Posts
Are you ready to salsa? meringue? Mary Helene Barro played the best in Latin music for decades on AFRTS.
Sunday, October 4, 2026
Charlie Tuna 1991
So where were you in 1991?
The first Gulf War, Soviet Union crumbles, Princess Diana and Prince Charles split up. Topicality was a big piece of the Charlie Tuna show:
Sunday, September 20, 2026
Joe Allison 1968
Joe Allison brought a lot to country music, writing classic country songs in the 1950s and 60s. In 1946 Tex Ritter recorded Joe's "When You Leave, Don't Slam the Door". It was a top five hit. 1949 was his arrival in Nashville with shows on both WSM and WSIX. Later a very successful recording executive.
We had Joe in the 1960s. He brought a one-to-one style which wasn't common in country radio at the time.
Wolfman Jack 1974
July 1995 we lost the Wolfman and that piece of a great radio heritage. Wolf, you're missed.
Saturday, September 19, 2026
Mary Turner 1994
Mary lived large, incredible career and love her memories of Ft McCadden.
Let's rock!
Herman Griffith 1965
Sunday, September 6, 2026
Andy Mansfield 1962
Andy and Virginia
Andy Mansfield must have had quite a record collection. He played the oldies starting in the 1950s well into the 1960s, first with wife Virginia on Turn Back the Clock. The later show was Americas Popular music. Lots of big band music but visits back to acoustic records of the 1910s..
Mystery Theater - Cary Grant
Mystery Theater was a repackaging of classic radio mysteries. In one form or another it started in WWII and continued well into the 1970s. AFRTS still had the rights to the best.
In 1950 Cary Grant starred "Suspense" and On a Country Road. A couple is stranded during a storm, with a murderer on the loose! In the early 1970s the program was edited into this Mystery Theater broadcast.
Sunday, August 30, 2026
Tom Campbell 1971
Always grateful when our AFRTS family can share the shows they did for us way back when. Tom Campbell Stateside is on the air!
Hear Tom everyday 1pm Central mybestsounds.com
Roland Bynum 1981
We're in the Creator's Workshop on a Wednesday in 1981 and Roland is making it a "good Bynum"
Bill Stewart - Rocketing Rhythms
We counted them down. The first rock countdown show was Rocketing Rhythms, usually hosted by Jack Brown. Today Jack is on vacation and KLACs Bill Stewart steps in with the hits from the pages of Cash Box. Here are the pre-Beatles years hits!
Jim Pewter 1967
AFKN vet Jim Pewter checks in periodically and it's always great. We went to different schools together! Jim had a lot to do with some of the greatest music.Don Tracy 1988
DON TRACY - Don Tracy was another with a great career at AFRTS-LA and in Los Angeles radio: KGFJ, 1969-74; KDAY, 1976-90; KGFJ, 1993-94; KMBY, 1995; KABC, 1995-97. Following a stint in sales at KABC, Don had an ad agency in the San Fernando Valley, Malloy and Associates. This aircheck was recorded in Iceland.
Chris Noel 1969
Chris did so much for us, The Date With Chris show, toured all over the world, particularly in the hotspots and has been one of the most outspoken advocates ever. Today Chris has a homeless shelter for veterans. Take a look Click here Please do what you can. Here's how it sounded in 1969.
Joe Ferguson 1983
Joe Ferguson brings us the best from Portland in another 1983 get together. Thanks for sharing these Joe!
Saturday, August 22, 2026
Yank Swing Session 1944
Bob Crosby did a lot of shows for us during WWII, usually as a DJ sometimes with his band.
"Yank Swing Session" was interesting. Sometimes they played records. Usually, they played unissued music from radio shows. Here's a 1944 visit.
Jim Ameche 1965
Jim Ameche has some beautiful music. Jim was one of the first to really be successful as a syndicated DJ, later becoming the voice of the Longines Symphonette.
Saturday, August 15, 2026
AFN Nuremberg - Mike Kimbrell 1984
Time for Mike Kimbrell from "The Tower Of Power"
AFN Nuremberg. Studio im Grand Hotel (1950 - 1956). Studio at the Grand Hotel (1950 - 1956).
Gene Price 1978
Whoever came up with the phrase Country Gentleman must have known Gene Price. It's classy. It's silly and it's wonderful radio.
Ira Cook 1961
In the early 1960s, they weren't really recording at McCadden. Recordings were done at the stations, usually but it was haphazard. Here's Ira Cook recorded at KMPC in 1961.
IRA LEIGH COOK Passed away on May 15, 2007 at the age of 90. Ira was a disc jockey in Hollywood for over 25 years working at KMPC the majority of the time. He also broadcast over the Armed Forces Radio Services. He was a beloved husband of Virginia for 58 years who predeceased him.
Hear Ira every morning at 5am (central) on mybestsounds.com
Sunday, August 9, 2026
Roger Carroll 1976
Here's some more fun from Hollywood with Roger Carroll! Roger has was a part of this crazy business since the 1940s.
Mary Turner 1984
Time for another visit with Mary Turner, She started at the network in 1981 or so, bringing a new perspective. It was rocking...
Mary checked in last time with good words about her AFRTS time.
FEN Automation and Burr Hoyle 1965
Awhile back Monte Jones had some information about the automation system at FEN in the late 60s. I thought something capable of segueing the ETs and putting the news on the air was very high tech for the times. Norm Medland was there before Monte and he had some information: Henry Yaskell was way ahead of his time from the automation system to tropo scatter to distribute the net up the line to Misawa and other places; Kuma Station and Wakkanai in the far north of Japan. In addition to the voice network to our outlying stations, we also had a teletype network and a fulltime employee to type and send printed newscasts to all the stations. Yes, they could have had all news prerecorded on tape and I believe Henry wanted that but it pushed immediacy back by at least an hour and the programmers would not allow it. Automation basic brain may have been a Harris-made unit, but not sure. Henry had at least four turntables connected along with a bank of Ampex tape recorders and several cart machines. It used a room about 20x20 and had one fulltime GI and a Japanese engineer plus probably a GI engineer. Time hacks were automated and the unit could switch between functions and the news booth and production studios. A lot of local production done on tape like “Tokyo Calling.”.
It took a lot of tending and no one but Henry thought it saved any manpower. Still, it was ingenious and way ahead of most broadcast stations. I worked at a station in Sacramento after I retired that was automated with a Harris-90 with just a bank of tape playback units and two production studios. Very simple by comparison. FEN even had on loan from Sony an early portable tape unit that rode around on a cart much like a current day audio visual cart with a few shelves. Not very portable and weighed a couple of hundred pounds. This never worked properly and wasn’t used in the field that I know about. Our audio equipment was the best you could buy, and programming concentration was totally audio. I think we had a least six Nagra tape recorders. We were just a radio station, (no TV at all), and the network feed, but we were very good. Great talent in house. Unfortunately, many of them are now deceased. I am certain we would have made money in any market in the United States. I was just a buck sergeant and staff sergeant as I left, but had worked radio in Denver, San Diego, and small Iowa stations before arriving there. I wasn’t bad, but others there made me look like an amateur.
From January 1965, here's Burr Hoyle:
Herman Griffith 1966
Herman with Jim Pewter and Roger Carroll
It's easy to see Herman Griffith as the voice of a community in 1966. There's a lot to his presentation that others refined and copied. Herman talks about Savings Bonds, with an interest rate very similar to today... Let's take a listen.
Herman Griffith 1966
Saturday, August 8, 2026
Turn Back The Clock 1958
Andy and Virginia Mansfield brought their brand of oldies to NBC and shortly around that time to AFRTS.
Tom Campbell 1971
\Tom's back, with program 2 of "Tom Campbell Stateside" He's retired and leading the good life in California. Recently the crazy weather hit his town, but he wasn't on that side of town.
Hear Tom every day at 1pm Central mybestsounds.com
Saturday, August 1, 2026
Laura Lee 1986
Jazz was an important part of the network, even into the 1980s. Laura Lee kept it alive with The Jazz Beat.
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