Origins

  In February 1939, shortwave radio station KGEI in San Francisco began beaming broadcasts to the Philippines for U.S. armed forces stationed there. Later these broadcasts became the responsibility of the War Department's Radio Division, which began broadcasting music and sports overseas in the spring of 1941. Late that year U.S. forces set up a 1,000-watt station on Bataan, later moved to Corregidor. They relayed news and entertainment from KGEI.

At about the same time, officers of the Panama Coast Artillery Command (PCAC), in an effort to ensure that troops would listen to widely spaced messages on a tactical radio circuit, began playing popular records in between the announcements. Early in 1940, they started broadcasting on a regular schedule. Soldiers wrote to radio stars in the United States asking for copies of programs to air. Replies were immediate. Jack Benny sent an autographed disc, and this became the first network program to be broadcast by PCAC. In September 1941, NBC sent the station 2,000 pounds of programs. PCAC signed off on the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, 7 December 1941, for fear that Japanese aircraft might home in on the signal. It resumed broadcasting in January 1943 as a part of the growing new AFRS organization.

In a very different climate, imaginative soldiers in Alaska began "bootleg" radio stations of their own, beginning with KODK on Kodiak in January 1942, and shortly thereafter, KRB in Sitka. Unlicensed, KRB was ordered off the air by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In February 1942, ignoring the problems of KRB, soldiers established a new station at Sitka which they identified as KGAB and later as KRAY. C.P. MacGregor, a Hollywood recording executive and radio producer, received a request from one of these Alaskan stations for any and all recordings. Quick to comply, MacGregor sought approval from the War Department to send a large shipment of glass and aluminum based recordings "out of the country" for "your radio station in Alaska." The puzzled staff members didn't know what he was talking about.

World War II

  The United States Armed Forces Radio Service was established by order of the War Department on 26 May 1942. Tho­mas H. Lewis, vice president of the Young and Rubicam advertising agency, was commissioned as an Army major and assigned to command the new organization. Los Angeles was selected as the headquarters because of its proximity to the entertainment industry, which quickly gave its overwhelming support. The mission of the new AFRS was to provide American servicemen "a touch of home" through the broadcast of American news and entertainment. It was also intended to combat Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally, whose broadcasts to American troops from Japan and Germany were heavily laden with propaganda.

AFRS first reached its target audience via borrowed short­ wave transmitters and through dissemination of "B Kits," or "Buddy Kits." These were large, so-called "portable" 16-inch turntables delivered with transcriptions of music and radio programs, produced under the supervision of Los Angeles producer and recording executive Irving Fogel.

It was Glenn Wheaton, a "dollar a year" man with the War Department's Radio Division, who first proposed a special program for the armed forces that would present entertainers requested by military personnel serving overseas. On 8 December 1941, Wheaton suggested it be called Command Performance. The first broadcast on 1 March 1942 featured Eddie Cantor as master of ceremonies. A special addition to the program was a recording of the Joe Louis/Buddy Baer title fight. Other Radio Division broadcasts included disc jockeys, sports roundups, and a regular section titled "News from Home." Within a week, Command Performance was aired on some 11 stations, and by mid-year KGEI was transmitting the show to the South Pacific.

Command Performance was moved to Hollywood, where it continued production with the enthusiastic cooperation of the entertainment industry. Stars such as Betty Hutton, Gary Cooper, Edgar Bergen, and Gene Tierney made frequent appearances. A new program, Mail Call, was added and early shows starred Bob Hope, Jerry Colonna, Frances Langford, and Lor­etta Young.

Soon other AFRS productions included Melody Roundup, hosted by Roy Rogers, Personal Album, with Bing Crosby, and Jubilee, which featured African-American entertainers. Easily one of the most popular programs was a musical request feature, AEF Jukebox, hosted by a perky "G.I. Jill" (Martha "Marty" Wilkerson).

In AFRS broadcasts, all commercials were removed for two reasons. First, neither the government nor the War Department wanted to appear to be endorsing a commercial product or service. Second, and even more compelling, performers agreed that their work could be rebroadcast overseas without payment if no additional benefit accrued to the original sponsor. The sponsors agreed to the deletion of their commercials. In the same spirit, AFRS made agreements with all broadcasting and music guilds and unions, from the American Federation of Musicians to the American Federation of Radio Artists, and these continue today. Likewise, agreements were signed with copyright agencies to permit duplication and distribution of popular music. The cooperation of the performers, producers, directors, musicians, and sponsors made possible an AFRS schedule of programs that otherwise would have been prohibitively expensive. (AFRS created special troop information and education spot announcements to replace the excised commercials.)

Shortwave broadcasts continued from both U.S. coasts to furnish troops with news and sports programming, although music, despite the vagaries of shortwave reception, was included. The War Department approved the establishment of an American radio network in England. Lloyd Sigmon, a Los Angeles radio engineer, was commissioned to establish the stations. When he arrived in England, the new Signal Corps officer discovered his mission was to oversee activation of a number of 50-watt stations with extremely limited range.

In a relatively short period there were 140 stations broadcasting AFRS programs in England, Europe, Alaska, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific. AFRS had begun shipping self­-contained stations for assembly in the Pacific area, and in 1944 the "Mosquito Network" of seven stations was established in the southwest Pacific with Noumea, New Caledonia, as key station. At about the same time the "Jungle Network" was also founded. These were affiliations of stations under a single commander. By VJ Day (15 August 1945) the total number of AFRS stations worldwide had reached 154, plus 143 public address systems and hospital bedside networks. AFRS pressed its 1 millionth disc and produced its most famous Command Performance, "The Wedding of Dick Tracy."

Postwar Developments

  At the end of the war, the first Armed Forces Radio station in Japan signed on in Kyushu in September 1945, closely followed by stations in Kure, Osaka, and Tokyo. Frankfurt became the new headquarters of the American Forces Network (AFN), Europe, and London signed-off for the last time. AFN facilities became the first American outlets to use audiotape recovered from the Germans.

As part of a worldwide reduction, in 1947 AFRS decreased production of original programming to 14 hours per week. However, stations began receiving an additional 41 hours of ​​network programs, excluding their commercials. The Far East Network, which had reached a high of 39 stations, was gradually reduced to 16. The Berlin station served as a homing beacon for the allied Airlift in 1948-49. AFRS slowly gave up creative radio production.

In 1950, the same year that South Korea was invaded by North Korea, AFRS stations assisted in evacuation. The Seoul station became mobile as "Radio Vagabond" and eventually had to retreat to Japan. It returned to Seoul only to be driven out again, then returned permanently in May 1951. South Korea was soon well supplied with additional mobile stations known as Troubadour, Gypsy, Homesteader, Rambler, Nomad, Mercury, Meteor, and Comet.

Vietnam, Lebanon, and Desert Storm

  In 1962 Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) Saigon signed on in Vietnam to counter propaganda broadcasts from Radio Hanoi. Da Nang's Red Beach radio transmitter was knocked off the air by enemy fire, and the Armed Forces Vietnam Network (AFVN) at Hue came under fire during the 1968 Tet offensive. The station staff was captured and spent five years in prison. Despite the fact that the network headquarters building in Saigon was nearly demolished by a car bomb, more than 500,000 troops were now receiving radio and television (which had been added in the 1950s) from AFVN stations throughout Vietnam. By 1970 the Armed Forces Thailand network was operating six manned radio and television stations and 17 relay facilities, with headquarters at Korat. In the early 1970s, as American forces pulled out, AFVN began closing stations. Saigon was the last to shut down, signing off in March 1973.

The AFRTS SATNET satellite system began program feeds from Los Angeles on a 24 hour basis in 1978. By 1982 the Los Angeles Broadcast Center was providing satellite feeds to stations from Iceland to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. In 1988 satellite radio transmissions replaced the east and west coast shortwave broadcasts, providing greatly enhanced coverage and quality. A year later all satellite transmissions from the AFRTS Broadcast Center were encrypted to prevent program piracy, a move applauded by the television industry, which was still providing programs at very little cost to the Armed Forces. In 1982 a mobile broadcasting unit was dispatched to Lebanon to support the U.S. Marine peacekeeping force. In 1983 the AFRTS station in Lebanon was knocked off the air by a bomb explosion that killed over 240 Marines. Three mobile stations were flown to Honduras to provide support for American troops operating in that country.

When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, mobile stations were provided almost immediately to Dhahran and Riyadh as part of Operation Desert Shield. Two mobile stations were deployed to Saudi Arabia and in 1991 became the Armed Forces Desert Network, with headquarters in Kuwait. The stations received live news from SATNET.

AFRTS celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 1992, feted by the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters. The organization also received the coveted George Foster Peabody Award and later a Golden Mike from the Broadcast Pioneers.

The single-channel SATNET was replaced in 1997 with multi-channel television service. These channels were identified as NewSports, Spectrum, and American Forces Network (AFN), giving overseas stations more programming choices. Later that year Direct to Sailors (DTS ) service was instituted, providing ships and remote sites two live television and three live radio services, 24 hours a day. DTS also delivers a daily Stars & Stripes newspaper to ships and remote installations.

As of 2000, overseas stations receive seven radio music channels 24 hours a day, plus one channel of public radio and another dedicated to news, live sports, and information. Station music libraries are furnished with weekly shipments of popular music on CD, keeping overseas disc jockeys abreast of their stateside counterparts. Service reaches every continent and most U.S. Navy ships through more than 300 radio and television outlets.