Adrian Cronauer
Adrian Joseph Cronauer (born September 8, 1938 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , † July 18, 2018 in Troutville , Virginia ) was an American lawyer . He became internationally known as Radio - DJ by the feature film Good Morning, Vietnam from 1987, in which he of Robin Williams is shown.
School and study time
Cronauer began his radio career at the age of twelve with an appearance in the children's hour of a local broadcaster. While studying at the University of Pittsburgh , he helped found the forerunner of what is now the university's WPTS broadcast station. He studied broadcasting at the American University in Washington, DC, where he worked on the student channel WAMU, which was later converted into a public radio station.
Military service and broadcasting career
After graduation, he enlisted in the US Air Force . He passed all the admission tests for a pilot's career, but decided against it because the required minimum duration was too long for him. Instead, he was assigned to the radio unit and performed his service at the AFN soldier broadcaster . This led him first to Greece and from 1965 to Saigon , from where he supplied the US units fighting in the Vietnam War with news and music. Cronauer's relaxed and unconventional style of moderation was based on his experience in civil broadcasting. It occasionally caused irritation in the rather stiff military channel, but was well received by the Vietnam soldiers. However , there was no scandal , as shown in the film Good Morning, Vietnam ; Cronauer ended his regular service and was honorably discharged from the Air Force.
After his military service Cronauer worked as a television news presenter at a local radio station in Ohio and as program director of a radio station in Virginia. Ten years later he moved to New York , where he worked as a spokesperson for radio and television commercials , starred on the New York Times radio station , and taught broadcasting at the New School for Social Research . At that time he also ran his own advertising agency and earned a master's degree in media studies .
In 1979 he and his fellow Vietnamese Ben Moses created a film script based on his experiences in Saigon. In 1982 they successfully sold it in Hollywood . Barry Levinson's Vietnam War critical film Good Morning, Vietnam , in which Cronauer was played by Robin Williams , emerged from the script . However, the film does not provide a realistic picture of his Vietnam service. Cronauer himself had described the film as fictional and not biographical when it appeared; the plot of the film is perhaps 45 percent authentic. The overdriven comedic interludes of the film Cronauer were on Williams' initiative and had nothing to do with the real Cronauer. Cronauer once stated that if he had behaved as shown in the film, he would still be incarcerated in Fort Leavenworth Military Prison today .
Legal career and political activity
The income from the film and related lecture trips enabled Cronauer to change his career. From 1987 he studied media law at the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with the title Doctor of Law . He had admission to the Supreme Court of the United States and was a member of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania. After graduating, he became a partner in the law firm Burch & Cronauer in Washington DC, which specializes in media law and the legal representation of radio stations, cable network operators and companies in the field of new media . At the invitation of the Bush administration , he worked from 2001 to 2009 as a special assistant for the US Department of Defense's prisoner of war and missing persons office .
Cronauer was actively involved in various Vietnam veterans groups, for example he was vice chairman of the Vietnam Veteran Institute , administrator of the Virginia War Memorial and board member of the National Vietnam Veterans Coalition . He has often lectured at universities, veterans' meetings, and meetings of social and legal groups and business associations. In 1992 he was invited to Australia to take part in the inauguration of the national monument of the Australian Vietnam fighters. During his visit there, he served as Master of Ceremonies for a four-hour, nationally televised open-air concert with Australian artists and entertainers who had entertained troops from Down Under in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s. For a contribution on National Public Radio about the role of AFN in Vietnam, he received two gold medals at the New York Radio Festival in 1991 and the Ohio State Award in 1992 .
Cronauer was a supporter of the Republican Party . He has served as vice-chair of the Veterans for Dole and Veterans for Bush / Cheney initiatives and has spoken at election rallies and before veterans groups.
He was a member of the student associations Pi Kappa Phi and Phi Delta Phi as well as a member of Mensa .
Media appearances
Cronauer has appeared regularly on radio and television talk shows , including NBC's Today , the late-night talk show on ABC , Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher , the PBS series Freedom Speaks , the Jim Bohannon show, and Oliver North shows and Gordon Liddy .
In 1994 Adrian Cronauer satirized his job in Vietnam as a comedic radio character with the slogan "Good Morning, Shadaloo" in a cameo in the film Street Fighter .
Private life
He and his wife, Jeanne Steppe, had two grown children.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Obituary on memorialsolutions.com, July 18, 2018 (accessed July 19, 2018).
- ^ Adrian Cronauer: Air Force Radio Announcer in Vietnam (English), accessed on August 18, 2014
- ^ "Good morning, Vietnam" - Former radio presenter Cronauer has died . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed on July 21, 2018]).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cronauer, Adrian |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Cronauer, Adrian Joseph (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American lawyer and radio disc jockey in the Vietnam War |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 8, 1938 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania |
| DATE OF DEATH | 18th July 2018 |
| Place of death | Troutville , Pennsylvania |