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Dick Stark is back with the music of Millard Fillmore. Not really, but in 1971 he did a great series of shows for Marine Reserve Recruiting. Soft music and great stories, Spectrum USA.
Monday, December 14, 2015
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Stay in touch!
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There's also a periodic email list, rarely more than once a week. Drop me a note to be added.
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Jack Spector - WMCA - 1969
Back to the Coke shows! No one seems to know what the story is on these. In 1969 AFRTS had some sort of arrangement with some of the great jocks in the states and shows were pressed. These disks did not have AFRTS labels, most had commercials. Coke paid the have the albums distributed. WMCA NY seems to have been represented the best. Here's a visit with Jack Spector. Jack mentions the Coke funding.
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Hold High The Torch - 2nd Marine Division - 1947
In the late 1940s AFRS did many shows to explain the mission. A lot of why and how. Glenn Ford had spent WWII as a Marine. He stars in this production highlighting the Marines in Tarawa. Take a listen.
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
AFVN Billy Williams - 1972
“Here's part one, Thom. I started in Vietnam as a Signal Corps bench technician at AVEL Central (Avionics/Aviation Electronics) in 1971. While on the bench repairing helicopter radios at AVEL, most of us also had a radio tuned to AFVN 540 KHz in Saigon. 10 hour shifts--sometimes days and sometimes nights if the backlog justified double shifts. I heard a "cattle call" on AFVN 540 one day. A few weeks later, I arrived at AFVN Saigon and trained on the "backboard" in AFVN television master control for a week or two. Then up country to Qui Nhon AFVN on Vung Chua Mountain to run the TV station mounted in a van. Qui Nhon detachment closed after Tet 1972 when Vung Chua Mtn signal site (where AFVN was co-located) came close to being overrun. Then on to Da Nang AFVN on Monkey Mountain to work TV master control. Also did TV news/sports there and the C&W afternoon show--they must have been very short-handed. When Capt. Webb went to Saigon, I filled in on DDB. Then he came back as Army Spec. Brett Webb and DEROSed not long after. They were daring me to send out "One Monkey" to a General at the bottom of the hill--but no thanks. A few weeks later...on to Saigon. Did Nightbeat and then Orient Express overnight show until returning to U.S. in late Sept. 1972. More on the historical web site that I maintain for the local Amateur "ham" Radio group.
Friday, November 27, 2015
Silhouette - 1969
Sunday mornings AFRTS ran chapel shows. Silhouette was contemporary music and stories. Jerry saved this one. He was in Thailand and AFTN ran this one was focused on the Vietnam war. It's a powerful show.
Monday, November 23, 2015
Dan Daniel - WMCA - 1969
Dan Daniel
In 1969 the Coca Cola Company and AFRTS somehow arranged for a series of albums to be recorded to be distributed to the troops. I can't find documentation of the project. Some of the top jocks in the country recorded them. These are hard to find. Dan Daniel was a mid 1950s AFRTS vet in the Navy. Last week Neil found this one. Enjoy!
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Chris Noel - 1969
Chris did so much for us, The Date With Chris show, toured all over the world, particularly in the hotspots and has been one of the most outspoken advocates ever. Today Chris has a homeless shelter for veterans. Take a look Click here Please do what you can. Here's how it sounded in 1969.
Friday, November 13, 2015
Benny Brown - AFN
Benny Brown went from AFN to great career in European radio, including Radio Luxembourg blasting all over Europe. In February we heard a different part of this broadcast. Benny Skype'd be to talk about AFN and Radio Lux. He explained that the breaks sound sloppy in this because of he was feeding the rest of the network.
Welcome back Benny, thanks for great radio!
Sunday, November 8, 2015
One Night Stand - 1959
The great big bands continued touring well into the 1970s. In the 1940s, 50s and 60s AFRTS aired remote broadcasts of the best on One Night Stand. On this night in 1955 it was the music of Charlie Barnet from the Hollywood Palladium
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Chris Noel - 1967
Chris did one of the most popular shows ever. A pretty girl, great music and caring. She brought "home" everywhere.
Friday, October 30, 2015
Spectrum USA - Halloween 1968
Dick Starke brings us the stories of Halloween in a 1968 "Spectrum USA" for the Marine Corps Reserve.
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Most Popular
 AFRTS Roger Carroll 2539F 9-8.mp3 | 51 |
| AFRTS Date With Chris 194TH 8-8.mp3 | 49 |
| USAF Wolfman Jack s32 Apr74 4.mp3 | 46 |
| AFRTS Date With Chris 500 a 18-9.mp3 | 38 |
| AFRTS Jim Pewter 205 680203.mp3 | 37 |
Those are the top five for this week... 10/25/2015
Stay in Touch!
To get all of the updates, join the facebook group "afrtsarchive.blogspot.com" or connect with Thomas Whetston on linkedin. Get on the email mailing list at afrts@live.com
Monday, October 19, 2015
Chris Noel - 1969
Chris Noel in Pleiku 1968
Chris really stepped to the plate, did a wonderful show and went to the troops. Today she still supports the troops in need with her homeless shelter for veterans. Vetsville
Saturday, October 17, 2015
Inner Sanctum - 1949
This disk was played may times on our stations in Canada. A great mystery program never really ages. We still ran them in the 1970s and 80s. This program was originally broadcast in 1949 and rebroadcast on AFRTS may times.
"The Unburied Dead". A good story about a woman who first finds out that she's not who she thinks she is, then, that she's been dead for six years, and finally, that she's wanted for murder!
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
WBG - Fort Bliss
Part of our history that seems to be gone was the stations in the United States. A lot of posts had radio, Seemingly supported by AFRS. In El Paso, presumably Fort Bliss was WBG. Many of the big country acts performed there.
Peter Birch was a dancer, choreographer and musician who most famously directed Captain Kangaroo for 25 years. In January 1949 he performed at WBG.
Saturday, October 3, 2015
FEN - Tokyo Calling - Burr Hoyle - 1965
Tokyo Calling was a long running show on FEN. Today a 1965 visit with Airman Burr Hoyle.
Friday, October 2, 2015
AFN Derrick in the Morning
Derrick has checked in. Welcome!
I was very happy to find your site and the page where you featured my Zfm show. I was the morning show guy from 1994 - 1995 at AFN HQ.
On one occasion I helped SRA Angie Pianga re-launch Spagndahlem's radio station which had been dormant for decades. I was there with a fan dressed as a chicken to do the inaugural show. A few years earlier Angie and I were radio broadcasters at AFKN in Seoul, Korea.
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Kate Smith - 1944
In WWII AFRS did a series of shows called "Personal Album", these were 15 minutes of minutes with a popular star, usually with the star talking about their music and lives. Today a visit with Kate Smith and Ted Collins.
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Enchantment of Music 1964
There was a lot of orchestral music over the years, perfect to the dinner hour. "The Enchantment of Music". Bruce Wendell hosted from KCBH in Beverly Hills, showing high fidelity sound.
Friday, September 25, 2015
Fall cleaning?
If you have a bunch of AFRTS disks in storage somewhere, we'd really love the chance to be able to share them with others. Many times those memories just end up packed away. I could tell you stories... If you'd like to share them with folks just like us who'd appreciate it, contact me. afrts@live.com or let me know on the "Hit Line"612-356-2377. Thanks!
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Continental Varieties - 1962
On todays show, Dick Crawford has a tribute to the great Bruno Walter, who had died recently.
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Chickenman
I had posted this on the Facebook afrtsarchive page (click here) Someone, not me has posted Chickenman. The White Winged Warrior was even broadcast in Afghanistan during the early part of the war. He's an all time hero.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Robert Q Lewis - 1958
Robert Q was perfect for his times. In 1958 radio was in a transitional period and he was on CBS. AFRTS ran it worldwide.
John Miller thought Bob Crewe was singing on this:
I am Bob's brother Dan and after listening to the recording I can say without any doubt that it is he. Although I am not familiar with this event, I know Bob was by 1957 very active in promoting his singing career. Although he did have some success as a performer he changed direction and focused on song writing and record production. I joined him in 1962 and together we had a great run with artists such as the Four Seasons, Mitch Ryder etc. Bob passed away September 11,2014 here in Maine where he was in a medical nursing home. Thank you for this forgotten event. By the way, I know Bob and Robert Q. enjoyed a long friendship.
Best regards,
Dan Crewe
Monday, September 7, 2015
Whistler - 1962
So how on earth do you date these? We were running the Whistler well into the 1980s. It wasn't so much "Old Time Radio" as an interesting story on the radio. This is a 1961 reissue of a 1950 broadcast. "The Chinese Elephant Puzzle" is the story of a wooden puzzle filled with diamonds, an elusive prize.
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Polka Party - 1967
By the 1950s, Polka was a link to home for European families in the United States. Even today sometimes a polka show will come on on the radio or usually cable access TV, but in the 50s and 60s Dick Sinclair was the voice of the polka. Dick was one of the first AFRS jocks in the pacific and after the war went to Los Angeles, created very successful polka radio and television shows that were syndicated from coast to coast. These shows were picked up by AFRTS.
Dick still does a weekend Polka Party show for CRN Click here
It's available on TuneIn Click Here
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