AFN Wiesbaden

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AFN Wiesbaden (2003–2010: AFN Hessen ; 1945–2003: AFN Frankfurt ) is a soldier broadcaster of the American Forces Network .

history

The then AFN Frankfurt started operations on July 15, 1945 via the Heiligenstock transmitter . For this purpose, the American soldiers confiscated a house on Kaiser-Sigmund-Strasse in Frankfurt-Dornbusch and temporarily converted it into a radio studio by making the walls soundproof with old Wehrmacht uniforms.

The American General Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the relocation of the headquarters of the American Forces Network from London to Frankfurt am Main , which required a larger building. After some search, they came across the Höchst Castle at the gates of Frankfurt, which was owned by the von Brüning family. The Americans confiscated the castle, expelled the residents and then occupied the castle so that AFN Frankfurt could start broadcasting from there on October 1, 1946. This condition would last until 1966.

In 1962, Farbwerke Höchst acquired the Höchst Castle, which initially did not change the line-up. Finally, the federal government promised the US government $ 2.3 million for AFN Frankfurt to move out of the Höchst Castle. From 1966, a new building in Bertramstrasse served as the new studio as a direct neighbor of the Hessischer Rundfunk .

The American troops withdrew from the city of Frankfurt in 1994, AFN Frankfurt called itself AFN Hessen from May 28, 2003 , but remained in Frankfurt. On May 24, 2004, the company moved to the Wiesbaden-Erbenheim airfield , called Wiesbaden Army Airfield . The former location in Frankfurt is now used by Hessischer Rundfunk.

A new building was built for the AFN headquarters on the grounds of the Coleman Barracks in Mannheim . Several student residences are currently being built on the previous site .

After all other locations of the American troops in Hesse were closed (most recently in Hanau in 2008) and only Wiesbaden remained as a supply area, AFN Hessen changed its name again and has been called AFN Wiesbaden since April 2010 . On June 14, 2012, the site was renamed Lucius D. Clay Kaserne .

reception

Until January 18, 2017, AFN Wiesbaden could be received in large parts of Hesse and beyond on the 98.7 MHz frequency from Großer Feldberg im Taunus. Because Wiesbaden only needs to be supplied, there was a change to the 103.7 MHz frequency previously used by Deutschlandfunk ( Mainz-Kastel transmitter ).

On medium wave AFN Frankfurt / Wiesbaden had the strongest medium wave transmitter of all AFN transmitters in Germany. The transmitter Weisskirchen beamed from 1951 the program on the frequency 873 kHz with a power of 150 kW and could be heard during the night to Great Britain. Due to the need to fade out to the northeast because of a transmitter with the same frequency in Leningrad (USSR), there were several filler transmitters on the frequency 1143 kHz and the like. a. in Giessen, Bad Hersfeld and Fulda. The main frequency was switched off on May 31, 2013, the filling stations earlier.

There was television from Wiesbaden Air Base on channel E22 (US channel 15/16) from April 1966 (initially the program was taken from Ramstein). The power was 1 kW; the station was thus one of the stronger AFN TV stations in Germany alongside Berlin, Bitburg and Kaiserslautern. In the beginning, it was a black and white unencrypted PAL signal that anyone could receive. The broadcasts came from the USA without exception.

Since television programs were to be produced specifically for the US troops in Europe in the future, the conditions for this were created in the new building in Frankfurt am Main. On October 28, 1976, color television was first broadcast using the American NTSC method. Since then, a converter has been required to receive with a German television set.

In 2004 there was a change to channel E42 due to DVB-T Rhine-Main , in 2008 to E29, before the transmitter was switched off in July 2010.

management

Station manager was Gary Bautell (* 1942; Bay City, MI ) and is now (2017) SFC Bradley Latham.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinz Schulz: AFN: Farewell, 873 kHz , Radio-Kurier 7/2013, pp. 16-17
  2. ↑ Television Factbook 42 (1972/73) pp. 957-b
  3. ↑ The History of AFN (Part 2) , accessed May 14, 2020
  4. ↑ George A. Smith: AFN 'voice' dominates airwaves for five decades (December 19, 2012); Video interview with Gary Bautell as part of the Gedächtnis der Nation project : A king in Germany , US soldier in the Cold War , culture instead of commerce , headwind , for the love of culture
  5. ↑ AFN Europe Affiliate Manager's Handbook (current as of 3/6/2017), p. 5; Thomas Schmidt: AFN: The American radio station from Wiesbaden (April 20, 2017)