In 1987, George Smith returned to AFN Nuremberg as an Army civilian after working at Voice of America in Washington, D.C. He led the station of 14 service members and government civilians, moving the affiliate from Nuremberg, Germany, to the former William O’Darby Kaserne in Fuerth. The station is now called AFN Bavaria and is located in Vilseck. (George Smith)
During the Vietnam War, an acne-prone, academic underachiever named George Smith walked into an Army recruiting office in Pennsylvania Dutch country and landed himself a radio gig that lasted for four decades.
“Gorgeous George,” as he would one day be known, didn’t have much in the way of future prospects. He had graduated at the bottom of the Class of 1972 at Annville-Cleona High School and was stuck in a below-minimum-wage job at the local car wash.
Intrigued by stories from his former guidance counselor’s memories of listening to Army DJs while stationed in West Germany, he told the recruiter, “I want to sign up for that.”
“Wouldn’t you rather fight for your country?” the soldier asked, offering Smith a signing bonus to go infantry.
“No, I’d much rather talk for my country,” Smith said.
Smith ended up enlisting, leaving behind his buffing cloth and small-town roots for jungle boots and a life of adventure.
He would go on to spin records in Thailand, South Korea and Germany, interview rock stars and politicians and report on pivotal moments in history.
George Smith shares humorous stories and memorable adventures from his nearly 45-year-career in-and-out-of-uniform as a broadcast journalist for American Forces Network and the U.S. government in his new memoir, “Soldier of the Airwaves: Defending Democracy One Song at a Time.” Any American who served overseas with the U.S. military should be able to relate to Smiths experiences in the book, he says. (George Smith)
In his recent self-published memoir “Soldier of the Airwaves: Defending Democracy One Song at a Time,” he tells the story of that fateful recruiter visit and the twists and turns of the career that followed.
Smith takes readers on his 44-year journey in and out of uniform as a broadcast journalist for the U.S. government, including 32 years overseas with American Forces Network, which airs popular radio and television programs for U.S. troops stationed overseas.
The book’s title reflects how Smith and his colleagues used their microphones to favorably influence foreign listeners tuning into AFN’s public radio stations abroad by “passing along the best of our country’s culture,” including American music and values, retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, former commanding general of U.S. Army Europe, wrote in the book’s introduction.
Hertling heard Smith on the airwaves during his time in Europe and met him in 2011, when he went live on AFN Wiesbaden to respond to the concerns of soldiers and their families, and once even hosted a morning DJ show.
George Smith spun vinyl as an Army American Forces Network DJ in Nuremberg, Germany, from 1980 to 1981, under his on-air nickname, Gorgeous George. Smith shares a funny story of how he came by the name in his new memoir, “Soldier of the Airwaves: Defending Democracy One Song at a Time.” (George Smith)
Hertling relates to Smith’s book and suggests that other Americans who served overseas would too, “because George’s life was my life.
“His stories are jaw-droppingly cool, the people he met and interviewed and influenced are pretty big deals, and the fun he had made me smile, reflecting some of the similar experiences I had when arriving in a new country,” Hertling wrote.
Among the stories Smith tells is the origin of his on-air moniker. He was a sergeant at the time at AFN’s radio station in Nuremberg, where he was the morning DJ.
His acne was gone, but one German woman he encountered, recognizing his name from his radio show, “in typical direct German fashion,” jokingly said, “It’s good you work on radio. You’re no Gorgeous George!”
“Inspired, and with tongue firmly in cheek, I opened my mic the next day as Gorgeous George,” he wrote.
Smith began writing his memoir during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I always wanted to put it all together and write a book,” he said in an interview from California, where he lives after retiring from AFN in 2022. “Through my story, I wanted to tell the story of military journalists around the world.”
George Smith looked out onto 30,000 screaming fans while working as the stage announcer at the 1981 Golden Summer Night rock concert at Zeppelin Field in Nuremberg, Germany. Bands such as Foreigner, Blue Oyster Cult and Iron Maiden took the stage. The concert was a highlight for Smith while working as a military broadcast journalist in Germany, an experience he writes about in his new memoir, “Soldier of the Airwaves: Defending Democracy One Song at a Time.” (George Smith)
The Defense Department gave him the boot from Germany in 2013, when it began holding many civilian employees to a rule capping overseas assignments at five years.
After he’d spent 26 years in Germany as a civilian and two more as a soldier, the military sent him “to the land of Teslas to become AFN’s Worldwide Spokesman” at the agency’s broadcast center in Riverside, Calif., Smith wrote.
While writing, he relied on three boxes of notebooks, newspaper articles and journals to ensure that the details in his stories were accurate, he said, and he also bounced memories off friends to see whether they shared his recollection of events.
At the end of the book, many of the military broadcasters he served with are listed, with bold text denoting those who have died.
“This is my story, but every military journalist has a story,” Smith said. “I wanted to take time to salute those that had an impact on my career.”
Smith’s book is available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover and electronic formats. It has 37 reviews on the retailer’s website so far; many are from readers who also served overseas and could relate to Smith’s experiences.
One reviewer who said Smith was his best friend in high school described him as the class clown.
“When George joined the Army, it came as a shock,” he wrote. “George in the Army? Little did I believe he was going to rise to the position and greatness that he did. I’m so proud of my buddy.”
