|
Post by Robert Lia on Dec 20, 2013 23:58:14 GMT
Back in the early 1970's there were many more AFRTS channels than there are now, by the time I was stationed in the Philipiines which by the was is an English speaking country I was alble to watch Philippine TV in English, they even screeened Star Trek The origional series on the RPN 9 network and Galactica 1980 on Pepoples Televison Channel 4 (The Government Channel) when I was stationed there. GMA channel 7 in Manila actually ran Tom Baker episodes for a while Monday to Friaday from 4:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Overseas military broadcasters were slow to switch to colorbroadcast equipment so the US bases were in black and white in the early 1970's as color TV woud have had to be shipped from the USA. The Philippines while broadcasting in NTSC was 220volts while US equipment was 110volts.
And yes I had Space 1999 tapes from AFN Europe before I joined the Navy in 1986. By the time I had arrived in the Philipiines in May 1987 they had pretty much stopped broadcasting non US programs. In 1988 or 89 there was a letter in the Pacific Stars and Stripes asking why we could not have the Britsih programs that aired on PBS. The local AFRTS commander replied that people were complaining that we were not airing (insert AmerianTV show name) because we did not have room on the schedule but we had room for BBC shows so for the three years I was thee I saw no BBC or ITV shows on AFRTS (Far East Netowrk Philippines).
|
|
Greg Glenn
Member
Carl Palmer art! Tank!
Posts: 55
|
Post by Greg Glenn on Dec 21, 2013 0:44:40 GMT
Quote "The earliest known complete game of a US major league baseball game is one from 1969 thathad been shown to the troops in Viet Nam. It somehow made its way back to the US and copies have been circulating among baseball fans for a number of years. Sports programming in the US has lots of missing episodes. The game features the Chicago Cubs from the year of the great crash and burn, something they are famous for."
Actually, there are many complete baseball games before 1969. Games 6 and 7 of the 1952 World Series are available on I-Tunes. And the pivotal Game 7 of the 1960 Series was found in Bing Crosby's archives. He was partial owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates but didn't want to jinx the team by watching the game live. So he had a kinescope made of the game so he could watch it later. It's out on DVD I believe.
|
|
|
Post by Brad Phipps on Dec 21, 2013 1:10:32 GMT
This reminds me of those episodes of The Sea Devils found in that base in the Ascensuon Islands in the 80s. Makes me wonder how widespread the distribution of films to the military it was. How much is documented I wonder...
|
|
|
Post by Paul McDermott on Dec 21, 2013 2:07:59 GMT
This reminds me of those episodes of The Sea Devils found in that base in the Ascensuon Islands in the 80s. Makes me wonder how widespread the distribution of films to the military it was. How much is documented I wonder... Maybe, as the returns suggest an undiscovered path, there's clues as to where paperwork might be - even if it's not at the Beeb or other sources checked to date? Then again, depending on the circumstances - which may not be easily inferred even once the film is examined - we might still be left with unanswered/unanswerable questions... It's exciting stuff. Africa was always a hopeful prospect for more eps, but this is something right out of left field - who knows where a careful tracing of these prints might lead us? It'd be a curious quirk of fate if the return of these eps actually leads us to a completely unexpected path with still recoverable but completely missing eps (eg remainder of Invasion, Space Pirates) whereas Phil's extraordinary returns yield nothing more from that part of the world he found them in. My hope is that both will be a fruitful source of more material, Who and otherwise, in due course. And just maybe, Paul V will be able to finally release that promised article here when it does!
|
|
|
Post by Robert Lia on Dec 21, 2013 2:17:46 GMT
AFRTS - PANAMA United States Southern Command Network.
Here is an intersting article that proves that those black and white Dr. Who episodes would have aired in Panama in the 1970's. At the bottom is a letter from the former stqtion manager giving some really intersting details of the problems that U.S. Broadcasters had in that country which also broadcasts in NTSC. It should be noted that the Panama did not broadcast Doctor Who in English or Spanish so the 22 Tom baker storys that were bicycled around AFRTS in 1986-87 would have been cleared for the Canal Zone. The Philipines of whihc I was stationed in the same time persiod also broadcast in NTSC but being a poor country only had one documented fight with AFRTS over a US TV program when I was there in 1989 and that was over the origional Star Trek Series.
PCAN April 1941 was first established as a low wattage radio broadcast for Americans assigned to the Coast Artillery Command in the Panama Canal Zone. Then called , broadcasting on a reserved military frequency, Americans assigned to jungle and remote duty locations were able to receive news, information, music and sports. AFRS (Armed Forces Radio Service) 1943 Set up a radio broadcast site on Ft Clayton in the Panama Canal Zone which was temporarily relocated to Albrook Field. Following the end of the Korean war, AFRS was returned to Ft Clayton where it would remain until the very end. CFN (Caribbean Forces Network) 1954 AFRS was renamed to CFN. TV was added to provide Radio & TV entertainment and information for Americans in the military and civilian sectors and their families living in the Panama Canal Zone from coast to coast. SCN (Southern Command Network) 1963 The name was changed for the final time from CFN to SCN 1975 SCN upgraded to a full color broadcasting station. 1979 SCN was the lead station in a pilot project for the DoD's Satellite Network (SATNET) SATNET has since become a worldwide network reaching more than 141 countries 1987 SCN assumed operational control of the AFRTS Activity in Honduras in a small studio with only three personnel and volunteers. 1989 December 1989 to January 1990 SCN was the first ABS network and AFRTS affiliate to receive a Combat Streamer, resulting from its support to the U. S. Southern Command during Operation JUST CAUSE 1990 Restricted from broadcasting many popular programs due to an agreement in the Panama Treaty, SCN inaugurated a second encrypted wireless cable TV channel. Much of the programming prior to this date had consisted of much older programs which the Panamanian broadcasting services had not purchased the broadcast right to play on their commercial stations. The second channel was delivered via an MMDS system. SCN was the only AFRTS (Armed Forces Radio and Television Service) station which provided two full-service, independent television channels for the DoD (Department of Defense) audience. 1991 JTF-Bravo, Honduras was officially established as an SCN affiliate Previously this broadcasting outlet was listed as a Navy contingency operation. In addition to AFRTS Radio/TV service, JTF-BRAVO has acquired a commercial satellite program service. This commercial service provides more available channels than could be possible by SCN because it is delivered to the audience via cable, and only within the confines of the installation. SCN-Honduras also provides the Armed Forces Digital Audio Service or AFDAS to the installation via the cable system. AFDAS is a satellite service providing a wide variety of musical formats. 1999 The official closing ceremonies for SCN occurred on July 1st, 1999. To ensure information, news and entertainment continued to reach DoD personnel residing off the installation, SCN continued to broadcast an over-the-air channel from a mobile van atop Ancon hill until the last of the American forces departed on December 31st, 1999 Ending 59 years of historical service to the Americans living, working and serving in the Panama Canal Zone
If you ever wondered why SCN was broadcasting programs which were 20 - 30 years old back in the 1960's and 1970's, it was because of this treaty wherein the US had agreed not to broadcast programs which the Panamanian's had purchased the rights to air. The reason we never saw any of the new programs was due to a broadcast agreement between the U.S. Government and Panama which prohibited SCN from airing any shows which were being broadcast by Panama. The Panamanian TV stations and their advertisers were afraid they would lose revenue and possibly their audience if the Panamanian viewers started watching the commercial-free SCN TV, an affiliate of AFRTS (Armed Forces Radio and Television Service). As the audience found out the hard way, this treaty covered almost every current program on the air in the US at the time. So, while our friends and families were back in the US watching Bewitched, I Dream of Jeanie and Star Trek... we were forced to watch old Black & White programs such as "Oh Susanna" "Bob Cummings" "Ida Lupino" "Gale Storm" and "Gumby." Few of us knew then, that all of those wonderful US programs currently airing in the US, were delivered to SCN every week but could not be aired because of this Broadcast Treaty. Only after the bases were set up with a closed circuit system could the latest programs finally be delivered to the residents of the Canal Zone. The following is an explanation of the Panama Broadcast Treaty and the history behind SCN by former SCN Program Director, Gerry Fry who finally was able to break through the restrictions in 1983 to finally allow the SCN audience to see programs they had been denied long after the entire world had already seen them: The 1903 treaty gave the US control over the CZ "as if it were sovereign." That was interpreted in later years to cover broadcast frequencies, which were assigned by USSOUTHCOM in coordination with Panama. There was no local agreement initially on programming. Armed Forces Radio was born during World War II when the entertainment industry could not do enough to boost the morale of US fighting forces. All music and radio programs were provided gratis, allowing AFRS to record and distribute the top talent of the day for only the cost of reproduction and shipping. The patriotic support of AFRS was rekindled during the Korea conflict, and when TV was added to the mission in 1954 to make it AFRTS, all programs were donated free (mostly old kinescope recordings on 16mm film of top network TV shows and movies). The same agreements AFRS had with the performing guilds and unions during WWII remained in place; producers, directors, musicians, actors and actresses all donated their talent without payment of residual fees. When SCN-TV went on the air in the mid 50s, they were able to telecast all these network programs, complete with stateside commercials in them. SCN was on the air first in Panama, but Channels 2 and 4 followed not too long after if I recall correctly (before my time). It wasn't long before product distributors in Panama began complaining about SCN-TV airing commercials. A TV spot for Coke, for instance, would draw the ire of the Pepsi distributor in Panama who demanded equal time on SCN-TV. Many others joined the objection, and then the guilds and unions got in the act, saying they only waived their rights for the programs, not for the commercials. If the commercials were aired, they wanted payment of residuals. AFRTS was forced to cut out the commercials in Hollywood to ensure access to programming without taxpayer cost. As you know, the commercials were later replaced by DoD spot announcements on a wide variety of command information topics. With Panama's close ties to the U.S., both Channel 2 and 4 naturally turned to U.S. programming, dubbed in Spanish, for their program schedules. They had to pay for the programs; AFRTS for SCN-TV and the rest of the world did not. The Panamanian station managers shrewdly used this to their advantage, telling the NBC, CBS, ABC, Warner Brothers, Columbia, etc. reps "we won't buy your programs/movies if SCN airs them first." Oh oh! Programs for AFRTS worldwide distribution are selected and obtained by the AFRTS Broadcast Center, then in Hollywood. The process of negotiating for the gratis rights to these shows moved several times from Washington, D.C. to Hollywood and back again, eventually ending up in Hollywood since that is where most of the TV entertainment industry ended up. Negotiators have been military officers and civilians; none has been a diplomat, although all have tried to be diplomatic. Currently it's a civilian function.
Eventually, as TV production costs rose and patriotism from WWII waned, distributors of TV entertainment programs and movies asked for money; they were now selling their products overseas to government-owned and commercial stations and they believed AFRTS should also pay. Now came the Catch 22 -- in the government, when a lot of similar products are available, you must go out for bids. There was pressure from Washington to apply that process to TV programming. Can you imagine a program schedule made up of lowest bid sitcoms? The compromise was that AFRTS would pay a token fee for selected entertainment properties, but that no program owner would receive more than another. During my 14 years as Director of Programming, we paid about 5 cents on the dollar for top-rated shows. Most news, sports and network-owned entertainment shows are still gratis to AFRTS, but Panama and Korea, where commercial broadcasters use the same NTSC TV broadcasting technical standard as does the U.S. (which means anybody living in those countries can watch the AFRTS signal), continue to have program restrictions. While I was Program Director of SCN I devoted a good deal of time coordinating with my counterparts at Channels 2 and 4 (the only two on the air when I left in 1976) their program plans. The worst thing I could do would be to put on a new, top-rated program, only to be told two weeks later that I couldn't air it anymore because Panama wanted it. Talk about a pissed-off audience! So rather than do that, if either of them had plans for any show I knew AFRTS was going to send me, I would never start it and hope that I could use it after they had played it. I made annual excursions to Hollywood to personally select and pack 16mm film prints of shows and movies that had been distributed by AFRTS several years before, but had already been aired in Panama and never seen by the SCN audience due to previous restrictions by the distributors. When I left, we had the world's largest film library, used unfortunately all too frequently to fill the holes caused by the 35-40 percent of the weekly program package from AFRTS that we could not air. Naturally, these were the top shows of the day. I could never quite understand why a Panamanian audience would watch, and apparently enjoy, such stupid U.S. shows as "Beverly Hillbillies," but they loved it! Restrictions on SCN programming were not the result of diplomatic treaty or local contracts, but were agreed to by officials in Washington and Hollywood to keep the best U.S. programming flowing to the rest of the DoD audiences around the world (where commercial broadcasts are in a different technical standard) at little or no cost to the taxpayers. If AFRTS had to compete with foreign broadcasters and pay full commercial rates, the annual budget would be so big Congress would never approve it, and there would be no AFRTS at all. TV programs then were distributed on 16mm film (later videotape) in weekly program units from the Broadcast Center in Hollywood. SCN was first stop on a circuit of five to seven AFRTS outlets. Each outlet was permitted to use the programs in a program unit during one week, then ship them to the next outlet. In most cases, Panama would sign a contract for a current U.S. program, but it might be a year later before they ever put it on the air (it had to be dubbed into Spanish first). By that time, the show would have been three or four outlets down SCN's program circuit, perhaps even all the way through it. Industry agreements/contracts specified each program/movie could move only one-time through each circuit without repurchase. When I became Director of Programming at the Broadcast Center, I successfully argued that SCN's audience never got to see the shows that were restricted, and hence the program owner "owed" a play on SCN after their Panama commercial airings were through. I directed that copies of all restricted programs (by then being distributed on videotape) be kept in our Hollywood vault until we could get them cleared for SCN. We carved the manpower out of our hides to catalog, pull and ship those tapes back to SCN after clearances were obtained.
So SCN-TV from 1983 on was able to telecast previously-restricted series and movies, albeit months or even years after stateside airings of the same shows. I doubt AFRTS would ever have done that had I not been in a position to arrange for it. After 12 years of living with the restriction nightmare at SCN, I wanted to do everything in my power to help my successors provide the best programming they could to the Canal Zone audiences. Gerry M. Fry SCN Program Director 1964-1976
|
|
|
Post by Paul McDermott on Dec 21, 2013 2:32:44 GMT
Thanks for all this Robert! I daresay that those here more attuned to the subtleties of such broadcasting arcana will be busily making a UNIT-style search map with push pins and string...
|
|
|
Post by Robert Lia on Dec 21, 2013 3:02:03 GMT
Well it proves that overseas U.S. military broadcasters were still willing to purchase black and white programs' as the service was still in black and white raising the possibility that Panama was the first stop for Patrick Troughton on his journey across the 7 AFRTS regions before they arrived in AFRTS Taiwan.
It would also give the BBC extra motivation to make a large sale of Patrick Troughton shows to a USA broadcaster as they found one that was still in black and white till the same time Australia and New Zealand converted to color
|
|
|
Post by Jon Preddle on Dec 21, 2013 3:59:59 GMT
The BBC's sales documentation is pretty thorough -- even the late 70s / early 80s private sales to Ian Levine are recorded in them! -- and yet AFRTS or any of the US military stations are not recorded on them.
Two reasons I can think of for why that would be are:
1) there was no sale to AFRTS; those eps therefore ended up in Taiwan by other means, which would explain the lack of 1970s listings for DW in the AFRTS publications. (Levine has said there are no labels on the films, which sadly makes determining their origins and possible movements impossible)
2) the BBC gave the eps free of charge and therefore wouldn't be entered into the record (military organisations may have been exempt from clearances by agreement with the various unions; this could be why The Sea Devils ended up at a naval base on Ascension Island...)
|
|
|
Post by Robert Lia on Dec 21, 2013 4:01:00 GMT
Makes you wonder if any Patrick Troughton episodes are remaining on the shelf at these Royal Thailand Air Force Bases after the United States Air Force and United States Army went home in 1976
The American Forces Thailand Network (AFTN), military radio and television, provided music, news and entertainment to the American Fighting Man and Woman in Thailand for more than ten years during the Vietnam War.
20 April l968 TV test facility at U-Tapao complete and operational
9 May l968 First airlift of TV equipment arrives U-Tapao
10 May l968 TV Van arrives U-Tapao
10 May 1968 SAAD and AFTN engineers begin preliminary field intensity measurements at U-Tapao
18 May l968 Test pattern aired at U-Tapao
11 July 1968 Priorities are established for base-by-base construction of television facilities
1 Jan l969 AFTN receives a request for extension of TV service to isolated Camp Ruam Chi Chai and Camp Change Pradit, which would require microwave relay from Nakon Phanom RTAFB. AFTN requests study of the proposal by the Sacramento Army Depot.
3 Jan l969 AFTN-TV Nakhon Phanom takes the air at 1430 hours.
23 Jan l969 Sacramento Army Depot awards the contract for procurement of 616 television receivers for use at all Thailand bases.
27 Mar 69 AFTN-TV Korat signs on at 1500 hrs.
2 Apr 69 AFTN-TV Takhli begins broadcasting at 1800 hours
Jul 69 Armed Forces Thailand Network changes to American Forces Thailand Network as per directive from AFRTS
17 Sep 69 AFTN-TV Korat, plays the first video-taped program to be aired in Thailand, “Insight.”
10 April 70 RF-4 Phantom crashes into station at AFTN Udorn. Nine broadcasters & engineers are killed.
14 April 70 Paperwork begun to restore television for AFTN Udorn
June 70 U.S. embassy in Bangkok notified 7/13 AF of higher headquarters approval for Ramasun television operation
28 Oct 70 Discontinuance of TV programming at U.S. Army Camp Vayama, Thailand
23 Dec 70 Establishment of Channel 74 Television Relay at 7th Radio Research Field Station, USA Camp Ramasun, Thailand
5 Feb 71 AFTN Korat and OLAA, U-Tapao Afld carry satellite coverage of Apollo 14 moonwalk
April 1971 All stations become equipped with videotape equipment
26 Nov 72 AFTN increased its television broadcasting schedule to 17 hrs. per day.
23 Sep 74 Recommended consideration for use of either SEAN--South East Asia Network in lieu of AFPN-American Forces Philippine Network and AFTN-American Forces Thailand Network as the network identifier upon consolidation of the two units.
20 Sept 75 NKP television signed off the air
10 Oct 75 NKP FM radio operations signed off at 2400.
4 Jan l976 NKP television van departs Thailand via C-5
10 Jan l976 Udorn television ends broadcasting
13 Jan l976 Thailand radiated broadcasting deadline set to cease 20 March l976
18 Jan l976 Super Bowl disseminated from Clark television production
22 Jan l976 Udorn and NKP AFRTS assets shipped out of Thailand
1 Feb l976 Korat television ends broadcasting
5 Feb l976 Udorn ends radio broadcasting
31 March l976 U-Tapao, last television station of 6204AEROSS in Thailand, ends broadcasting.
23 May l976 Final closure of AFTN with U-Tapao signing off the air.
|
|
|
Post by Robert Lia on Dec 21, 2013 4:07:59 GMT
The BBC's sales documentation is pretty thorough -- even the late 70s / early 80s private sales to Ian Levine are recorded in them! -- and yet AFRTS or any of the US military stations are not recorded on them. Two reasons I can think of for why that would be are: 1) there was no sale to AFRTS; those eps therefore ended up in Taiwan by other means, which would explain the lack of 1970s listings for DW in the AFRTS publications. (Levine has said there are no labels on the films, which sadly makes determining their origins and possible movements impossible) 2) the BBC gave the eps free of charge and therefore wouldn't be entered into the record (military organisations may have been exempt from clearances by agreement with the various unions; this could be why The Sea Devils ended up at a naval base on Ascension Island...) Yes the episodes could have been given free of charge to AFRTS but some one would have paperwork on this. Even AFRTS would keep some kind of record? If there are no labels on the films then perhaps they would have to check the film leaders when they get back to the BBC to see if they match up with any of the other film prints that the BBC still has. Keep in mind we have off air Betamax recordings of some of these Jon Pertwee story's with station ID on the tapes but the BBC have no record of the sale. If I had to guess that as Tiawan is not that far from Hong Kong these are tapes that were sent there. I just don't see AFRTS airing them for free with out purchase. I can see the BBC giving them to British Forces for free but not US Forces, sorry they would want the income from a US Sale
|
|
|
Post by Paul McDermott on Dec 21, 2013 4:16:09 GMT
The BBC's sales documentation is pretty thorough -- even the late 70s / early 80s private sales to Ian Levine are recorded in them! -- and yet AFRTS or any of the US military stations are not recorded on them. Two reasons I can think of for why that would be are: 1) there was no sale to AFRTS; those eps therefore ended up in Taiwan by other means, which would explain the lack of 1970s listings for DW in the AFRTS publications. (Levine has said there are no labels on the films, which sadly makes determining their origins and possible movements impossible) 2) the BBC gave the eps free of charge and therefore wouldn't be entered into the record (military organisations may have been exempt from clearances by agreement with the various unions; this could be why The Sea Devils ended up at a naval base on Ascension Island...) Very interesting stuff, Jon!! If possibility #2 is in with a chance, what might this mean? Would those prints gifted be dupes returned for junking from overseas sales or a mix of domestic and foreign ones? Is there any way we might be able to trace people in the machinery of distribution from the Beeb's end, even if paperwork is unavailable, to see if there's any proof of that activity in the past? If we can come closer to ruling it in/out, that may obviously help with future searches. As for possibility #1, it's a puzzler. Gifts from countries that maybe held the prints but didn't want to send them back home? Could the Beeb have granted approval for that? I'd be surprised if there was some overt shiftyness at play here, which is why it's such an interesting find. Who gave approval to whom, and who knew about it, and who didn't, and why? Might some of the same enterprising types who "took work home with them" rather than junked it, decided to donate it to the Services for one reason or another instead of keeping it? The lack of labels is frustrating. Does the film itself offer any clues, I wonder? I do hope we hear more details about this soon! Keep those chains well oiled, might be some mountains ahead!
|
|
|
Post by Robert Lia on Dec 21, 2013 4:30:12 GMT
This is a mystery that is going to drive me up the wall.
Let say just for discussion that a US military personal took them home to Taiwan for safe keeping. Where did he take them home from? AFRTS was mainly made up of United States Air Force Personnel. Looking at the countrys that aired those storys.
1. The U.S, had no Air Force Bases in Australia
2. The U.S. had no military base in Singapore at that time (there is a small base that was established after Subic Bay closed in 1992).
3. The U.S. had no military base in Hong Kong either as the Royal Navy has a base there HMS Taymor, got to visit it once
4. The U.S. had no base in Nigeria
5. The U.S. had no base in Gibraltar as that is a Royal Navy Base
6. The U.S. had no base in Zambia either
So a U.S. serviceman picking them up is a rather remote choice. But Ian says they have been there since before the Vietnam war ended
|
|
|
Post by Jon Preddle on Dec 21, 2013 5:03:14 GMT
Ian's contact, who actually tacked down the films, said this on Twitter "AFRTS Taiwan disbanded in 1979. Our friend in Taiwan found a cache of material from their archive a few years ago..."
So from this, the films went from AFRTS Taiwan (which is actually the radio station; did Taiwan have a TV station?) -- Robert?) to a "cache", where they were subsequently found by the "friend" circa 2010.
So, the AFRTS connection might just be part of the chain, so not necessarily the origin.
For instance:
1) Films started off in Singapore 2) Sent to AFRTS as Auditions? 3) Auditions rejected, but kept in archive 4) Films ended up in "cache" 5) Films taken by "radio" friend in Taiwan
So the film may have not have aired by AFRTS but simply moved from hand to hand / country to country by whoever it was who possessed them at the time.
|
|
|
Post by Neil Lambess on Dec 21, 2013 5:08:03 GMT
The BBC's sales documentation is pretty thorough -- even the late 70s / early 80s private sales to Ian Levine are recorded in them! -- and yet AFRTS or any of the US military stations are not recorded on them. Two reasons I can think of for why that would be are: 1) there was no sale to AFRTS; those eps therefore ended up in Taiwan by other means, which would explain the lack of 1970s listings for DW in the AFRTS publications. (Levine has said there are no labels on the films, which sadly makes determining their origins and possible movements impossible) 2) the BBC gave the eps free of charge and therefore wouldn't be entered into the record (military organisations may have been exempt from clearances by agreement with the various unions; this could be why The Sea Devils ended up at a naval base on Ascension Island...) it could also be possible they were provided by David Sterling via TEI , as Sterling had clear millitary connections whilst running the company , and a sale would be a sale to that company (for whatever reasons) and not listed in BBC documentation ... i tend to favor ya theory 1 , as for 2 I think its very likley Sea devils ended up on Ascenion due to the Royal Navys involement in its making, probably traveling to each overseas base and ending up there at the end of the chain?
|
|
|
Post by Neil Lambess on Dec 21, 2013 5:20:35 GMT
AFRTS: KNOWN FACT ABOUT HOW AFRTS OPERATED BACK IN THE 1960’S AND 70’S. If ARFTS purchased any programs from BBC Enterprises in the time before Time Life Films was set up to distribute BBC Programming in the United States in the early 1970’s it would have been shipped to the AFRTS Broadcast Center in Los Angeles, California US Military bases at the time were in the following country’s (Partial List) Australia, Cuba ,Germany, Guam, Midway Islands, Marshall Islands, Japan, New Zealand, Okinawa , Panama, Philippines, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Taiwan United Kingdom ,Vietnam, West Berlin The films would them be screened by the local AFRTS affiliate and them sent on to the next country which in the Asia Pacific region included the US Air Force bases in the Kingdom of Thailand , US bases on the island of Taiwan, the US Naval Station in Christenchurch New Zealand, the US Naval Communication Station in Western Australia. And let’s not forget Naval Station Agana Guam. Closed military bases that would have broadcast Dr. Who in this time period Naval Communication Station Exmouth Western Australia (base is still standing as on 2003) Naval Station Christenchurch, New Zealand (Royal N.Z. Navy is still there) If Memory serves , and im gonna double check , the US Naval base at Christchurch NZ ,(note correct spelling ) was and still is a staging post for the US military flights to Antactica, which i think are now MAC (mobile air command) but in the 50s , 60s, and 70s, were Naval flights (using Constellations, Cargomasters, and Hercules aircraft , the crossover to the airforce Starlifters happening in the mid 70s.... im not aware of any other Naval base there ....(technically it would have to be Lyttleton harbour which is near Christchurch , but not "officially" Christchurch, im fairly certain no AFRTS service operated in Christchurch , due to its staging post nature, (but never say never) I also think the Radar and military flight tracking at Christchurch would be now run by our Navy as well ...... (the other navy run tracking base been in the dead centre of our north island , a very very long way from the sea! ) fascinating info tho Robert !
|
|