AFRTS, the Voice of Home – a DeHart Audio Story

“The Wayback Machine” — QZVX is recycling some of the great stories found in the archives for your reading enjoyment.

Here is a story from Ronald DeHart…
Here’s an Armed Forces Radio-TV Service composite audio. I’ve personalized it as a full production piece with a voice-over track. It tells the story of my long-ago U.S. Navy pursuit of AFRTS. I was trained to be a military broadcaster, but …… The full piece, with the help of late actor Robin Williams, runs about 5:34.

Yes, the Gary W. Gears in this audio (starts at about 4:10) is the same Gary Gears who later hit it big with major market stints in Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Toronto. He died of a heart attack (age 46) in February, 1991.

Even though I didn’t work in AFRTS, the broadcast training didn’t go for naught. I applied it to civilian/commercial radio while still in uniform in Virginia (which was allowed in ’67-’68). After finishing my Navy stretch in the Western Pacific, I moved on to reporter, news producer, news director and on-air anchor positions (Washington, Minnesota and Indiana) in both radio and television over the succeeding 10 years.