Adrian Cronauer

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Adrian Cronauer (born September 8, 1938 in Pittsburgh) is a lawyer and former radio disc jockey from the United States.

He began his legendary broadcasting career at the tender age of 12, guesting for a Pittsburgh-area children's amateur hour [1]. He attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he helped found the forerunner of the University's present radio station ([2]) WPTS. He also attended American University where he worked at the student radio station, WAMU, before it became a public radio station.

He is best-known as the inspiration for the Robin Williams film, Good Morning, Vietnam. Cronauer co-authored the original story for Good Morning, Vietnam! A subsequent special program on National Public Radio about the role of military radio in Vietnam earned Cronauer a 1992 Ohio State Award and two 1991 Gold Medals from the New York Radio Festival.

Cronauer is now Special Assistant to the Director of the POW/MIA Office at the Department of Defense. Before his government service began in 2001, he was Senior Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Veterans Institute, a trustee of the Virginia War Memorial, a member of the Board of the National Vietnam Veterans Coalition.

He frequently speaks before colleges, universities, veterans, social, legal, and business groups. In 1992, he was invited to Australia to participate in the dedication of that country's Vietnam Forces National Memorial. While there, he emceed a four-hour, nationally televised, outdoor concert featuring Aussie entertainers who went to Vietnam during the 1960s and 1970s to entertain the troops from "Down Under".

Cronauer periodically appears as a guest on radio and television talk shows, including NBC-TV’s Today, ABC-TV’s late night talk show, Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, the PBS series, Freedom Speaks, Westwood One's Jim Bohannon Show, and the Oliver North and G. Gordon Liddy radio programs.

Cronauer later became a senior partner with the Washington D.C. law firm of Burch & Cronauer. He received his Doctor of Law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was Special Projects Editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. He also holds a master's degree in Media Studies from the New School for Social Research in New York City. He clerked at the Federal Communications Commission for Commissioner Patricia Diaz Dennis and was honored with FCC's Special Service Award.

Prior to turning to the law, Cronauer had spent seven years in New York City voicing television and radio commercials. Before that, he owned his own advertising agency, managed a radio station, was program director of a television station, and a TV news anchorman. He has taught broadcasting at the university level and is the author of a textbook on radio & TV announcing, now in use at many colleges and universities.

Cronauer’s practice concentrated in information and communications law and included extensive representation of radio stations, cable systems, and clients involved in newly emerging technologies including wireless cable and personal communications services. He has been a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Federal communications Law Journal and among his serious published works are "The Fairness Doctrine - A Solution In Search of A Problem", Federal Communications Law Journal, October 1994; and "Copyright and Reproductions Rights", Art & Design Magazine, July/August 1993.

He is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the U.S. and is a member of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia and the Pennsylvania Bar. He is a member of Pi Kappa Phi social fraternity and Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity. He has served on the Virginia Attorney General’s Technology Advisory Council, the Arlington County, Virginia Cable TV Advisory Committee, the national board of the Armed Forces Broadcasters Association, and the visitors Committee for the New School for Social Research. He is a member of the Soverign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem (Knights Templar) and a life member of Mensa.

An active Republican, he was a National Co-Chairman of Veterans For Dole and a National Vice-Chairman of Veterans for Bush/Cheney. He spent over a year traveling throughout the country in his spare time as a surrogate speaker at political rallies and before veterans groups.