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Kim Hunter reads poetry. She later became a huge star in Streetcar Named Desire. In 1945 she had poetry for the troops.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Casey Kasem 1932-2014 updated
We lost Casey Kasem last week. American Top 40 was a very important part of AFRTS. I've never been able to locate anyone who could give us permission to run some of those shows, with Casey doing the PSAs. Casey was drafted in 1952 and ended up at Radio Vagabond.
RADIO IN KOREA
American Forces Korea Network Provides Security, Information, Education, And Entertainment
Pacific Stars and Stripes April 25, 1953
By PFC John Sack, Pacific Star and Stripes Korea Bureau
TEN-THOUSAND MEN were listening to the radio a few months ago when it went off the air. "We are going off the air," said the announcer. "We will be back in three hours." Then he picked up his mikes, discs, "pets," tapes, and antennas and threw them all in a van, and moved lock, stock and barrel five miles down the road.
"It was the damned artillery," he explained later. "Kept jiggling the phonograph needle."
Short-wave is one source of AFKN programs. Transcriptions from the States are another. Each station has 20 or 30 thousand records too, for disc jockey shows. "Mail from Home," incidentally -- where people in America request songs to be played in Korea -- is the network's most popular show.
But AFKN has the most fun making programs of its own. PFC Bert States, head of production, has carried his tape recorders from orphanages to the frontlines and once, for a story on VD, hid a microphone in his field jacket while a street-walker took him in tow. Pvt. Kemal Kasem has been working one month on a jet pilot documentary. Kasem used to appear in "The Lone Ranger" before he joined the Army (a sample speech, in husky, sinister tones: "OK, if you know who the masked man is, we'll get it from you. If you don't know, we'll find out for ourselves."), but last week he was interested only in getting his sound effects down perfect.
RADIO IN KOREA
American Forces Korea Network Provides Security, Information, Education, And Entertainment
Pacific Stars and Stripes April 25, 1953
By PFC John Sack, Pacific Star and Stripes Korea Bureau
TEN-THOUSAND MEN were listening to the radio a few months ago when it went off the air. "We are going off the air," said the announcer. "We will be back in three hours." Then he picked up his mikes, discs, "pets," tapes, and antennas and threw them all in a van, and moved lock, stock and barrel five miles down the road.
"It was the damned artillery," he explained later. "Kept jiggling the phonograph needle."
Short-wave is one source of AFKN programs. Transcriptions from the States are another. Each station has 20 or 30 thousand records too, for disc jockey shows. "Mail from Home," incidentally -- where people in America request songs to be played in Korea -- is the network's most popular show.
But AFKN has the most fun making programs of its own. PFC Bert States, head of production, has carried his tape recorders from orphanages to the frontlines and once, for a story on VD, hid a microphone in his field jacket while a street-walker took him in tow. Pvt. Kemal Kasem has been working one month on a jet pilot documentary. Kasem used to appear in "The Lone Ranger" before he joined the Army (a sample speech, in husky, sinister tones: "OK, if you know who the masked man is, we'll get it from you. If you don't know, we'll find out for ourselves."), but last week he was interested only in getting his sound effects down perfect.
Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
AFRTS 1979 from Torrejon
Vicente recorded a lot of these in Madrid in the 1970s and 80s but for the most part very similar to what we were doing everywhere. There's clips of Wolfman, Jerry Bishop, Bob Kingsley with ACC, Jim Pewter and some of DINFOS best.
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Negro College Choir - 1960
In the 50s and 60s the United Negro College Fund presented a series of choirs from member universities of the fund. The series was run on the ABC radio network, hosted by Metropolitan Opera host Milton Cross. AFRTS picked up the series and ran it worldwide.
Today we have the Fisk University Choir from Nashville.
Friday, June 13, 2014
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Golden Days Of Radio - 1968
Starting in 1968 Frank Bresee celebrated the Golden Days Of Radio. The last network shows had just went off the air in 1962. Frank managed to keep the show on AFRTS until 1996. One pretty amazing accomplishment. Old time radio was a win in a lot of places. Many countries didn't have television. Many of our television stations had severe restrictions in the programming they could show. This show is very early in the run. Next, the Golden Days of Radio!
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Country Crossroads - 1978
Country Crossroads was one of my favorites in the Sunday morning slots. It was a show of faith but incredibly low-keyed with interesting interviews and good music. Here's a visit with Charley Pride.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
World of Show Business - 1962
Bud Widdom started with the network during WWII and did a lot of shows. By the 1960s he went off to run FEN at Camp Drake.
In 1962 Bud was doing the World Of Show Business on McCadden Avenue. A few weeks ago I posted one with a Jackie Gleason one. Today it's Ross Bagdasarian, the record producer that became Dave Seville with Alvin and the Chipmunks. Who has a picture of Bud Widdom?
In 1962 Bud was doing the World Of Show Business on McCadden Avenue. A few weeks ago I posted one with a Jackie Gleason one. Today it's Ross Bagdasarian, the record producer that became Dave Seville with Alvin and the Chipmunks. Who has a picture of Bud Widdom?
Monday, June 2, 2014
Dave Wachenschwanz - Torrejon, Spain 1977
Vicente lived in Madrid at the time and recorded a lot of the Torrejon AB station on nice quality cassettes, and saved them. Dave's no longer with us.
Monday, May 26, 2014
Air Force Weekly - 1983
Air Force Weekly was the official news show of the USAF
Jan Garman and Dave Ellswick were the anchors but PAO shows from all over the world phoned in the latest.
We had horrible network lines. These were probably 2k. That's how all news broadcasts sounded...
Danny Kramer - 1983
Danny Kramer from KSL Salt Lake City was one of the jocks that did shows for a 1983 project when the Voice Of Home included cities all over the country.
Vicente in Madrid recorded many of these.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Golden Days Of Radio - 1969
Frank Bresee started doing the Golden Days of Radio show in 1968. "Network Radio" had stopped in 1962 with the last of the big shows going off of the air so the memories were fairly recent. Frank had the biggest moments of radio from the 1930s-50s and kept that going until 1996, making the last recrorded show for AFRTS-LA. They are in the process of digitizing all of the shows to make them available online. When I have more information, I'll be passing it along.
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Clem Stein - 1964
Last year we lost AFNer Clem Stein. Clem had shared memories and sent along a couple of nice airchecks. This is a 1964 "Weekend World" broadcast with him being the booth announcer. Before that sharing some memories.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Marine Band Concert - 1962
"The President's Own" The United States Marine Band had been on the radio back to the 1920s. BY the 1960s they had weekly broadcasts on CBS. Those broadcasts were rebroadcast by AFRTS.
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Enchantment Of Music - 1962
"Enchantment of Music" was a light classical show originated by KCBH-FM, Beverly Hills "in the matchless Fidelity of Frequency Modulation." I'd bet it was usually run on our AM stations.
That was the studio. Bruce Wendell was the talent he bounced through several stations before becoming an executive at Capitol records.
World Of Show Business - 1962
Bud Widdom was a jack of all trades at AFRS, hosting variety shows during WWII, hundreds and hundreds of interviews. He did it all. In 1962 Bud was making "The World Of Show Business" a nice interview show. On this one he talks with Jackie Gleason.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Freedom Sings - 1962
We had patriotic shows... We had martial music... The Freedoms Foundation sponsored a lot of patriotic radio programs. Freedom sings was one of the better ones. All of the services bands had radio programs at one time or another. This one featured the Army Band and chorus.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
AFRTS - 1961
That'll keep us busy...
Arrived. It's a good day when the postman is cursing me. Bunch of One Night Stands, Grand Old Opry, Rocketing Rhythms, Continental Varieties, Swingin' Years, Broadway is My Beat and many more...
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Many thanks!
The following contributors are some of the people that have made this a better place. With your help we get more material and better tech for better transfers. Thank you very much, it goes a long way!
Linda Lord
Erkan Acar
Ken Hissong
William James
Dale Nulik
John Miller
Chris Andrews
Glen May
Burt Schneider
Steven Kuhn
Jeff McKnight
Gary Schneider
Robert Baucik
Joseph Webb
AFRTS Torrejon - Keith Anderson 1981
Aerial view of Torrejon AFB
May of 1981 and Air Force SGT Keith Anderson has your favorites.
Saturday, May 3, 2014
AFN to a local citizen
I'm Julius, living in Munich, Germany.
I was born in Mannheim in 1950 and lived there till 1975. My absolute favorite Station was AFN FRANKFURT. I heard them all: Wolfman, Roger Carroll, Charlie Tuna, Caseys' Count Down, Old Gold Retold, Hawaii Calls etc.
I recorded a lot of their music, but not the complete shows. Sometimes only the trailers with the voice of the DJs.
For decades I tried to find out the name of the title music from WEEKEND WORLD. Last Year, the SHAZAM-Program on my Mobile answered the question: "Super Chief" by Bob Thompson. I was happy like a child!
My "AFN-YEARS" in Mannheim were an important part of my life, and when I now listen to the clips on your web-site, I always feel the spirit of that time.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Breakfast Club - 1967
Don McNeill had the longest running network show in history. The Breakfast Club began in 1937 and continued until 1968. It started on NBC and went to ABC when NBC was split up. Much of that time we ran it on AFRTS. From the Clouds Room of The Hotel Allerton, Chicago it's 1967 and time for a low keyed entertainment.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
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Wednesday, April 16, 2014
AFRTS Torrejon (Madrid) Spain 1976
Torrejon studios
We've just received some wonderful tape of the Torrejon station. Vicente lived in Madrid and saved his cassettes and is making them available to us. Here's the first. There will be more. Gracias!
Friday, April 11, 2014
Goodbye Mickey Rooney
Sunday April 6th was sad. We lost Mickey Rooney. Besides his many decades of stardom, Tech Sergeant Rooney was a WWII AFN vet.
In 1944 he enlisted and spent 21 months in the army. He was awarded the Bronze Star for entertaining troops in combat areas.
Mickey Rooney with Tom Poston
In 1944 he enlisted and spent 21 months in the army. He was awarded the Bronze Star for entertaining troops in combat areas.
Goodbye Mickey and thank you.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Melody Roundup - Spade Cooley 1946
His band sure swung. This is from a 1946 live remote rebroadcast from Riverside Rancho as a Melody Roundup.
Friday, April 4, 2014
KHJ Real Don Steele 1969
Years ago I had heard about a series of albums that were distributed to the troops overseas. Top 40 radio broadcasts, off-line with commercials. Great idea! I finally located the Don Steele one.
The album gives no idea who was responsible.
From the label:"A fifty minute transcription of an actual broadcast on KHJ radio in Los Angeles, especially produced and distributed free as a public service for the men and women of the United States Armed Forces."
If the government was involved, there'd be a credit. If this was a KHJ project, I can't believe they wouldn't say something about listening to the station when you got home.
Somewhere I had heard Cola Cola was somehow involved, but again no credit. Do you remember these?
Weird, but some great radio.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
AFN Eurospin 1995
So do you remember Sign-on? Here's the AFN sign-on (No German national anthem?) and Eurospin with PFC Jennifer Lopez (not that one...). She's really good...
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