The station began operating just after World War II ended in Europe. It was originally established in the north German city of Bremen in allied-occupied Germany as a small AM radio station with an AM repeater transmitter also broadcasting the station's signal in Bremerhaven, Germany, a port city on the Weser River near the entrance to the North Sea located just north of Bremen.[1]
The radio station's mission was to provide information and entertainment to members of the American forces who were based in that part of northern Germany. After World War II, the small north German US occupied area was originally known as the "Bremen Enclave",British Occupation Zone of West Germany).
Just after World War II, the port city of Bremerhaven was one of the major ports from where American forces embarked for return to the United States after fighting in the Second World War; later, the port brought US military personnel, their families, military equipment, as well as food and goods for the rebuilding of Europe to Germany via ships from the US. Many of these shipments were, in part, in support of the
Earlier in its history, along with US Army and US Air Force units, US Marine and US Navy units were also served by, and members of the US Navy served alongside US Army and US Air Force personnel at AFN Bremerhaven; however, during the last several decades of the station's operation, the affiliate was staffed by just Army and Air Force military personnel and served mostly US Army and US Air Force units throughout northern Germany. However, throughout its entire 48 years of operation, many German employees worked with the US station staff members and were a vital part of AFN Bremerhaven's long and distinguished history. Many of these German AFN members served far longer than any US military member and, in some cases, were part of AFN Bremerhaven for decades.
AFN Bremerhaven was the first AFN television station in Europe to broadcast its programming in color. The U.S. European Edition of "Stars and Stripes" (S&S) reported in its Thursday, August 21, 1975, edition that the AFN-Europe Commander, Lt. Col. Floyd A. McBride, announced that AFN's first color TV broadcast would begin in Bremerhaven on Monday, August 25, 1975. As S&S reported, because Bremerhaven's TV operation was so small, only a "Class C" operation, and, at the time, served only one geographical area (the Bremerhaven housing areas and near-by Carl Schurz Kaserne) with TV programming, it was easy to establish the color TV broadcast operation without extensive expense or expansion.
That next year, S&S reported in its Wednesday, June 23, 1976, edition that "the long-awaited switch to color by AFN-TV could come by the end of the year for viewers in most of West Germany; [those TV viewers in Berlin would have to wait even longer.]" The S&S article continued saying, "the only viewers enjoying color right now are those watching the pilot color TV station in Bremerhaven, which went on the air in 1975."
Beginning in July 1978, the largest single AFN Bremerhaven target audience were members of the US Army's 2nd Armored Division (Forward) based on the newly constructed Lucius D. Clay Kaserne in
In 1989, with major changes underway in Europe linked to the
With fewer US military personnel and their family members still stationed in northern Germany, the mission of AFN Bremerhaven gradually diminished, and, in the early 1990s, one-by-one, the six outlying AM and FM repeater radio transmitters were taken off-the-air as the various American military communities closed, and the once-US bases were returned to the host nation. Finally, after 48 years of broadcasting, on 31 March 1993, with only radio service from the Bremerhaven AM and FM transmitters still being provided, AFN Bremerhaven made its last live broadcasts with a local morning show followed by an American Forces Network - Europe, network-wide radio show, and at noon, the AFN Bremerhaven affiliate officially went off the air forever after playing the