AFN says goodbye to military's first overseas TV station

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Mara Title
  • 65th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
LAJES FIELD, Azores --  It was the year the Soviet Union stopped demanding war reparations from East Germany, Marilyn Monroe married baseball player Joe DiMaggio, the U.S. Congress and President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized the founding of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado, and the war with Vietnam was just around the corner. It was 1954, the same year when the first overseas military TV station, which was also the first TV station in Portugal, broadcasted live from Lajes Field, Azores.

And in November 2011, due to its old age and inconvenient off-base location, this historical piece of military history, Building T-252, was torn down.

"Lajes first started broadcasting from the bachelor's officers' quarters," said Jose Borges, American Forces Network Lajes Field Logistician, who's worked at AFN over 20 years. "The studio space was limited, and there was very little equipment, only used for broadcasting made-for-television movies and film."

According to Borges, a decision was made to upgrade the equipment and move to an alternate location in 1957, and the base received a special grant from the Consolidated Non-Appropriated Welfare Fund of the Military Air Transport Service to build T-252.

Within the new building, The Air Force Broadcasting Service, was located on top of Santa Rita Hill, behind the water tanks adjacent to the base. The original TV transmitters and antennas are still located there. Jose Mendes, AFN Lajes Field Operations, arrived in 1964, when live 30-minute newscasts at 6 p.m. were the norm, beginning with the Portuguese and American national anthems. He says the wars in Vietnam and Persian Gulf were the most memorable for him.

"There was a video operator, an audio operator, maintenance man, three cameras in the studio; news, sports and weather broadcasters," said Mendes. "This generation doesn't understand how hard it was to run a TV station back then," he said.

Mendes said it would be much easier to report a large-scale war today, since in the past, they had to report events live. Satellites have also dramatically improved the AFN mission in many ways. The sound bites they had to listen for were often very poor through radio, he said.

Although his English was extremely limited, Mendes started working in the office typing out lines for the broadcasters. With only one other Portuguese person working, the secretary, they also had to type out the song titles from different artists. According to Mendes, 36 people manned the station; now there are 16. The local military audience was approximately 3,000; now there are roughly 700.

Not only was Lajes Field the first station to broadcast to a military audience, it's the last TV station to still have an over-the-air signal, rather than cable. This allows the Portuguese audience in the local community the ability to watch AFN, and partake in the American culture. Eventually the over-the-air signal will not be available due to outdated equipment, and only military members will have access to AFN.

"At the time, television's primary function was entertainment, not news," said Mendes, "and we received loads of shipments of tapes and films. The primary outlet for news was radio."

In contrast to T-500, the current AFN station was renovated two years ago, specifically as a TV station; with a double-wall for sound-proofing, it was one of the best TV facilities in Europe. Although the new AFN location is on base, it was adapted to be a TV station and studio during its renovation, but isn't as ideal as T-252.

"T-252 went through the whole gamut of television, from movie reels and splicing films from tapes, to digital--what we use today," said Borges. "The equipment was so intense; we were more mechanical, which meant a lot more equipment, and rooms full of editors. Today everybody edits from a laptop computer on their desks. T-252 had four editing suites, with a lot of electronic and mechanical equipment. It was a different world."

Borges went on to describe a room with thousands of LPs--"long playing"vinyl records--and a tape library with multiple television shows, to include Star Trek and Bonanza. He said not only was the working environment completely removed from today, but acclimatizing the local Portuguese to American culture through music and movies was a relatively new concept.

"The interesting thing is 20 or 30 years ago, AFN was crucial in maintaining the American and Portuguese relationship," said Borges. "People in this area are so accustomed to American culture--everybody knows a little English; everybody knows a little American music and films, and it's so much easier for the U.S. military to exist here and to exist well and be comfortable because of the fact that over the years, we've gotten so used to drinking in that American entertainment."

AFN was undoubtedly an enormous influence on the host nation relationship between the U.S. and Azores, and it affected its local national employees just as much.

"I spent the best years of my life working there," said Mendes. "The U.S. and Portuguese partnership over the years was great. It was kind of a family, because we had to work together. We depended on each other; I had to help the American broadcaster just as he had to help me."

Even through all the change, that family-oriented mentality has persisted. The average time frame the Portuguese local nationals have worked at AFN Lajes Field is between 30-40 years. Mendes has worked the longest, with 48 years of service. Plus, AFN is a small career-field, so the local national staff tends to see the same military members come through again.

"It was kind of sad to see the building go, to tell you the truth," said Borges.

Although the nostalgia for the old building will resonate for a while with those who saw it in its heyday, the history will live on through the stories they tell.

"I was very lucky to work there," said Mendes. "I consider myself a very lucky man...even though it was very hard work!"