When I arrived at the American Forces Network Europe Headquarters at Bertramstrasse 6, 6000 Frankfurt am Main, Bundesrepublik Deutschland, as a skeeter wing (Airman with one chevron) in the early autumn of 1976, I had the good fortune of working for a very kind, somewhat eccentric but entirely brilliant former commercial ad executive and US Army band musician, Bob M.
The latter point is integral to today's tangent. I worked for Bob in Radio Command Information, the in-house production operation responsible for creating the public service announcements (PSAs) instead of commercials that were broadcast on our radio and TV airwaves.
Many times, one of us on the staff would produce from whole cloth a campaign at the request of one of the plethora of Department of Defense activities we supported. Many other times, Bob would invent the campaign himself, and one of us would supply the voice.
Our audience and client list numbered, I'm guessing, almost fifty years on, into the hundreds of thousands, not counting the local national listeners (whom we knew were out there but we called the 'shadow audience'). There was never a dull moment, no matter how yearned for that might have been.
Our days were spent, if not happily, then at least dry and warm, cranking out PSA's on everything from shopping in the Stars & Stripes bookstore, through booking a day trip with Information, Tours, & Travel, to seat belt safety and anything/everything in between.
For me, the most memorable was the annual reunion of (usually US Army officer) graduates of Texas Agriculture and Mining, better known as Texas A & M. Rik Delisle, even then Der alte Ami, and our section leader, was tapped by Bob for what was called 'The Aggie Roundup,' which of course (?) had to include their fight song. To this day, I suspect Rik can hear it in his sleep.
I thought of all that because of this. And, yeah, Ay Ziggy Zoomba is a close second to the Aggie War Hymn. I know, "today was a long walk," but you had a beautiful view, right?
-bill kenny
No comments:
Post a Comment