Talk:American Forces Network

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Especially in Germany AFN has been of great influence during the time after Worldwar II in getting more knowledge about the English language even it has been the American way of English. Nowadays AFN unfortunately is really restricted to areas close the big air bases of US-AirforcePm 11:13, 11 Apr 2004 (UTC) I live in Stuttgart, Germany (HQ USEUCOM) on a US military base and it's primarily Army, not Air Force. All service members can get AFN. I don't know what you mean by saying only Air Force.--Mimbster 12:25, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Last half of the page

Appears fairly clearly to be copied from some AFN website. It's government produced, so it's not copyright, but we should identify where we got it from, and perhaps provide a backlink. --Baylink 04:31, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Added tags

I added 2 tags. This page needs to be expanded so that it includes the Vietnam War and other areas where AFN exists. --Woohookitty 00:21, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

Would it make sense to create a historical timeline? IMHO, the article might be getting cluttered and bogged down with too much data. Jbetak 08:51, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

Probably a good idea. Otherwise, yes, it's a bit much. --Woohookitty 03:20, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

OK, I'll see if I can knock a draft together. I think your efforts to shape this up are appreciated -- where would we be without AFN? :-) Jbetak 16:20, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Sounds good. Well it falls into the "important article" catagory. Can't be legit without it. So thanks. --Woohookitty 22:08, 19 May 2005 (UTC)


[edit] Cleanup Work

I added info on Korea and Vietnam and trimmed other sections of the article. Is there anything else that we need here? Kerowyn 06:21, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

Actually I'm going to do some major copyediting. it's still WAY too obvious that this article was lifted from the AFN site. --Woohookitty 06:57, 12 July 2005 (UTC)
I was originally given this one, so I'll close it. Thanks for the help. It looks much better. --Woohookitty 07:36, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

I did some cleanup work on the paragraph regarding DINFOS since it was...not untrue, but borderline (professionals in the broadcast field? Most are former/current military broadcasters) and misleading (not all broadcasters go through the advanced broadcast operations courses).

[edit] Japan

The Japan section implies that the station is only big in Okinawa and Kyushu, when in reality it stretches across the country, most notably in Tokyo on the Kanto Plain, and as far north as Misawa. Mike H. That's hot 19:37, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Forrest Gump

As far as I can remember, there is a brief scene in Forrest Gump where Forrest is watching a network that is apparently AFN and another soldier tells him something to the effect of "turn that junk off." May be worth noting just as trivia or to illustrate an anti-AFN attitude in Vietnam (if there was one). 71.211.48.49 22:06, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

The actual line was someone asking "How can you watch that stupid shit??" when Gump was watching Gomer Pyle. While there was certainly an anti-AFN attitude when I served overseas about twenty years after this scene took place, I believe the context of the scene questions how anyone with combat service in Vietnam could possibly watch something like Gomer Pyle, which offered a very corny and unrealistic portrayal of military service during that era.

There's an anti-AFN attitude in every war, not just Vietnam and in every country, I know many other servicemembers will agree when I slur AFN with several derogatory insults and expletives. You have no idea how bad the broadcasting is until you must endure it yourself. - 203.205.122.196 22:58, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] String of words impersonating a sentence

What does this string of words mean? "As of 2005 the Network has not liberal/progressive talkers Al Franken from Air America Radio and Ed Schultz from Jones Radio Network"? It has a link to an external Web site, but that site has nothing to do with those words. ➥the Epopt 13:35, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Propaganda Network?

I spent three years overseas in varous postings from 1989-1992 and AFN was the only english language TV available. Most of the programming, with the exception of news and sports, was at least six months old. Moreover, instead of commericals, they air pentagon produced public service announcements, many of which were corny and rediculously condescending. This makes me wonder if entertaining the troops was actually a secondary goal of the service. I did applaud their effort to bring live sports to the troops overseas, however, the disadvantage to this is that in Japan, Sunday football broadcasts would begin at 2AM Monday and Monday night football would begin at 10 AM Tuesday Morning.

Oh c'mon I live in Japan and the games are nothing, (when the good ones are even shown on TV) whats even better is when they are tape delayed by 15 hours - 203.205.122.196 23:00, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New Channel

AFN debuted a new version of AFN Prime for the Middle East this July, so I put that in.

[edit] Material from Far East Network

The article Far East Network is listed in the backlog of articles needing wikifying from May 2006. The problem with that article, however, seems to be that most of it belongs in this one. There is text about AFN-Japan, post 1997 when FEN ceased to exist, which could perhaps be merged with what is said here about AFN-Japan. I was going to do just that, but I think you regular editors here would do a much better job. There is also a long chunk of unwikified history of the predecessors of FEN from 1942 to 1945 that might also come in here to complement the history of the same period in Europe. I know nothing about these subjects, just trying to help clear the wikification backlog. Thanks. Itsmejudith 17:15, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Question regarding bias

If I understand it correctly, the AFN is a government institution, since the military is one too, of course. Then how come the AFN broadcasts politically biased shows, such as Rush Limbaugh's? I thought government media are supposed to be neutral. Wouter Lievens 13:23, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Not something that can be sorted out in Wikipedia. Suggest you write to the head of the station with your question. Itsmejudith 19:31, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Armed Forces or American Forces Network

I see references to both names throughout the article. I always thought the A stood for "Armed", but the logo clearly says "American". Was the name changed at some point? I know nothing about this, and will refrain from editing the article myself, but perhaps someone with a little more knowledge can clarify the ambiguity. Sme3 (talk) 15:27, 13 May 2008 (UTC)