What have you been doing?

Blogwatcher Don Hammond suggested something neat.  What happened after AFRTS for you?  For myself, I knocked around in radio in Massachusetts and NH for another dozen years.  I had two goals, to get into Boston and to get crazy high ratings somewhere.  Pretty quickly I was at Curt Gowdy's WCGY-FM with his daughter as the PD, it was an interesting place.  Numbers were low, but a lot of fun.  The kind of place that seems extinct now. Few years later, it was to WSRS-FM in Worcester.  Station never had a lower than 40 share back then and all of the Boston stations banged in to the market.  It was a good run and AFRTS made it happen.  Now I do internet and telephone support for Comcast.  Why isn't there anything fit to listen to on the radio?

AFN Europe 40th anniversary

In 1983, AFN was 40 and published a booklet about their history. Bernhardt sent a scan. It's a great history of the early years of the network and writeups of all of the stations. They do say that the Alaska network was first (It was really the Canal Zone). A very good read.



AFN 40th Anniversary

Morning People

Garry asked about presenting more of the AFN local shows. Midnight in Germany and time for "Morning People" with Chris Hall filling in. Here's a scoop of AOR.

AFN "Morning People" with Chris Hall 1978

Chris checked in "Where'd you get that tape?".  I'm hoping for an update.

Frank Bresee and the Golden Days of Radio

Frank Bresee did the Golden Days Of Radio from 1967-96. GDOR was actually the last program recorded for the network under the old system. Earlier this year, Frank had a stroke and is in rehabilitation. We send our prayers. After AFRTS he did basically the same program for yesterdayusa.com and kept the memories coming.

Golden Days of Radio

History of AFRTS, the first 50 years

The history of AFRTS was published by AFRTS in 1993 to celebrate the anniversary. It's been impossibly out of print. This is a reprint. If you'd like to read it online Click here

Happy Birthday AFKN 1969 with The Southern Gentleman

Here's the second part of the 1969 Tony Booth aircheck. Some really good radio.

AFKN Tony Booth 1969


A biography of Tony was included a couple of weeks ago.

Your airchecks are welcome. Drop me a note:

afrts@live.com

So where do these things come from?

The first time I saw an AFRTS transcription I was a teenager. My cousin was in the Air Force in Vietnam and brought back a handful. He was given a tour of AFVN and it was a huge moment for him. Someone at the station had given him some real AFVN records, they were very special to him. I'm sure that happened many times. AFRTS has closed many stations over the years. I'd be surprised if 90% of the disks were destroyed at any of them. By the 1980s, the DJ shows were either RP or RU series. Every station received RPs, played them and then were supposed to destroy them weekly, but if someone really liked the jock some of the disks may not have died under the hammer. The RU disks went from station to station, but somewhere was the last station... The Veterans Administration Hospitals had their own little stations well into the 1980s with no staff or accountability. The AFRTS-LA jocks were sent courtesy copies of their shows, some saved them, some didn't. A lot of people taped the shows in the barracks on their personal recorders.

We jocks at the stations taped our shows and sent them to friends and family and/or disected every break trying to get better and make a career of it.

If you have some programs or airchecks, a lot of us would like to hear them. Drop me a note at afrts@live.com

Roger Holste?

Just received this, the Korean Won dates from the mid 60s. He apparently did time at AFKN and AFVN.

Tom Campbell

Time for another trip down memory lane with Bay Area fave, Tom Campbell (for Cal Stereo). Here's a neat 1975 show..

When Tom got out of the Air Force, he got a gigs in Shreveport, Minneapolis (The Twin Cities connection continues) and Dayton. 1967 it was to San Francisco where fame struck. between radio and agency work he bounced around southern California including for us at AFRTS

Tom Campbell 1975

Does anyone have an address for Tom Campbell???

AFN Country Roads

We sure played a lot of country. AFRTS spread the Gospel of the Opry worldwide. Every station seemed to have a local country show. From Frankfurt, here's Airforce Sergeant Harry Johnson. It's time to travel Country Roads.




AFN Harry Johnson 1980 Country Roads

Polka Party

Dick Sinclair at AFRS Guadalcanal

So what haven't we done so far? ... POLKAs, In the 1950s Dick Sinclair was doing a polka show on KTLA-TV and was also doing "Polka Party". Give a listen

Polka Party 1959

More Dick Sinclair

Kudos to Rand at Rand's Esoteric Radio for doing the transfer!

Recent accquisitions...

Some Laurie Allen ETs, AFKN and AFVN pocket tabs, some 1960s won and a bunch of medals that I actually earned... Listings of the first several thousand Basic Music Library disks..