The late Mark White had his claim to King of Jazz. He brought some wonderful music to Berlin for well over three decades. Chris Muermann was a big fan at the time and recorded several of his broadcasts. Garry made them available. Today it's a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, coming to Berlin for a concert. Mark, keep swinging...
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Mark White -AFN Berlin 1980
Labels:
1980,
AFN,
AFN Berlin,
Berlin,
Mark White
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Chris Noel 1970
I'm still reading Chris's book "Vietnam and Me". It's highly recommended.
But right now, it's 1970 and time for a Date With Chris
Labels:
1970,
Chris Noel,
Date With Chris
RIP Mark White
One of the great voices of radio history has been silenced. After spending a wonderful Christmas day with his family, Mark White went to bed and passed away in his sleep 12/29/2013. He would have been 89 on the 2nd of January. Mark was the manager of AFN Berlin from the 1950s until 1988. He left behind a great legacy and many friends. (David Glen Andersen facebook feed)
Labels:
AFN,
Berlin,
Mark White
News Censorship at AFVN during the Vietnam War
Labels:
Adrian Cronauer,
AFVN,
Censorship,
Paul Bottoms,
Tony Booth
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Roland Bynum 1983
Roland always gets the party started.

Roland's recruiting show
It's late summer 1983, let's check in on the Creators Workshop...
Labels:
1983,
Roland Bynum
Melody Roundup 1944
Melody Roundup brought top Western talent. This time with Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers.
Hard to tell what the source material was 78s, radio transcriptions, movie soundtracks.
Labels:
1944,
Melody Roundup,
OTR
Friday, December 27, 2013
GI Jive - 1946
Martha Wilkinson was one of the first big stars of AFRS. During WWII there was a show called "GI Jive", one of the DJ shows. Pretty non-descript until Martha became GI Jill and the voice of home.
Labels:
1946,
GI Jill,
GI Jive,
Martha Wilkerson
Roger Carroll - 1981
Young Roger at WMFD
There's always time for a Happy Hour. When I was working civilian, one time I had a PD wondering how I could do so many "universals". To him that meant being able to do a break without necessarily doing a station promo or talking about the record. I learned it from the Roger and the AFRTS-LA talent. Many thanks.
Labels:
1981,
Roger Carroll
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Gary Owens
Thanks Jerry for sharing these, they were airchecked off of the Thailand network. I finally heard from Gary, letting us know it's okay to share these. When I was a boy DJ, I kept the postman busy with incoming KMPC airchecks. Amazing.
Labels:
1969,
Gary Owens
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Merry Christmas 2013
Merry Christmas and thank you for visiting. It's been a nice year with family, my day job and people in general. More and more people are stopping by every month so I guess it serves a purpose.
If you haven't checked in yet, you can email afrts@live.com or facebook Thom Whetston or the afrtsarchive.blogspot.com page (click "Like" on that one).
Approximately every week I send out an email about what's new, sometimes asking questions, sometimes looking for people. Just let me know if you'd like to be on the mailing list.
If you saved any recordings or memorabilia about the network, please let me know. There are a lot of people that'd like to remember it.
Chris Noel
Labels:
Christmas
Monday, December 23, 2013
Music Censorship at AFVN and AFKN
Labels:
Adrian Cronauer,
AFKN,
AFVN,
Censorship,
Paul Bottoms
Gene Price - 1975
Gene Price is back, driving the Country Express.
A while back, I heard a tape of Gene on Oakland radio doing top 40 and it sounded natural. He could probably be The Gene Price Show with anything.
Over at Gene's website, he's done the nicest children's book and you can check in there or on Facebook.
Labels:
1975,
Army,
Gene Price,
Recruiting
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Enchanted Keyboard - 1951
By the early 1950s radio had changed. Prior to that the networks were doing great comedy, mystery variety shows and AFRTS could clip the commercials and send them out. But now they were tasked with creating a lot of programs. Many information and education programs were produced along with entertainment offerings.
"Enchanted Keyboard" was typical. Classical piano with Don Thompson announcing. Some wonderful talent was available to come in and play the piano.
On this broadcast, Edward Rebner
Labels:
1951,
Enchanted Keyboard
Charlie Tuna - 1983
"Boss Angeles" Charlie was one of the guys that made KHJ happen. The things Bill Drake did with that station had a lot to do with every top 40 station in the United States. Charlie started there in the mid-60s and went with us in 1971. Thanks for the memories. Stay Tuna'd!
Labels:
1983,
Charlie Tuna
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Redd Harper - 1948
Redd was a part of a concert band that became more and more successful until they were invited to join an Oklahoma City radio station in 1924. From there, his career took off and his music was in greater demand. In 1931 he joined a larger radio station in Des Moines, found more success, and then decided to head to Hollywood, California. However, he arrived at the end of the Western Jazz era and the beginning of the Great Depression, thus finding it hard to find work and was not as successful as he had been. He struggled to find work in the city. When World War II started, he joined the Coast Guard for three years. After the war, Redd was doing shows for AFRS.
After the war he found success again in Hollywood as he began working with other big name artists of the time from both radio and movies. During this time he also found success in the movie industry and starred in several films, including The Strawberry Roan.
Labels:
1948,
Redd Harper
Friday, December 20, 2013
Ronnie Landry - 1959
Ron Landry, later of Hudson and Landry was drafted into the Army in 1958. By 1959 he was doing a show on the network from AFRTS New York.
I was usually assigned with the infantry, this was a classic:
Labels:
1959,
Ronnie Landry
Jim Ameche - 1965
"The Most Beautiful Sounds Around" Orchestral music just isn't heard anymore. Jim Ameche brought it to AFRTS.
Jim was a huge star during the "Golden Days of Radio" and managed to stay very successful as a DJ.
Labels:
1965,
Jim Ameche
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Chris Noel - Christmas 1969
Labels:
1969,
Chris Noel,
Christmas,
Date With Chris
AFN - Bob Debasia - 1984
Labels:
1984,
AFN,
AFN Munich,
Bob Debasia
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Wolfman Jack - 1975
It's the call of the Wolfman, a magic thing. Wolf, we miss you.
Labels:
1975,
Recruiting,
USAF,
Wolfman Jack
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Connectivity
We're back on the air. About a week ago Comcast pushed out an update that killed my Motorola SGB6580. I managed to get it back to defaults and running again. I own my modem, rather than paying the 7 bucks every month.
Yesterday it was the same thing and I couldn't get it back online.
I spent four years working for Comcast, getting modems activated and online. I do know this stuff.
Just wanted to let you know that Comcast and Motorola have a long history of not playing well on certain Motorola models.
On with the show...
Yesterday it was the same thing and I couldn't get it back online.
I spent four years working for Comcast, getting modems activated and online. I do know this stuff.
Just wanted to let you know that Comcast and Motorola have a long history of not playing well on certain Motorola models.
On with the show...
Monday, December 16, 2013
Roger Carroll - 1981
I'm grateful that Roger made so many great shows and made them available to us.
Today it's memories of 1981. If you have any of Roger's Christmas shows please contact me!
Labels:
1981,
Roger Carroll
Sunday, December 15, 2013
AFVN The Early Years - Adrian Cronauer
Adrian Cronauer explains the early years of AFVN and block programming.
Labels:
1965,
Adrian Cronauer,
AFVN,
Vietnam
Chris Noel Christmas 1969
Because of the way the transcription disks were sent out, there was no way to tell when they were actually broadcast... Except for Christmas week. That week we would get disks with actual airdates. They'd send them almost a month early to make that happen.
This was aired worldwide December 19, 1969
Labels:
1969,
Chris Noel,
Christmas,
Date With Chris
Friday, December 13, 2013
Good Morning Vietnam - the real story
Paul Bottoms let me know about this:
"Adrian Cronauer, Tony Booth who was at AFKN in Korea and I gave a presentation in February 2011 for two days at the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond."
Here's the first part:
"Adrian Cronauer, Tony Booth who was at AFKN in Korea and I gave a presentation in February 2011 for two days at the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond."
Here's the first part:
Labels:
1965,
AFVN,
Paul Bottoms,
Tony Booth,
Vietnam
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Charlie Tuna - 1982
If you see the film "Rollercoaster", there's a DJ MC...
Charlie's back with another sixty minutes in the radio. I hope that you've visited his website charlietuna.com He really has taken the show... trivia, humor and great stories and made the transition to the internet.
Labels:
1982,
Charlie Tuna
Saturday, December 7, 2013
FEN - 1964 the start of the Vietnam War
Here's live coverage from FEN August 5th and 6th 1964 of the Gulf of Tonkin, pretty much the beginning of the Vietnam War.
Roger Carroll - Christmas 1973
I really wish I had audio of one of Roger's Christmas shows, with that familiar open... (Do you have one??)
But this is very nice, in 1973 he did an Air Force recruiting show with Ray Conniff. Great radio!
Have a very Merry Christmas!
Labels:
1973,
Christmas,
Recruiting,
Roger Carroll,
USAF
Chris Noel - Christmas 1966
Chris had just started doing "Date With Chris" and it was the holiday season
Labels:
1966,
Chris Noel,
Christmas,
Date With Chris
Friday, December 6, 2013
Roland Bynum - 1981
Soulin' with the Roland
Roland is still on the air in Los Angeles on weekends and sounding better than ever.
Labels:
1981,
Roland Bynum
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Chris Noel - 1971
Labels:
1971,
Chris Noel,
Date With Chris
Monday, December 2, 2013
Mosquito Network - The Ulithi Encyclopedia
During WWII we had a base in the Western Carolines and a LT (jg) John Vollbrecht found the local Ulithi population interesting. He studied them and presented talks on AFRS WVTY. There was enough interest where the station published a book about the culture.
Labels:
1944,
Mosquito Network,
WVTY
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Johnny Bond - 1961
To the strains of Les Paul's "Cimarron" and a bushel basket full of gramophone records. It's old school country from 1961.
Happy listening!
Labels:
1961,
Johnny Bond
Bob Hope - Christmas 1968 Long Binh
We've made it to December. Christmas is coming. This is Bob Hope's 1968 Christmas show from Long Binh, Vietnam. Whet was it like to be at one of these shows?
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