Customer Reviews

Brass Button Broadcasters: A Lighhearted Look at 50 Years of Military Broadcasting

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American Forces Radio is as well known to non-US military listeners as it is to the folks who serve, whether they're tuned to FEN Tokyo, AFN Frankfurt or WASA McMurdo, Antarctica. For many years I've searched for weak signals in the middle of the night from radio stations in Saigon, Kunsan, Naha and other outposts of the AFRTS network. As a DXer, just hearing these rare signals as far away as New Zealand has been a real thrill. Sometimes I've received cards and letters from the stations, and I've wanted to know more about them, and the audiences they serve. This is the only book I know which tells the human side of the 60 year old story of military radio with music. Tracing the emergence from Alaska to the Pacific's Mosquito Network of WWII to Europe and Operation Desert Shield, and with some 132 countries where broadcasts have taken place, this book is a must for the collection of any Shortwave Radio fan. Great photos of people, towers, transmitter sites and studios, including WVTX Iwo Jima, this book fills in a lot of knowledge gaps and provides useful history written in an entertaining style. Nothing boring here if you like radio, and the story of how radio reaches the serving men and women and keeps them in touch with home, even in these days of the Internet and streaming audio.