5 February 2018
Something Happening Here: The Spring Legends Lunch
It was a year of protests and violence in every corner of the world, and of political battles and campus unrest — a year marred by the murders of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy, and the year that Richard M. Nixon was elected to serve as our 37th president.
The year was 1968, and nearly 550,000 American soldiers were serving in Vietnam.
John Mack Flanagan, with a 45 on his hip and a portable tape recorder in his hand
Not all of that half-million-strong force was there “in country” for armed combat, however. A small group performed a different military duty: providing entertainment on radio and television for their brothers and sisters in uniform.
Among those that served in Vietnam were three men with strong Bay Area media connections — John Mack Flanagan (BARHOF 2017), Dan Ethen (BARHOF 2017), and Michael Bennett.
At the next Broadcast Legends quarterly luncheon, these three will be on hand to tell their stories.
The event, entitled “Something Happening Here: Vietnam On The Air,” takes place on Thursday, March 15, at the Basque Cultural Center in South San Francisco, beginning at 11:30 AM.
The BARHOF Class of 2017 includes Peter Cleaveland (News), Dan Ethen (Engineer), Ron Fell (Management), John Mack Flanagan (Program Host), Richard Gossett (Program Host), Lee Jones (Specialty), Michael Krasny (Talk Show Host), Dan Sorkin (Program Host), Doug Sovern (News), Tony Tremayne (Pioneer; née Mel Fritze) and Rich Walcoff (Sports).
One thing we’ve never done, till now, is take a look at Bay Area radio as it was in the 1960s, as it is now, and what it might look like in the future.
Circle Friday, December 16, on your calendar right this minute. That’s the date of the annual 
Our guest speaker will be Mike Adams, Professor Emeritus at San Jose State University, member of the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame (Class of 2011) and author of several essential volumes on broadcasting history, including “The Radio Boys and Girls: Radio, Telegraph, Telephone and Wireless Adventures for Juvenile Readers, 1890-1945,” which will provide the basis for our program.
