Sunday, January 29, 2012

AFN Bremerhaven 1968


Guenther sent another goodie.  In 1968 he recorded a lot of clips of the Bremerhaven station.  He just put a bunch of it together and it's a fun bit.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Canadian and British Armed Forces Radio

In the early 60s, CFN was the Caribbean Forces Network in the Canal Zone.  In 2012 CFN is the Canadian Forces Network in Europe.  They stream live.


AND the run the classic AT40s on the weekend,

British forces also have a live stream
BFBS live stream

I wish we had a live stream.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

GI Jive 1945


Martha Wilkerson was GI Jill, the first really big homegrown star on the network. 

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Where does all of this come from?

Fortunately many people saved a little history from AFRTS.  We welcome anything you'd care to share.  Pictures, tapes, records taking up space at the house an most importantly, your memories.  Contact me if you'd like to help.  afrts@live.com

AFN's Bill Boyd with the "1605 to Nashville"

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Thom does Madrid

Andoni, my boy Victor and myself

So I'm back from Spain and everything is getting back up to speed.  Andoni has a Spanish blog dedicated to American country music ( http://www.escountry.com )and is another Gene Price/Harry Newman fan, going back to the days that they were being broadcast on the airbase in Madrid (Torrejon).  Since I was going to be in town I stopped by.  He told me he worked at  a radio station.  That was an understatement.  His facility was HUGE.  Four huge stations operating out of the same facility, multiple studios capable of most anything.  A couple of years ago I visited the Clear Channel setup in the Twin Cities and was underwhelmed.  That had a handful of people not enjoying their jobs watching the computers play voicetracking.  THIS was like when they used to do it right here. 

I couldn't swing a visit to Rota.  We covered a lot of ground.