Banjo player and guitarist Buck Trent, a two-time CMA
instrumental group of the year winner and a prominent
member of the cast of the variety show Hee Haw, died
on Monday (Oct. 9) at age 85.

The American Forces Network can trace its origins to 26 May 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 Air Force Base, 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).        

AFN-Japan’s radio services today consist of AM and FM stereo operations at Yokota Air Base (810 AM & cable FM), MCAS
Iwakuni (1575 AM), FLTACTS Sasebo (1575 AM), Okinawa
(648 AM & 89.1 FM) and Misawa Air Base (1575 AM).      

AFN-Okinawa ceased over-the-air analog TV operations along
with all other Japanese TV stations on July 24, 2011.      

All music was recorded on LP discs.

1960

AFRTS Okinawa Record library (1950s)

AFRTS Okinawa TV Master Control booth in 1964.

Pat Sajak, the host of TVs Wheel of Fortune
served in the U.S. Army as a disc jockey
during the Vietnam War for American
Forces Vietnam Network. He hosted the
same Dawn Buster radio show that Adrian
Cronauer had, and for 14 months, followed
Cronauer’s tradition of signing on with
"Good Morning Vietnam!"

ROSS SIMPSON

The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American part-talkie musical drama
film directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Warner Bros.
Pictures. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music and lip-synchronous singing
and speech (in several isolated sequences).

Its release heralded the commercial ascendance of sound
films and effectively marked the end of the silent film era
with the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system.
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Al Jolson (1886 – 1950) as Jack Robin on stage, in a
publicity shot representing the film’s final scene.

Singer-songwriter Terry Kirkman, a founding member of the
1960s folk-rock band the Association, has died at 83.

In the years following his departure from the Association,
Kirkman retired from the music industry, and worked in
California as an addictions counselor.

Kirkman lived in Montclair, California with his wife Heidi.

   
Jack Sonni (December 9, 1954 – August 30, 2023)

Legendary Dire Straits guitarist Jack Sonni reportedly died,
August 30. The cause of death has not yet been revealed.

Sonni, who was widely known as the band’s “other guitarist”
during the groups Brothers in Arms era, had been suffering  
unspecified health issues earlier this week.