AFRS-12
dont1961
The biggest names in Hollywood and Broadway recorded for AFRS during the war years, The American Forces Network can trace its origins back to May 26, 1942, when the War Department established the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS). The U.S. Army began broadcasting from London during World War II, using equipment and studio facilities borrowed from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The first transmission to U.S. troops began at 5:45 p.m. on July 4, 1943 and included less than five hours of recorded shows, a BBC news and sports broadcast. That day, Corporal Syl Binkin became the first U.S. Military broadcaster heard over the air. The signal was sent from London via telephone lines to five regional transmitters to reach U.S. troops in the United Kingdom as they made preparations for the inevitable invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. Fearing competition for civilian audiences the BBC initially tried to impose restrictions on AFN broadcasts within Britain (transmissions were only allowed from American Bases outside London and were limited to 50 watts of transmission power) and a minimum quota of British produced programming had to be carried. Nevertheless AFN programmes were widely enjoyed by the British civilian listeners who could receive them and once AFN operations transferred to continental Europe (shortly after D-Day) AFN were able to broadcast with little restriction with programmes available to civilian audiences across most of Europe (including Britain) after dark. As D-Day approached, the network joined with the BBC and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to develop programs especially for the Allied Expeditionary Forces. Mobile stations, complete with personnel, broadcasting equipment, and a record library were deployed to broadcast music and news to troops in the field. The mobile stations reported on front line activities and fed the news reports back to studio locations in London.
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.
Chapters
Reviews
Thanks so very much for posting these! -- The Benny Show is a classic!
Greybelt
Many of these shows are circulating among radio collectors, but these are big sound improvements. Others are new and have not been available before. The Showtime episode is the AFRS rebroadcast of a missing episode of Chicago Theater of the Air dated 1951-03-03. Another collector has advised me that the Your All Time Hit Parade is compiled from the network broadcast of 1943-12-03 (verified by script) where the AFRS edited the show and added extra songs to this version. The network recording does not exist, so this AFRS version is a real find. And as far as the Benny goes, this is in excellent sound compared to the circulating AFRS copy most collectors have. But... this one's a favorite episode because it includes two of the show's most famous routines, Jack going down to his vault, and his trip to the train station with Mel Blanc as the track announcer. It's the debut of the "Anaheim, Azuza, and Cuc-amunga" routine. Thanks again for so generously posting these recordings!