Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Chris Noel 1967



To find out the history of Chris Noel, her biography at IMDB is a great place to start Click here

Chris sent the radio shows she did for AFRTS to us to hear again.  I'm grateful.

She still does the GIs proud.  Please consider making a generous donation to Chris's Vetsville Ceasefire House.



Saturday, December 28, 2019

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.



Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Arthur Godfrey Xmas 1964

Arthur Godfrey was broadcasting, from his mournful coverage of the funeral of President Roosevelt to the franchise he had built in the 1950s, to his CBS radio show which was the last bigtime network entertainment show, he was America with a genius in giving America what they wanted.  The Christmas 1964 show (recorded Christmas 1963).


Monday, December 23, 2019

Roger Carroll Christmas 1973


I really wish I had audio of one of Roger's Christmas shows, with that familiar open... (Do you have one??)  But this is very nice, in 1973 he did an Air Force recruiting show with Ray Conniff.  Great radio!  Have a Happy Holiday!



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Wolfman Jack Christmas

It's 1975 and the Wolf brings in the holiday.  Christmas week the AFRTS network talent did a week of Christmas shows.  Rare when it wasn't week 48-x did they ever play songs of the holiday season.  It was too unpredictable when the shows would be aired.  The Christmas week shows went out 3 or 4 weeks before Christmas week so we'd be ready to go.


This Is Your FBI - Christmas



Stacy Harris

In 1976 we were still airing Old Time Radio like "This Is Your FBI", starring Stacy Harris, who you may remember from Dragnet.  Here's the Christmas show..

The system cue at the end of the show sure sounds like George Fenneman..




Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Chris Noel 1970


Chris Noel brought America to thousands of Vietnam era troops on a Date With Chris.  By the 1970s it rocked.




Tuesday, December 10, 2019

WGBY, Cuba - Bill Stiles 1966


The US military had a radio presence in Cuba for over 100 years.  Jose Fritz did a nice writeup on this.  Click Here. In 1966 WGBY, the AFRTS station had a very special guest on the Bill Stiles show




Thursday, December 5, 2019

Chris Noel 1969


These are great, Chris Noel playing a mix of music that I never would have though would work.  They'd tell us at the DINFOS about the "Mixed Music Format" Hard C&W, R&B and rock all mixed together and everyone would like it.  Chris made it work.