Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Jim Pewter 1979

 

Album Jim did for the USO

Jim lives the oldies.  From his time with his band to AFKN, Los Angeles radio and then the worldwide network it's just really hard to describe.  Fire up the grill, grab a beer and remember.



Monday, May 30, 2022

Lyndon Johnson - Memorial Day 1963

 


Vice president Lyndon Johnson on Memorial Day 1963 as broadcast by AFRTS 


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Harry Newman 1991

 


There's two more weeks to go on the first Gulf War and time for the Harry Newman show.  Harry had a big career in country radio in Los Angeles KBLA, 1965-66; KBBQ, 1967-68; KLAC, 1970-84. Harry retired in 1995 and was living the good life in central California.



Monday, May 23, 2022

JIngles from the 70s

 

This is from one of the TM packages.  Stereo and  nice.
 

Mary Turner 1994


Mary Turner was rocking.  In 1994 it had already been a ten year run.  Take a listen..



Saturday, May 21, 2022

Silly spots

 

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So somehow almost 50 years later, I'm still making silly spots.  Here's how they did it at AFN:

Finding sweet spot between informative and zany at AFN


Friday, May 20, 2022

Harry Newman 1994

 


In the early 1990s Matt was in England enjoying the sounds of AFN from hundreds of miles away:

I recorded these in east Anglia (approximately 800 miles away from the transmitter at Weisskirchen) using my trusty old boom box. Sometimes, at night, when the weather was right, you could get a pretty good signal. The recordings were all somewhere between 1991 and 1996. Sorry I’m not sure of exact dates.  Because I was limited to 30 or 45 min audio cassettes, I didn’t tend to record whole shows, instead recording a section where I was interested, I also seem to have  a habit of sometimes stopping the recording if the DJ was playing a song I could get in the UK.

He recorded a lot of things I didn't have.  Thanks for sharing!!!



Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Chris Noel 1969

 




Vetsville Cease Fire House
291 NE 19th Avenue
Boynton Beach, FL 33435
Phone: (561) 736-4325


I’m Chris Noel. In Hollywood, I did films with Elvis and Steve McQueen. In Vietnam, I performed live, and my radio show was broadcast to our troops, both in Vietnam and worldwide.

Then, in 1993, I founded Vetsville Cease Fire House, a non-profit charity based in Florida that is dedicated to providing food, shelter and care for indigent military veterans.

Vets make great employees. They’re dependable team players who work with pride, but finding full-time employment is often extremely difficult. And that's where Vetsville Cease Fire House comes in. Among the great organizations sponsoring us are the Nam Knights MC, a group of police officers and Vietnam veterans.

We’re also sponsored by groups like Rolling Thunder, Paul Revere and the Raiders, “Good Morning Vietnam’s” Adrian Cronauer, and various community organizations. We also hold popular yearly fund-raisers such as Veterans Day celebrations and Rock ‘n’ Roll Sunday!

Our mission is to provide homeless American military veterans --regardless of race, creed, color, sex or age -- with food, shelter, and a secure environment as we aid them in returning to society. That’s our goal -- and Vetsville Cease Fire House is making it happen ... with the help of your generous contribution!
Thank You For Your Time!
Chris Noel






Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Jim Pewter

 


Jim Pewter and Mamie Van Doren

Jim Pewter just sent up a bunch of 1995 shows.  Didn't we go to different high schools together?  Thank you Jim.  Thank you Timmy (Radio's best friend)



Sunday, May 15, 2022

Quick Look at DINFOS

 DINFOS 1972 


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.


Thursday, May 12, 2022

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Love - with Tony Pigg 1971

 



 
These are fun.  By 1971 "Free-form" rock stations started in many markets.  In New York ABCs WPLJ sounded great and Tony Pigg was a great example.



Monday, May 9, 2022

John Doremus 1967



 I found some complete 1967 John Doremus shows. John originated in-flight music on aircraft and did a nighttime show in Chicago that was eventually syndicated by the airlines to a lot of stations. John was one of the giants of broadcasting in general and to AFRTS in particular

 
 

 

Thursday, May 5, 2022

Battle of Guadalcanal 1942

 


I was at the record store and saw a used album by the USMC Band.  The thing was too thick.  With the record were 2 12" 78s that sound like they were done for the troops as a command information thing.  This one has a short clip recorded in the studio at Guadalcanal.  There's just not much audio from the Mosquito Network.  It's a good listen.






Bob Kingsley 1975

 

Bob Kingsley visits SCN in the Panama Canal Zone 1972 (photo: Gerry Fry)

Somehow it still amazes me.  Bob Kingsley was a really good rock jock.  He was one of us.  He'd done a tour at our Iceland station.  Bob later went on to be the voice of country music on American Country Countdown.    In 1975, it was time to rock.

Charles Goyette remembers that picture " I was also more than a little surprised to see myself on the page in a photo with Bob Kingsley at SCN.  That was in summer of ’72.  Also in the shot are LtC. Dan Maguire (our CO and a very fine man), Tom Colvin, John Fisher, Bob Rupp, Paul Warhanik, and Phil Lane.  I’m surprised the talented Lee McGowan wasn’t in that shot.

We were good hosts to Kingsley during his visit to Panama.  And some time later Bob was an equally good host when Lee, Gerry Fry, and I visited him in L.A.  As I recall, Robert Fuller, the actor in TV westerns like Wagon Train, was Bob’s brother-in-law.  Among other things, Bob took us on the lot for a shooting of the series Emergency that Fuller was starring in. 

Great seeing that picture again!"


Wednesday, May 4, 2022

Record Labels

 

How many of these do you remember?  We're taking a look at the 12" program disks.  The 16" used many different labels and numbering schemes.  The library disks added  a lot of labels too.

In about 1960 the network transitioned from 16" to 12" records.  The first label for 12" was the same as the last one for 16".  It's formatted a little differently because of the size.

For cataloging these disks have "Call Dates" stamped in the runoff grooves (Due 9/22/61).  That seems roughly comparable to the week numbers on the labels starting in 1963.




The only exception seems to be for Rocketing Rhythms/Capitol Cloakroom, presumably because the material was so timely.


There's still no easy way to date a program disk.  In approximately 1963 they stopped printing in color.


In early 1964 we start getting week numbers.  The 7-4 on the following disk indicates it was shipped week 7 of 1964.  In 1967 Christmas week was week 25.



In 1967 the black ink was replaced with blue ink.  For a long period they used multiple fonts.  That was apparently at random.


The late 60s blue labels had a notable exception.


In 1969 the labels started getting stylish...


In 1970, a full redesign that looked sharp.  This was the first label for the newly renamed American Forces Radio and Television Service.


Very shortly after that a hipper redesign.


In 1975 another label change to a mustard-yellow color.  Recently I heard that the idea was to make it look like a gold record...


In 1976, we went for silver records...


In 1978 another redesign:


In 1982 a redesign.  This was the longest used label in network history.  It was used until the end of vinyl transcriptions.


An that's what I know about these things.  If I missed something please let me know.

January 2017 Don Browne from AFRTS had more information Click here



Tom Campbell 1975

 


Tom Campbell always had a fun show and sometimes the strangest mixes... Tall Tom revisits 1975.  The mustard colored labels were the ugliest ones ever.
 

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Roger Carroll 1981

 



RC thanks for the memories and some great radio!!



A while back I had a chat with Roger.



John Halbert Book

 John Halbert has a new book:





Amazon has just released my biography which includes being deputy chief of the radio & television branch, in there Office of Information at HQ Strategic Air Command, co-manager of the joint AFRTS/Canadian Broadcasting arrangement at Harmon AFB in Stephenville, Newfoundland (VOHF radio & CFSN-TV), US Air Forces Europe manager of radio & television at HQ USAFE, Ramstein AB, Germany; Assistant Director of Public Affairs in the Pentagon involving being on the DoD AFRTS policy board and later as EUCOM executive manager of AFRTS for Europe.

Synopsis and chapter previews are available at no cost for review

Monday, May 2, 2022

Wolfman Jack 1977

 

 
Ladies and gentlemen, Wolfman Jack would like you to join the Air Force.  This guy could SELL.  It's an amazing skill at that level.
 


Sound Off 1943

 

Bill Goodwin


I guess there could be quite a project in who was the first network DJ with AFRS.  Bill Goodwin was one of the first with "Sound Off".  "Sound Off" was a request show, with dedications for the troops.

Mr Goodwin was most notable as the announcer/foil for George Burns on his television show in the 50s.  We lost Mr. Goodwin in 1958.


Harry Newman 1987





Harry had a big career in country radio in Los Angeles KBLA, 1965-66; KBBQ, 1967-68; KLAC, 1970-84. Harry was the voice of "Cops" He retired in 1995 and was living in central California.

Harry Newman - 1987

More from Harry Newman

Chris Noel 1971

 


Some rock, some ballads and a voice from home.  Chris Noel.  You have a Date With Chris.