Posts
Gene and Janet
Thank you Mr. Pierce. Gene Price has the best in country on the Country Express, for today's Army!
Thank you Arie!
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Ira Cook 1961
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. We lost Ira in 2007.
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Chiquita 1949
We tried to serve all soldiers. Part of that being our native Spanish speaking troops. Chiquita debuted during WWII and was still going strong in the 1950s. I'm trying to locate more information about her. Apparently, she had some small movie roles in the 1940s.
Gracias amiga por todo!
Charlie Tuna 1993
Been too long since we've heard from Charlie Tuna. Charlie always brought magic, KOMA, WMEX, AFRTS and seemingly every radio station in southern California. Visit Charlie's website at http://www.charlietuna.com
Sunday, October 27, 2024
Joe Allison, 1970
Joe Allison was still going the Country Corner well into the 1970s. Somehow the music didn't need autotune...
Wolfman Jack 1974
Welcome back Wolf, here's a 1974 USAF recruiting show. Will there ever be radio like this again?
Saturday, October 26, 2024
Mary Turner 1992
It was a scandal. In the early 80s when the network started the Mary Turner show. Loud Rock and Roll. What will the generals say? We'll find out. Mary brought her KMET show to the world and it was a very good thing.
Tom Campbell 1980
Tom is still around. Great guy who helped a lot with the Best Sounds stream. And now from Torrejon..
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Mail Call 1943
During WWII Hollywood made their biggest and brightest stars available to shine worldwide over AFRS in several variety shows. Mail Call was one of these.
November 1943. Here's Fanny Brice, Dennis Day, Lionel Barrymore, Harlow Wilcox and many more.
Andy Mansfield 1967
Andy Mansfield played those oldies from the turn of the century to the mid 20th century for over two decades, from Turn Back the Clock to America's Popular music. Today is a 1967 visit..
Roland Bynum 1973
In 1973 Roland was making magic for AFRTS and for Roger Carroll's company with these shows for Air Force recruiting. Off to the Creators Workshop and "Soul In Motion"
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
mybestsounds.com More shows added.
More shows have been added
UPDATE: The biggest problem we've had before was scheduling programs to be heard every day. There will be a schedule, to make it easier. This can't be done with all of the shows, but...
Times are Central (Subtract 2 hours for Pacific (LA), add one for Eastern (NYC)
0700 Gene Price
0800 Charlie Tuna
0900 Roger Carroll
1100 Joe Ferguson
1:00PM Tom Campbell
6:00PM Jim Pewter
8:00PM Golden Days Of Radio
9:00PM Roland Bynum
11:00 Chris Noel
More will be added.
Monday, October 21, 2024
Bill Stewart 1969
Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Leonard Feather
Bill Stewart swung. He played a lot of the best of jazz. AFRTS had a lot of famous guests on the radio shows. Leonard Feather had a unique role in the history of jazz, responsible for a lot of legendary recordings. By the 1950s he was documenting the "Encyclopedia of Jazz" with a lot of first hand knowledge and friendships. In 1969 volume two had come out and Leonard made an appearance on the Bill Stewart show..
Jim Pewter 1982
Our AFKN brother Jim Pewter is back with another oldies party from the malt shop! If it starts with Louie, Louie it's gotta be great!
Don Tracy 1980
Young Don Tracy at WTIC, Hartford
It's a Friday with Don Tracy. The party starts now...
Sunday, October 20, 2024
Chris Noel 1967
The run wasn't that long but "A Date With Chris" was a very important thing to a lot of Vietnam era troops. It's easy to hear why.
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.
John Doremus 1967
Music about hands and letter writing... It's the John Doremus show.. Wonderful stories wound into beautiful orchestral music.
Saturday, October 19, 2024
Could This Be You? 1961
Beginning in the 1950s, KVI Seattle produced an intriguing show called "Could This Be You?" which aired on the Golden West stations and later on Mutual.
The program featured live recordings of people being pulled over and served as a precursor to shows like "Highway Patrol" and "Cops."
It was an impressive example of educational radio, making it ideal for AFRTS.
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Gene Price 1974
This is another program from a nice cache of transcriptions I picked up last month, Gene Price's Country World
Mary Helen Barro 1983
Mary Helen Barro with Joe Ortiz 1972
Mary Helen is back with some wonderful music.
Monday, October 14, 2024
Charlie Tuna 1978
Singing legend Bill Withers backstage at the Greek Theatre with Charlie.(June 16, 2007)
Charlie Tuna taught a lot of DJs how to do it right, pacing, topicality, personality. Every day it was a textbook.
link is fixed
Joe Allison 1965
Joe Allison is back with more of your favorites from the Country Corner. Joe Allison was country music. A performer, writer, producer and he brought back home to the radio.
Sunday, October 13, 2024
Roger Carroll 1978
Today it is Roger, with the Happy Hour and memories of 1978.
"Thom there was a young attractive production lady who worked on a TV show I announced her boy friend was an artist at Disney. They both listened to me on KMPC It was a birthday gift I cannot remember what show it was or her name. I now walk a little slower, memory is not what it used be also repeat things Dad get a hearing aid (you want something at Rite Aid ) BUT I sure do remember she was very attractive I think many of the attractive production ladies maybe were hand-picked may be some of those ladies are on FB they would be old today the ones I worked with."
And it had a place of honor at Roger's
Thank you once again RC!
Mary Turner 1992
It was a scandal. In the early 80s when the network started the Mary Turner show. Loud Rock and Roll. What will the generals say? We'll find out. Mary brought her KMET show to the world and it was a very good thing.
Friday, October 11, 2024
Herman Griffith 1965
Don Browne shares some memories:
"When I first heard "The Herman Griffith Show" on AFRTS (at FEN in 1969), I was appalled.
He was "stepping on" the starting vocal (later called "the post") of every song, "talking over" the entire lyric of many songs, and worst of all, mispronouncing AFRTS. Griffith called it "Aye-Eff-Argh-ugh-Tee-Ess!
He was definitely relegated to the "vampire squad" (1 a.m. to 5 a.m.) on FEN!
It was two years later that I discovered what caused "the Herman Griffith syndrome".
I visited AFRTS-LA and took a closer look at their so-called "broadcast studios".
They had been designed as "recording studios" by a contractor who was told that "they were making records" at AFRTS-LA.
A true enough statement. But not making records like for orchestras and singers, with separate channels each with EQ, separate tape-recorder playback of selectable sources designed for multi-track, and combination of audio sources "down-stream" for multi-track. They initially didn't have "mute" when a microphone was "live" because "recording studios" didn't "mute" mikes.
A typical "recording studio", not for broadcasting purposes.
The multi-channel audio control consoles were manufactured by "Unidyne" for four studios at 1016 North McCadden Place in 1965.
When Herman Griffith recorded his show, he heard the music on playback from the tape recorder, two-seconds after the "live" recorder input. Playback was for confidence-only, to ensure that a recording was being made. Herman's voice was combined "down-stream", so Herman in natural radio procedure "cupped-his-ear" to hear his "live" voice.
Therefore, in real time, Herman stepped on every starting vocal.
The radio producers weren't experienced in the R&B format and thought this was normal.
The "Unidynes" were eventually replaced with "broadcast" consoles."
This would have been the place to rock. Roland Bynum said that Herman introduced him to the AFRTS gig.
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Roland Bynum 1973
Roland was keeping it real in 1973. Phil had recorded some of his favorite AFN personalities from the Stuttgart station, some noise but that's how I remember it.
Downbeat 1946
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By 1946 Gene Norman (remember GNP records?)was building quite the name as a jazz promoter. He was also doing Downbeat for AFRTS
Jim Pewter 1980
Gene Price, Charlie Tuna and Jim
More memories with Jim. In 1980 I was at SCN in Panama and would hear the way that he'd craft a show. Always something that I hadn't heard before...that was good. Then it was off to the library. At SCN the 'old library' was typed onto large index cards, with a huge machine that had them sorted. Do you have a picture of it? Apparently in the mid 80s it finally gave up.
It's 1980, today Jim tells you "What was Beethoven's favorite fruit?"
Sunday, October 6, 2024
Chris Noel 1966
Date With Chris evolved from a late night program of mostly dinner music to the a lot more rock. This is from the first week of the show in 1966.
Saturday, October 5, 2024
Gene Price 1974
Gene Price always had a fun show, characters, comedy. Leonard Finsterwald says listen now!
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Charlie Tuna 1983
Is that what they mean by disk jockey?
Charlie Tuna comin back at you for another 60 minutes in the radio.
It was always great stuff. Easy to see why Charlie entertained the troops for a quarter century.
Today, it's 1983 and great once again.
Joe Allison 1965
Display honoring Joe at the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in Carthage, Texas.
Joe Allison wrote Jim Reeve's biggest hit "He'll Have To Go". With a credit like that a lot of performers could coast but not Joe. Writer, performer, DJ, executive and succeeding every time. He was a giant. We lost Joe in 2002.
Roger Carroll 1977
Roger Carroll with a Monday show, transfer is a little rough but the music's great and so are the memories. Thanks Roger!!!
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
Rebel Randall 1051
Rebel Randall
After GI Jill and the "GI Jive" and before Chris Noel and a "Date With Chris", we had Rebel Randall and "Jukebox USA". It was a Korean War program. Downbeat magazine had said that her show was cancelled after high ranking officers had decided that she was sounding too sexy.
Vance Graham 1974
"Vance Graham", was a radio announcer, on-the-scene news reporter and later disc-jockey. He was born in Denver, Colorado. In 1927 he received a scholarship from the United Daughters of the Confederacy to attend the University of Virginia where he studied journalism. After graduation he traveled to Los Angeles. Soon after his arrival, he worked as a cook in a downtown hotel.
Blessed with a deep, clear and resonant voice, he soon found work at radio station KMPC in Hollywood as an announcer, newscaster, interviewer and disc jockey.
During World War II, he worked as "Assistant News Editor" for KMPC and because he was bi-lingual, speaking both English and Spanish, he recorded Latin American music shows for the Armed Forces Radio Network. He did live reports for the station in both Los Angeles and San Francisco.
In the 1950s and 60s, there was a huge surge in the popularity of Latin music with the "cha cha cha" and "bolero", so he had a radio show called "Bolero Time" heard every Sunday on KMPC. A recorded version of Bolero Time was also heard on AFRTS. He was married from 1954 to 1958 to Estrellita Santos who acted as co-host for his radio program during that time.
In the 70s he had 2 more Latin American shows on KMPC, KFI and KTYM. Graham hosted the shows called "Latino" and "Viva" as a character he named "Victor".
We lost Vance Graham in 1984, his ashes were spread over the Pacific.
(a more complete version of the above is at http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=49068615 )
But now, from 1973, here's Victor and Latino!
Herman Griffith 1965
Don Browne shares some memories:
"When I first heard "The Herman Griffith Show" on AFRTS (at FEN in 1969), I was appalled.
He was "stepping on" the starting vocal (later called "the post") of every song, "talking over" the entire lyric of many songs, and worst of all, mispronouncing AFRTS. Griffith called it "Aye-Eff-Argh-ugh-Tee-Ess!
He was definitely relegated to the "vampire squad" (1 a.m. to 5 a.m.) on FEN!
It was two years later that I discovered what caused "the Herman Griffith syndrome".
I visited AFRTS-LA and took a closer look at their so-called "broadcast studios".
They had been designed as "recording studios" by a contractor who was told that "they were making records" at AFRTS-LA.
A true enough statement. But not making records like for orchestras and singers, with separate channels each with EQ, separate tape-recorder playback of selectable sources designed for multi-track, and combination of audio sources "down-stream" for multi-track. They initially didn't have "mute" when a microphone was "live" because "recording studios" didn't "mute" mikes.
A typical "recording studio", not for broadcasting purposes.
The multi-channel audio control consoles were manufactured by "Unidyne" for four studios at 1016 North McCadden Place in 1965.
When Herman Griffith recorded his show, he heard the music on playback from the tape recorder, two-seconds after the "live" recorder input. Playback was for confidence-only, to ensure that a recording was being made. Herman's voice was combined "down-stream", so Herman in natural radio procedure "cupped-his-ear" to hear his "live" voice.
Therefore, in real time, Herman stepped on every starting vocal.
The radio producers weren't experienced in the R&B format and thought this was normal.
The "Unidynes" were eventually replaced with "broadcast" consoles."
This would have been the place to rock. Roland Bynum said that Herman introduced him to the AFRTS gig.
Tuesday, October 1, 2024
Andy Mansfield 1964
Bust outside of the Corn Exchange in Bedford, England
Andy Mansfield has the final part of his tribute to Maj Glenn Miller on the 20th Anniversary of his passing.
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!
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