AFRS-17 | |
by dont1961 | |
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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. | |
Date Published: 2015-03-18 23:02:59 | |
Identifier: AFRS-17 | |
Item Size: 933797904 | |
Media Type: audio | |
# Topics | |
AFRS;OTR;Command Performance;Ida Lupi... | |
# Collections | |
oldtimeradio | |
armedforcesradioservice | |
radioprograms | |
# Uploaded by | |
@dnt1961 | |
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