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When you’re in the states, you grab a drink or add to the water table during commercials. But a change comes over you after you’ve been stationed awhile in Europe. You actually start to miss the commercials, especially the Super Bowl mix of talking animals, strutting swimsuit models and wacky Web site guys.
So why does the American Forces Network Europe air “infomercials” from commanders, on-base activities and chaplains instead of entertaining snippets from Clydesdales and chip-munchers?
“If AFN aired stateside commercials, we’d have to pay for the entertainment programming along with them, and we simply cannot afford to do that,” Col. Scott Malcom, AFN Europe’s 33rd commander, said. “As it stands now, we get America’s highest-rated shows, like CSI and American Idol, for little or no cost because we are a service-oriented, not-for-profit government entity. Another aspect of being a government entity is that we have a mission and ours is to provide command information to our audience.”
Command information is news, features and short messages (spots) of interest to people in the military, civilian employees and their families DOD-wide. It includes news and updates originating in the U.S. about the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, messages from the senior commanders in Europe and the latest happenings on your military installations.
Sometimes the command information might look similar to commercials in the states, such as the messages informing people of upcoming University of Maryland, Embry Riddle or Central Texas College courses.
There’s a good reason why AFN airs messages about some colleges, but not others.
“The colleges and universities we promote on AFN are all contracted by the Department of Defense and the Installation Management Command – Europe to run their programs through military education offices,” Dan Robinson, AFNE’s chief of command information, said. “Education is a primary benefit of military service which is why we have education offices in the first place.”
Some viewers wonder why we run inspirational messages from chaplains at all. The “legal” answer is because the constitution and a provision to the U.S. Constitution’s 1st Amendment allow it. But just as importantly, commanders see a need for it.
Gen. George C. Marshall said, “The Soldier’s heart, the Soldier’s spirit and the Soldier’s soul are everything. Unless the Soldier’s soul sustains him, he cannot be relied on and will fail himself, his commander and his country in the end.”
The man you often see giving those messages on AFN, Chaplain (Maj.) Tom Cox, said he feels strongly about both the need for the broadcast ministry and military chaplains.
“Spiritual Fitness is a combat multiplier and a life enhancer,” he said.
Major Cox and other chaplains create brief non-denominational inspirational messages. Many are trained as marriage counselors and offer advice on dealing with deployments and building a better marriage.
While some people question AFN’s chaplaincy messages, still more write in about the quantity and quality of AFN spots. People point out messages repeating too often, audio running too high, military actors out of regulation, messages produced in an amateurish way or spots airing for a long time.
Currently, Paul Waldrop, the man in charge of the DOD-level TV spots, has approximately 1,200 spots in his inventory. But he notes the number is “always in flux” as spots are added and deleted. Mr. Waldrop’s team selects spot topics based on input from the military services, audience e-mail feedback and comments, inventory replenishment and directed topics from DOD leadership.
At the Europe level, Mr. Robinson also gets topics from the Europe-level leadership and audience. He has already taken steps to get rid of the really old spots.
“I purged our TV spot inventory of older productions to just under 300 spots.
Currently, about a dozen new ones are in production,” he said.
A dozen spots may not sound like a lot. But the answer is that AFN, unlike most commercial TV stations, has very few people dedicated solely to producing TV messages. Ten years ago, the command information section at AFN Europe was 16 people. Today, Mr. Robinson, the chief, is also the chief producer. Other people in the network production center produce spots when time allows. That’s because their primary duty is producing the network TV newscasts, DJ shows, TV news stories and radio news.
The situation at local stations, such as AFN Heidelberg, is similar.
“We don’t have anyone dedicated to producing just TV spots,” said Master Sgt. Matt Howard. “What we do is assign a minimum of one spot to every producer each month.”
Adding to the challenge is Sergeant Howard’s manpower shortage. He has four producers. His manning document calls for nine.
AFN Europe’s upgrade to digital video technology has helped stations produce higher quantity and quality spots, but stations lose that advantage once manning drops.
Another factor that impacts the variety of command information airing on AFN is the channel you watch. For example, if you tune in decoder channels 11 to 20, you’ll see a mix of base (your local station), Europe (AFNE) and DOD (AFRTS) level command information. But if you watch other channels via your decoder, for example AFN Atlantic Prime on decoder channel 2, you’ll see a University of Maryland spot, a European-theater level announcement, twice as often, because it’s not covered up by local station spots.
One of the best ways AFN can improve command information messages is through viewers. When a viewer sees a command information message that doesn’t look good, airs too often or has some other flaw, the viewer can call the nearest AFN station and let them know. Of course, don’t hesitate to call if you see something you like too.
And oh, once you rotate back to the states, don’t be surprised if you find yourself “missing” the AFN “infomercials.” Every week, the network gets requests from people for copies, including some requests for AFN “infomercials” from people who served in Europe as long as 30 years ago.
