary Turner continued in the tradition of GI Jill in WWII and spoke to the troops

Mary Turner 1981

AFVN links

This is very cool, you have to see it.
The AFVN Ipod

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Sgt Snuffy Smith with some great music, AFVN and Adrian Cronhauer opening the Dawnbuster (is that a recreation? I've never heard a Cronhauer aircheck.

Harry Newman

Top (l to r): Harry Newman and Hoss Barnes
Below (l to r): Corky Mayberry, Bob Jackson, Hugh Jarrett and Larry Scott

Time for more of your country favorites with Harry Newman:

Herman Griffith

An oddity is most any radio personality that some sort of a biography is not available for. Even I'm listed under a station I used to work for in Wikipedia. Herman Griffith was working at KGFJ in the early 60s (was Hunter Hancock still there?) and doing a show for AFRTS. The AFRTS show continued into the early 70s. It was great radio, give a listen...



Part of our continuing tribute to the young and the old, the brave and the bold...

Happy New Year!!

Hi, I hope that your New Year was great and that you find memories here. Did you save any tapes of your AFRTS station? We'd sure like to hear copies. If you've recently been with AFRTS, I'd be very interested in hearing what it's like now. What's the MOS training like now? Left a lot to be desired in the 70s, but we fumbled along.

Thanks for stopping by, if you enjoy it be sure to tell a friend!

afrts@live.com


Thom
DINFOS 1976
AFKN 1976-77
SCN 1980-83

AFN, then and not quite so then

Time to take another 1940s-50s look at AFN, this is unsorted but an early perspective on our network.



Then, by 1986 AFN sounded like this:

Charlie Tuna 1989

The most consistant personality in radio was Charlie Tuna. He did the same meticulous program in 1970 that he did in 1995. Normally that would be a bad thing, not with Charlie Tuna.

He was heard around the world daily on the Armed Forces Radio Network for a 25 year – 6000 show run from 1971 to 1996, as well as on numerous nationally syndicated radio shows, since the early 70’s. He’s now heard across the U.S. and in Canada on a 4 hour daily syndicated show and a 5 hour weekend show from United Stations Radio Network in New York.

Charlie has his own really great website over at charlietuna.com If you haven't been there yet you should!

From 1989

Happy Holidays, it's time to howl!

Happy holidays from Casa Whetston, wonderful holiday here. This just came in a particularly wonderful 12/75 Wolfman show.



Thanks to Mark, this is a wonderful piece.

The American Disco Network

The American Disco Network
This is the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service
The Armed Forces Korea Network
AFKN-TDC

Proving of course that the Kris Erik's American Disco Network was the biggest deal of all. Kris has sent some nice emails and I appreciate it. Someday I've gotta ask if Kris heard about the gig from AFVN/WLS vet Garry Gears.

Now Kris is the voice of the DJ show before the movies and sounding younger every year.

Here's the Kris Erik Show from 1983

Johnnie Darin

I've never posted a Johnny Daren show? Remedied now. Johnnie's resume included: KIIS; KRLA, 1968-71; KDAY, 1971; KROQ, 1972-73; KNAC, 1975; KGOE, 1975; KNX, 1976; KGIL, 1976-83; KJOI, 1978; KBLA, 1989-92; KGIL, 1993; KFWB, 1998-2008. John lives in Utah and did fill-in at KFWB.Johnny Daren 1978

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AFRTS Rota

From the USS Canopus newspaper comes the story of AFRTS Rota

A look inside that strange looking building Upon entering the building, you see the thousands of electrical transcriptions available for programming use.
Off to the right is the main control room, with the auxiliary control room being off to the left and straight ahead. Past the auxiliary control room is the administration room, where the paperwork that is needed to keep the
complex running 24 hours per day is done. No, you are not in the secret control center of a mad
scientist who is planning to take over the world. You are in that familiar and interesting place known as AFRS. American Forces Radio Service, Rota, is a detachment of the Navy Broadcasting Service, number 13 to be exact. The station operates 24 hours per day, seven day per
week, to keep the community informed on pertinent issues, as well as to provide entertainment to suit nearly every individual taste.

STEREO 96
Out of a total 168 hours per week, nearly 90 hours are filled with what is known as "canned" programming. These shows are recorded either on tape or record and shipped to the station on a weekly basis. Such favorites as Charlie Tuna, Gene Price, Roland Bynum, Tom Campbell and Johnny Darin, as well as some information and drama programs are included in these shipments. The majority of the DJ's on these programs are from the Los Angeles area and are contracted because of their proximity to AFRTS Los Angeles and their high ratings in their respective field of music. They are all civilian, and those among us who are from California have probably
heard some of them before. LT Deborah Burnette, NAVSTA Public Affairs Officer, says the station receives many calls requesting, for example, that Gene Price play a certain song or if they can talk to Charlie Tuna over the phone. The programs are recorded and sent to the station, so Charlie Tuna, Gene Price and Wolfman Jack are not at the station. Sorry about that!
The station receives news every hour from Torrejon Air Base. Torrejon receives the news from the major news wires, as well as AFRTS Washington. AFRTS Washington provides the station with live and taped sports and news conferences.

The remainder of the on the air time is filled with local programming. The electrical transcriptions mentioned earlier are simply records. There are approximately 15, 000 to 18, 000 records at the station, dating from the late 40's up to the hottest music off the charts today.
New records are shipped to the station on a regular basis to keep up on the latest music. These records are supplied by AFRTS Los Angeles. The station records the top 20 songs from the Hot 100, Country and Western, Soul and Easy Listening charts on carts, a tape that resembles an
8 track. These are on hand for the station personnel for easier programming. Certain types of music are programmed for certain times of the day, but for the most part, the station personnel program their own shows. Certain people have request line shows, but that involves a bit more work.

To provide information to the area, the station gets news from various organizations and commands here in the area. This information is written in the form of spot announcements, or spots, to be read over the air. Each person must read 12 spots per hour.

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Here's Marty Prater from AFRS Rota 1976

Frank Bressee

The Golden Days of Radio ran almost as long as AFRTS itself. It was the last program recorded for the network under the 'old system'. Mr Bresse was a storehouse of information about radio in the 1940s and 50s. It was always fun to hear. He still does the show for yusa.com. Take a listen.
The Golden Days of Radio

29 years ago...

Okay it's a repeat, but 29 years ago we lost John Lennon. Here's how the next day sounded on the Southern Command Network in Panama.
SCN Thom Whetston 12-09-80


Or Click this one...

Another GI fave...

My Boy Flattop...

This was always one of my favs. A short hair cut is this kids best characteristic. Played this a lot in Panama and Korea. I picked up the 16" library disk of this last year. Never thought I'd find it in a thousand years. Transfer is a little fast on this..