Monday, December 19, 2011

Happy Birthday AFRTS

Finally it's done!  Thanks to all.  It's quite a story.  Happy 70th Birthday AFRTS!



If you'd like a 441k uncompressed wav of this let me know.  Rebroadcast is encouraged, if you do then please let me know. afrts@live.com

If you're not already on the mailing list, let me know.  Weekly I send out updates,
afrts@live.com

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Happy Birthday AFRTS


Next year the network turns 70 years old.  Can you believe it?  I'm putting together an audio tribute to the network and I'd really appreciate your help.  Could you please cut a drop with what AFRTS meant to you?  It doesn't have to be anything tricky, you don't have to be 'talent'.  Board operators, supply clerks, 71Limas.  Civilians in the host countries.  Several have already sent theirs in.  Thank you.  Just something along the lines of:

Hi I'm Thom Whetston, I was on AFRTS radio twice, in Korea in the 70s and Panama in the 80s.  Happy birthday AFRTS. 

Feel free to add to it.  The more of us that participate, the better it'll be.  Questions?  just click here.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Jack Brown 15 Nov. 1923 - 19 Oct. 2011

October 2011,  we lost former director of AFRTS programming Jack Brown. 


Jack Brown
 
Awarded US Secretary of Defense Meritorious Service Medal.
Professor Radio, TV, Film CSUN.
General Manager KCSN - Retired
Actor, Television, Radio and Motion Pictures
Former president and charter member, Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters. Former owner of the Don Martin School of Broadcasting.  Jack was a Ham radio operator and former Volunteer at Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. He was also a volunteer reader at his church, St. Mary the Virgin, Chatsworth.

In the early 1960s, Jack was the host of "Rocketing Rhythms", the countdown show.

Rocketing Rhythms

Friday, November 11, 2011

Thursday, November 10, 2011

FEN automation and Tokyo calling 1965

Awhile back Monte Jones had some informaton 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:



FEN FM automation c 1983 (Photo: Jon Yim)

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Blue Danube Network



Something new in the collecction, a QSL card from BDN.  US Forces left Austria in 1955

Welcome newbies

This page has been around for few years.  I really hope that you enjoy it.  I value your stories and we're all interested.  Did you save any airchecks/pictures/disks/memories?  Please share.  Do you have any requests?  Let me know and I'll see what I can do.  There is a mailing list.  Every week or two I send an email with what's been added to the site.  Right now there are several hundred on that list.  If there's someone you're looking for I may be able to let them know.  I never give out addresses but I would forward an email.

If you enjoy it here, please tell a friend.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Top Pops again

Side two:
Dr Hook and the Medicine Show - Ballad Of Lucy Jordan
Sammy Johns - Early Morning Love
Marion Jarves - Hell Of A Fix
Billy Swan - I Can Help
Lou Rawls - She's Gone
Fancy - Touch Me

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Your comments are welcome

Thanks for leaving your comments. Please leave your name. We're all a part of this.

If you're new here, I have a mailing list where I send out updates when things change. Let me know if you'd like to be a part of it. Click here

If you saved material or actively collect, I'd like to be able to make some of it available.  I never sell anything but I'm always open to trades.

If you enjoy it here, please tell a friend.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

AFN Nightside - Craig Miller Features 1974

Just received a crate of master reels, mostly of Craig Miller's work at AFN. (Thanks Garry!!!) I'll be posting a lot of these, features, interviews and such. They don't make radio like this anymore.

1. The Eagles Nest
2. Redback Dollar
3. Great Canyon Caper
4. Invasion Of The Ants
5. Alligator Tongue Oil
6. John, Paul, George, Ringo and Bert
7. Midnight Ride of Harvey Schudlapp

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

AFN 1954 Stickbuddy Jamboree


"I was with AFN 1954-1956 (Berlin and Frankfurt) and did a variety of shows....Hillbilly Gastehaus, Duffle Bag, etc. About the only tape I have left is a cassette of one show that went full-network. Great times at AFN those years. After discharge in 56, I went back to Texas radio where I had taken that "leave of absence" and worked briefly in Austin before joining KILT in 56.  On air PD till 62.  Then on air PD at WQXI Atlanta till 75. 75-85 owned part of a station in Valdosta, Ga.  Came to Carrollton, Ga. in 85 with WBTR.  Spent my last 10 years with 50,000 watt WKNG Carrollton before retiring in June of this year.  Total of 63 years in the business and with birthday #80 coming,  I figured that was enough.”  Red's a member of The Georgia Radio Hall of Fame.







Friday, September 9, 2011

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

I Wish We Had This

The British Forces have a very active website, with live streaming, that anyone can access.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Bob Moke 1983

Thanks Bob for making these and making them available.  It's time for Program 5 of the series that Bob Moke did for the network.

Bob Moke #5 1983



Thursday, July 21, 2011

Swingtime 1945 with Bob Crosby

Bing Crosby's brother Bob was a big supporter of the troops and always made himself available to AFRS.  His Swingtime DJ show presented some great bands, sometimes live sometimes from radio transcriptions and sometimes from commercial 78s.  Bob presents trumpeter Erskine Hawkins.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

New Book By Chris Noel

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


West Palm Beach, Florida, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) July 3, 2011 --

Pin-up girl Chris Noel appeared in films with Steve McQueen, Richard Chamberlain, Elvis Presley, and Dennis Hopper. She had torrid affairs with some of Hollywood’s hottest hunks, and even dated Frank Sinatra! Then, as a disc jockey for Armed Forces Radio, she turned her daily program, “A Date With Chris,” into a smash hit around the world. Chris had our boys in Vietnam listening to her every day, and dreaming of her as their favorite pin-up girl every night. These are her intimate true confessions, packed with juicy behind-the-scenes gossip and illustrated with rare, beautiful photos!

"Chris Noel helped create '60s pop culture." -- From the introduction by Nancy Sinatra

Reading "Confessions of a Pin-Up Girl" is like opening a beautiful time capsule from the Sixties. From her role as a rotating regular on Gene Roddenberry's "The Lieutenant" to her first film, "Soldier in the Rain," starring Steve McQueen and Jackie Gleason, Chris had a habit of being where groovy things were happening. When Elvis Presley was rocking America, Chris appeared with the King in "Girl Happy." When Richard Chamberlain was the hottest thing on TV as "Dr. Kildare," Chris appeared with him in the film "Joy In The Morning." When beach movies were capturing the teens of America, Chris starred in "Beach Ball" with Edd Kookie Byrnes of "77 Sunset Strip." As the Swingin' Sixties got wilder and wilder, Chris co-starred in a biker gang movie with Dennis Hopper, and appeared partially nude in "For Singles Only." Chris has captured all the craziness of Hollywood the first half of this gossipy photo-biographical memoir, a story told mainly through hundreds of rare, unpublished pictures.

The second half of the book deals with an event that dominated the Sixties: the Vietnam War. Blessed with a voice sweet as home-made sugar, Chris was hired by the Pentagon to do a daily, hour-long radio show that was broadcast to our troops in Vietnam and around the world. Every day, the storm clouds of war were temporarily lifted by a ray of sunshine -- a radio show called "A Date With Chris." But our fighting forces couldn't SEE Chris. What did the sultry-voiced vixen LOOK like? The debate raged until "Stars and Stripes" ran a pin-up of Chris on the beach in a bikini. That picture became THE classic Vietnam pin-up, and it appears (in close-up) on the cover of "Confessions of a Pin-Up Girl." Now our soldiers knew -- the vixen was no vixen at all -- she was a blonde bombshell! An angel who had fallen from heaven down to earth. A stand-in for every guy's girl back home. Our men in Vietnam made Chris their favorite pin-up girl. Chris visited Vietnam during the war -- not once but EIGHT separate times. Once she performed with legendary comedian Bob Hope. And, many years later, Chris opened Vetsville Cease Fire House, a shelter for homeless Vietnam veterans, which has since been expanded to welcome all military veterans.

"Confessions of a Pin-Up Girl" is 180 pages of glorious color, featuring dozens of sexy pin-ups of Chris, most never published before. They're awesome! If you love the Sixties, if you love Hollywood gossip, if you've been touched by the Vietnam War, and (especially) if you love pretty girls -- this is the book you have been waiting for!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Bob Moke 1983

Bob Moke 1969 at AFN

Time to return to that great show that Bob Moke did for AFRTS.  We're up to program #4.




Sunday, May 29, 2011

AFN February 1991

Bernhard in Germany sent this along.  I've presented piecces before.  The first Gulf War would end any day.  The broadcast was from AFN SHAPE.

AFN SHAPE 2/14/91 4 hours

He didn't want to miss hearing the end of the war on AFN so he started a reel in the morning.  It's full of surprises.


Friday, May 27, 2011

AFN is off the air ...

May 25, 2011- The American Forces Network Europe (AFNE) is adjusting its radio broadcast signals to help State German officials hosting a huge outdoor multi-concert bash, Hessentag.

German telecommunications officials asked AFN to temporarily turn off the 873 AM transmitter in June because heavy car traffic will be routed by the normally remote AFN radio transmitter on the way to a newly created field parking lot. Workers also need time to set up and take down concert stages, lights and temporary buildings, and they are bringing in cranes to do it. The Hessentag festivities and concerts run June 10-19 in Oberursel, Germany.



"Our German neighbors asked us to temporarily turn off our 873 AM Power

Network transmitter in Central Germany for concerts with Linkin Park, Bryan

Adams, the Scorpions and scores of others," says AFN Europe Commander

Colonel Bill Bigelow, "During that time, we'll broadcast to our American

audience in Wiesbaden on 1143 AM from another location."



While 1143 AM's 1,000-watts of power will reach Americans stationed in

Wiesbaden, the temporary transmitter doesn't have the reach of AFN's

150,000-watt transmitter in Weiskirchen, which reaches American commuters in

Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Hanau and Giessen.



AFN Europe will put 873 AM back on the air July 1st.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Saturday, May 14, 2011

AFN Nurnberg 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).

Monday, April 25, 2011

Garry Moore, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney

Thought you might enjoy this.  Garry Moore explains the Radio Code.   It was voluntary, but done away with in the early 1980s.  Times are different.  After that Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney share some great music.



Garry Moore-Crosby and Clooney

Bob Moke 1983



Thanks for the response on the Bob Moke shows.  Heckuva jock.  The series continues with program 3