Pick a Year, the 1970s

Welcome to "Pick a Year".  Choosing a year sorts previous posts on the blog and makes them all come up on the same page.

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

Wolfman Jack 1983

Here comes the Wolfman.  Many thanks to Mark for sending this along.

When I arrived in Panama, they were scheduling him late in the evening.  Wolf said something that made someone mad. 

Did get him moved up to a reasonable evening time.

Wolfman Jack 1983

Roland Bynum 1983

Mark sent up more great memories.  1983, I was in Panama and Roland Bynum was making the music.

Roalnd Bynum 1983

Roland was always a Voice of Home.  Thanks for the memories!

Pick a year, the 1980s

Welcome to "Pick a Year". Choosing a year sorts previous posts on the blog and makes them all come up on the same page.


1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

McCadden Place

Photo given with permission of GySgt Jack A. Holsomback, USMC

This rather anonymous industrial building is where the magic happened.

Photo given with permission of GySgt Jack A., Holsomback, USMC

A very lucky GySgt Jack A., Holsomback, USMC sits with Chris Noel in DaNang getting ready for an appearance on AFVN Channel 11

Quick look at DINFOS

Over the years a lot of military broadcasters took their civilian skills to AFRTS, sometimes with formal training, sometimes without.


The Army began their Army Information School in 1946 at Carlisle Barracks PA. In the following years the school did varying degrees of joint service training until 1951. That was the year that The Armed Forces Information School opened at Ft Slocum NY. The Navy operated their own school at Great Lakes.

1964 brought us the Defense Information School at Ft Slocum, moving to Ft Benjamin Harrison in 1965

In 1992 DINFOS was merged with the Defense Photography School (DPHSCH), and the Defense Visual Information School (DVISCH) at Ft Meade MD.

Every year DINFOS graduates another 4,000 Public Affairs professionals.

DINFOS is where a lot of memories began.

DINFOS Today

Soulin' with Roland

Time for another visit with Roland Bynum.  It's 1973 and the music is great.  Al Green, Roland's future boss Stevie Wonder and more.

It's for the Air Force from Roger Carroll Enterprises.  Play it loud.

Roland Bynum - Soul In Motion 1973

What's going on April 2011

Thanks for visiting. There's a lot of us with memories of the biggest, greatest network ever. The transfers are getting better than ever.  Only problem with that is that I end up redoing ones that were already done. 

Heard from an AFRTS vet getting ready to put a veterans news show on the air.  He's looking for folks interested in covering veterans new in their area.  It's a paid gig.  Let me know if that sounds interesting.

Tom Gauger found an AFN 1965 aircheck that's a great listen. Click here
Thanks for visiting.  If you enjoy it, be sure to tell a friend.  Did you save anything?

Garry Moore, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney

Thought you might enjoy this.  Garry Moore explains the Radio Code.   It was voluntary, but done away with in the early 1980s.  Times are different.  After that Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney share some great music.



Garry Moore-Crosby and Clooney

Bob Moke 1983

Bob Moke Show 3

Thanks for the response on the Bob Moke shows.  Heckuva jock.  The series continues with program 3

The Jazz Book

One of America's great exports was jazz.  We've played a lot of it on AFRTS.  In 1962  Bill Kelly opened the pages of the "Jazz Book" with some wonderful music.  When I had the bigband show in Minneapolis Stan Kenton was one of my first guests.  Wonderful artist, great musician.  Give a listen.

Jazz Book 1962

Wolfman Jack

It's howlin' great.  Here's another visit with Wolfman Jack:

Wolfman Jack 843T side b

Check out the history of the Wolfman from the Wolfman Jack Online Museum.  Click Here

Martin Block 1954

Martin Block had the first really big DJ show in the 1930s and made a huge career after.  WNEW blanketed the eastern United States, he did several shows for the networks and for AFRTS.  His one on one style served him very well.

Martin Block 1954

It's an interesting story:

http://www.bigbandlibrary.com/martinblock.html

Date With Chris 1968

I'm happy to be able to share this.  There's a story on this one.  This disk was part of a group I bought a couple of years ago.  Normally these things appear out of nowhere and no one is really sure where they came from.  I asked the seller "Grampa brought them back from Vietnam".  The kid wasn't sure about anything else.  It was pretty much junk in the garage.  We have to share these things before they become a part of oblivion.

Date With Chris 1968

Chris is STILL helping the troops.  Please make a donation, buy a signed picture.  There are a lot of nice things in the online shop:

http://www.ceasefirehouse.org/shop/

Joe Allison and the Country Corner

Joe Allison had a neat part of history.  He's been called the DJ that bridged the gap between hillbilly radio and what he call country radio today.  Take a listen:

Country Corner - Joe Allison 1965

Roger Carroll plays records!

Time for another visit with the Happy Hour!  Roger Carroll for the USAF.  Roger's getting the internet thing down, is an active facebooker, in the yahoo AFRTS groups and is a great guy.

Let's do a memory:

Roger Carroll 1974

Roger was the booth announcer for the Smothers Brothers, Bobby Darren, Bing Crosby and other national things too numerous to mention.

Thank you RC!

Gene Price 1974

Gene Price updates us on the benefits of joining todays all volunteer force!

Gene Price - Country Express 1974

These programs would run on local radio here in the states and be credited as 25 minutes of Public Service time.  Very popular on Sunday morning.

Canadian Forces Network

Multinational?  This is a Canadian production aired on the British Armed Forces Station, in Germany..

1972 CFN Western Express

The British have an interesting Armed Forces broadcasting service

Clich here

Mary Turner

Mary Turner today

Mary Turner really rocked the house.  Normally when any of the jocks got a reaction, it'd be split.  The ones that were really liked would draw complaints.  I never remember firlding a complaint about Mary.  I remember the barracks rocking.

Thank you Mary.  Continued success!

Mary Turner 1985

I'm getting low on Mary Turner shows, did you save any?

AFRTS for the family

When I arrived in Korea in 1976, I brought a very small screen TV and in the replacement camp saw my first AFKN, some sort of live puppet show.  In Korea accompanied tours were very hard to get.  Teenagers in Itaewon or Tongduchon...great idea.  On the radio, we ran a lot of soap operas.  Maybe for the General's wife. From 1962.

My True Story

My True Story was one of the last of the soaps.  A Mutual program cancelled in early 1962

When I was in Panama, General Hospital was a rage even among the infantry.  Takes all kinds..

Rocketing Rhythms!

Jack Brown interviews Bogart and Becall

Jack Brown was a long time AFRS announcer, with a history going back to WWII.  By 1961 he was counting down the greatest hits on Rocketing Rhythms.

Rocketing Rhythms 1961

Tell Us the Time!

The the MISC library there were many generic jingle packages.  One of them with a very hokey band and these lyrics:
 

"For the best music on wax

it's time to sit back and relax

with your favorite disk jockey show"

 
How could I not play that?

What I did find recently was MISC-249

Jingle time

Did you have a favorite jingle?

GI Journal 1943

Incredible the depth of talent, giving their all for the troops:

G. I. Journal. November 5, 1943. Program #16.  The first tune is, "I Know That You Know." Arthur Q. Bryan, Georgia Carroll, Harry Babbitt, Harry Mitchell (announcer), Merwyn Bogue, Jerry Colonna, Kay Kyser and His Orchestra, Linda Darnell, Mel Blanc, Sully Mason (vocals). 29:53.

GI Journal 1943

Kay Kyser

A short clip from the same show

Tom Gauger AFN Hoechst 1963-65

This is a 30 minute aircheck during a summer day in 1965 when I did AFN Frankfurt's mid-day dj show The Duffle Bag. The show was split into two parts with AFN News taking up 15 minutes at noon. It was a hot day and there was no air conditioning in the Castle.

I'm the DJ, Ken Larvick (now with Well Fargo in Wisconsin) is the studio announcer, Maury Cagle is the news reader. It's interesting that there is not a single actuality in the newscast as they were hard to come by in those days. We had to steal stuff via short wave, if the quality was good enough.

The second half of The Duffle Bag featured items for sale sent in by listeners.

AFN - The Duffle Bag 1965 - Tom Gauger

I was at AFN in the old castle in Hoechst between 63 & 65. I did the afternoon local "Music Off the Record" (17:05-18:00) for a long time

Also, "Music In the Air," a network dinner-hour music segue for the officer crowd, 19:05-20:00.

Lotsa good times with Sgt Sam, station commander Col. Bob Cranston, PD Trent Christman and many others including the legendary Gisela Breitkopf, AFN's librarian and den mother to us all.

I came back to the states and finished up at WMAL in Washington during its salad days in the 70s & 80s. Later did a five year gig at ABC Radio News as a reporter/editor.

My best,
Tom Gauger

Janice from AFRS Spain was a big Tom  Gauger fan

Hi, Thom, and thanks for posting the words/images of Tom Gauger. When we left Spain in 1983 (after my second tour at AFRS Rota) and moved to the DC Metro area, we loved listening to WMAL-AM. It was SO DC and, as transplanted southern California native, it was my prime source for a wealth of local info. The on-air personalities were "traditional" radio types (e.g., Frank Hardin and Jackson Weaver, among many notables). Since I was having serious withdrawal from my years as a Navy Journalist. It was somehow soothing (comforting) to have that station "in my ear." I think I might ever have called Mr. Gauger once, after realizing that he, too, had been a military broadcaster.


I wish I could say good things about the state of local-area radio in 2011. Things have changed—most not to my taste, so now my daily "radio fix" comes from out local NPR station. But, I often think about what Mr. Gauger term WMAL's "salad days" and the delights of REAL radio. For that I thank him and WMAL colleagues.

Best Regards to all,

Janice

JR Gerde

Gaithersburg, Maryland

Roger Monroe worked in the Von Bruning Schloss 1957-58

. The castle was not only a wonderful and historic place to work, it was scenic and romantic. Some of the guys were fortunate to live in parts of the castle. However, most of us lived in a three-story house a block away. That's where we ate and had our living accommodations. We also had a club in the lower level of the castle where drinks were served. We were a part of the Hoechst community about as much as Americans could be. Heck, I even dated a beautiful German fraulein there which made my involvement in Hoechst even more personal. In retrospect, when I was offered the opportunity to extend my military commitment, I should've accepted it. I did sports and traveled all over Germany doing Army baseball games sometimes in uniform sometimes out of uniform. It was a blast. Shelby Whitfield joined the sports department later and he stayed and stayed, married a German girl and went on to bigger and greater things including serving as head of ABC Radio Sports and working with Howard Cosell and even collaborating with him in writing a book. I still admire Shelby.


Roger

Charlie Tuna 1986

Charlie Tuna with Hershel Bernardi 1981, Hershel

was the original voice of Charlie The Tuna, as

I was recently reminded.

It's pretty easy to remember the command that Charlie Tuna has over really interesting trivia.  At his website it's like a 24 hour Charlie Tuna show.  Anyone as good as Charlie on celebrity news?  I think not.  Visit the website  http://www.charlietuna.com/

Charlie also is an active facebooker.

For the memories, here's our 1986 chance to stay tuna'd.

Charlie Tuna 1986

Joe Ferguson 1983

In Panama, my biggest complaint with the network was how LA centric the programming was "There's nobody good in New York?" would usually be how that tirade started.  They surprised me with series of jocks from around the country with an AFRTS connection.

In the weeks before the Bob Moke show, Joe Ferguson from KUPL in Portland had his turn.  Joe also saved the disks and has made them available once again:

First of all, I was an army brat with my dad a 30 year career man. In the early sixties, we were stationed in Germany and I attended high school in Frankfurt. The school had a radio club and produced a weekly program for teenagers. We produced and recorded it at AFN studios just outside Frankfurt. I was part of that club and got my first exposure to radio and was hooked.


When I graduated, I returned to the US for college and got a job as a dj at a local station to pay for my education. After graduation, I went to visit my family, now stationed in Italy. On the way I had a stopover in Frankfurt and went to see a couple of people that were still at AFN from my high school days. They told me there was a civilian announcer job open in Italy and I should talk to the SEN folks, so I did.

SEN was interested and offered me the job. As a result, I was in Vicenza for a couple of years. It was great and I have many wonderful memories from the experience. Next stop, (1971) KFOX AM-FM Los Angeles, where I was the afternoon jock. I was working with people whose programs I had played while at SEN. While I was at KFOX, I was on staff with Charlie Williams, Hugh Cherry and Gene Price as well as some other great talent. I had to pinch myself frequently to convince myself I was actually there.

I also did some syndication work in Hollywood for Programming DB which was one of the pioneers for syndicating long form programming. It was a partnership of two of the innovative programmers of the day, Ken Draper and Chuck Blore. At one time, I think I was doing a daily 4 hour program in 20 or so markets, all via voice track and automation equipment.

My next encounter with AFRTS was in 1983 when they contacted me at KUPL AM-FM in Portland, Oregon, where I was the program director. They asked if I was interested in doing a 30 minute, daily show from Portland for 13 weeks. It was part of a project where they selected a personality from a different part of the country to highlight a new area every quarter. Of course I was delighted to accept.

Joe Ferguson 1983

60 years of Spanish radio

The network tried to reach out to everyone.  In World War II "Chiquita" was one of the first.  In 1955 the show was still running. 

Chiquita 1955

There was a wide variety of talent over the years.  At the end of the network years we had Mary Helen Barro.

Mary Helen Barro

The Return of Bob Moke

Received a lot of good comments from the last Bob Moke show. Bob said "As I recall, the idea was to contact former AFN jocks who were still employed in radio and ask them to produce five 30-minute programs per week for 13 weeks, at which time a different guy would take over. As I neared the end of my run, I was informed that my "replacement" had backed out at the last minute, so I did another three months"

It was some very interesting radio.

Bob Moke 1983

AFVN / MACOI

Joe Green has a website where he's getting biographies of MACOI
and AFVN members. It's some pretty amazing reading and a great
resource.

A lot of us from that era never went to Vietnam but AFRTS was
organic. Half of the people I worked with had done tours at
AFVN.


Joe said "I was a listener at AFVN Saigon, mostly to FM. I was strictly a lower-
echelon clerk. I was assigned to MACV Mail and Distribution, and lived
in Dodge City BEQ at the MACV annex until it became a BOQ, and then
I lived in a plank and screen barracks. I had collateral duties as relief
Top Secret Control Clerk, and Embassy Courier. For my first few
months in Vietnam, I had an off-duty job (paid by Army Special
Services) as assistant librarian at the MACV Annex Library."

See the names, remember the stories:

http://www.macoi.net