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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.
Saturday, August 22, 2026
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.
Jim Pewter 1967
Neil found us a bunch of late 60s Jim Pewter shows. I'm very happy about that. When you see something that might be interesting for all of us, drop me a note afrts@live.com
Jim was an AFKN vet who shaped the world of music, his command of the oldies inspired a lot of people. It's December 1967 "Let's Go"
Hear Jim every day at 6pm Central on mybestsounds.com
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