The American Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) touched a lot of people. Whether talent, support or listeners it touched a lot of us in ways that stateside media could only dream of. It was more than just the radio, it was home.
Armed Forces Radio & Television Service comprises the primary communication media of the American Forces Information Service (AFIS), a unit of the Department of Defense (DoD). AFRTS provides radio and television news, information, sports and entertainment programming to U.S. military personnel and their families stationed at U.S. military installations and seacraft worldwide.
The American Forces Network can trace its origins back to May 26, 1942, when the War Department established the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS).
A television service was first introduced in 1954 with a "pilot" station at Limestone AFB, Maine. In 1954, the television mission of AFRS was officially recognized and AFRS (Armed Forces Radio Service) became AFRTS (Armed Forces Radio and Television Service).
All of the Armed Forces broadcasting affiliates worldwide merged under the AFN banner on January 1, 1998. On November 21, 2000, The American Forces Information Service directed a change of the AFRTS organizational title from Armed Forces Radio and Television Service back to American Forces Radio and Television Service. A timeline of the history of AFN is available online.
Jimmy Wakely was a popular American cowboy. In the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s he starred in hundreds of movies, hit songs, television and comic books.
Jimmy started recording shows for AFRS during WWII and was doing them well into the 1970s.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------The Town Hall Party
From 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. PT on Saturday nights, Los Angeles television station KTTV carried the live Town Hall Party series. The Armed Forces Television Service made 16mm kinescopes of the shows and broadcast them on stations throughout the world, from Greenland to Saudi Arabia to the Canal Zone.
As the show expanded, new talent joined the cast - with Lefty Frizzell, Skeets McDonald, Dortha Wright and The Collins Kids being among the most popular. Guest stars were plentiful. Eddie Dean, Smiley Burnette, Jimmy Wakely, Sons of the Pioneers, Johnny Cash, Jim Reeves and many other big names made guest appearances on the program, with Gene Autry breaking all attendance records during a 1954 performance.
The 10-piece Town Hall Party band featured Joe Maphis, Merle Travis, superb steel guitarist Marian Hall, Billy Hill and Fiddlin' Kate on violins, PeeWee Adams on drums, Jimmy Pruitt on piano and other excellent musicians who created a Town Hall Party sound also heard on many country sessions produced by Columbia Records in Hollywood in the 1950s.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Researched and written by Richard Bell, Roots of Country Music. Oct. 16, 2011.
Source: Wilipedia 2011.
