Mark White -AFN Berlin 1980

 

The late Mark White had his claim to King of Jazz.  He brought some wonderful music to Berlin for well over three decades.  Chris Muermann was a big fan at the time and recorded several of his broadcasts.  Garry made them available.  Today it's a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, coming to Berlin for a concert.  Mark, keep swinging...

 

AFN - Mark White 1980

 

 

RIP Mark White

One of the great voices of radio history has been silenced. After spending a wonderful Christmas day with his family, Mark White went to bed and passed away in his sleep 12/29/2013. He would have been 89 on the 2nd of January. Mark was the manager of AFN Berlin from the 1950s until 1988. He left behind a great legacy and many friends. (David Glen Andersen facebook feed)

Mark White airchecks

News Censorship at AFVN during the Vietnam War

Melody Roundup 1944

Melody Roundup brought top Western talent.  This time with Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers.

 

Hard to tell what the source material was 78s, radio transcriptions, movie soundtracks. 

 

Melody Roundup - Sons of the Pioneers 1944

 

 

GI Jive - 1946

Martha Wilkinson was one of the first big stars of AFRS.  During WWII there was a show called "GI Jive", one of the DJ shows.  Pretty non-descript until Martha became GI Jill and the voice of home.

GI Jive 1946

Merry Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas and thank you for visiting.   It's been a nice year with family, my day job and people in general.  More and more people are stopping by every month so I guess it serves a purpose.

If you haven't checked in yet, you can email  afrts@live.com or facebook Thom Whetston or the afrtsarchive.blogspot.com page (click "Like" on that one).

Approximately every week I send out an email about what's new, sometimes asking questions, sometimes looking for people.  Just let me know if you'd like to be on the mailing list.

If you saved any recordings or memorabilia about the network, please let me know.  There are a lot of people that'd like to remember it.

AFRTS Christmas shows

Chris Noel

Music Censorship at AFVN and AFKN

Enchanted Keyboard - 1951

By the early 1950s radio had changed.  Prior to that the networks were doing great comedy, mystery variety shows and AFRTS could clip the commercials and send them out.  But now they were tasked with creating a lot of programs.  Many information and education programs were produced along with entertainment offerings.

"Enchanted Keyboard" was typical.  Classical piano with Don Thompson announcing.  Some wonderful talent was available to come in and play the piano.

On this broadcast, Edward Rebner

Enchanted Keyboard - 1951

Ronnie Landry - 1959

Ron Landry, later of Hudson and Landry was drafted into the Army in 1958.  By 1959 he was doing a show on the network from AFRTS New York.

Ronnie Landry - 1959

 

I was usually assigned with the infantry, this was a classic:

 

 

Jim Ameche - 1965

"The Most Beautiful Sounds Around"  Orchestral music just isn't heard anymore.  Jim Ameche brought it to AFRTS.

Jim was a huge star during the "Golden Days of Radio" and managed to stay very successful as a DJ.

Jim Ameche - 1965

Chris Noel - Christmas 1969

December 1966, Chris in Vietnam

Chris Noel - 12/25/69

AFN - Bob Debasia - 1984

Bob Debasia has your 1984 wakeup call

AFN - Bob Debasia 1984

Connectivity

We're back on the air.  About a week ago Comcast pushed out an update that killed my Motorola SGB6580.  I managed to get it back to defaults and running again.  I own my modem, rather than paying the 7 bucks every month.

Yesterday it was the same thing and I couldn't get it back online.

I spent four years working for Comcast, getting modems activated and online.  I do know this stuff.

Just wanted to let you know that Comcast and Motorola have a long history of not playing well on certain Motorola models.

At least I'm not alone...

On with the show...

AFVN The Early Years - Adrian Cronauer

Adrian Cronauer explains the early years of AFVN and block programming.

Chris Noel Christmas 1969

Because of the way the transcription disks were sent out, there was no way to tell when they were actually broadcast... Except for Christmas week.  That week we would get disks with actual airdates.  They'd send them almost a month early to make that happen.

This was aired worldwide December 19, 1969

Chris Noel - Date With Chris - Christmas week 1969

Good Morning Vietnam - the real story

Paul Bottoms  let me know about this:

"Adrian Cronauer, Tony Booth who was at AFKN in Korea and I gave a presentation in February 2011 for two days at the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond."

Here's the first part:

FEN - 1964 the start of the Vietnam War

Here's live coverage from FEN August 5th and 6th 1964 of the Gulf of Tonkin, pretty much the beginning of the Vietnam War.

 

 

FEN News on Tonkin 1964

Chris Noel - Christmas 1966

 

Chris had just started doing "Date With Chris" and it was the holiday season

 

Chris Noel - Christmas 1966

Chris Noel - 1971

We're up to 1971 and it's time for your Date With Chris.

Chris Noel - 1971

Mosquito Network - The Ulithi Encyclopedia

During WWII we had a base in the Western Carolines and a LT (jg) John Vollbrecht  found the local Ulithi population interesting.  He studied them and presented talks on AFRS WVTY.  There was enough interest where the station published a book about the culture.

Bob Hope - Christmas 1968 Long Binh

We've made it to December.  Christmas is coming. This is Bob Hope's 1968 Christmas show from Long Binh, Vietnam.  Whet was it like to be at one of these shows?

Bob Hope - Christmas 1968 - Long Binh

More Christmas Memories