Listen to Veterans Radio. That’s an Order!

 

Registration Open Through Saturday, September 30th – CLICK HERE TO REGISTER or SUPPORT OUR EVENT

Radio on the River 2023

2023May22 Veteran of the Day

1000th Radio Broadcast/Episode at the Sidetrack in Ypsilanti, MI

1000th Celebration It takes a good amount of effort to setup a broadcast in a remote location and this was no exception. But once the cables were in place and mics checked out we were ready to roll!

We had guests that were on location and some of them sat down with Dale and Jim to recount their “Best of Veterans Radio” moments – Michael J. Martin’s music, Chuck Yeager, Charles Kettles and other Medal of Honor recipients. Without question there were too many to name. We were especially pleased to have Ken Rogge with us, the producer of our Medal of Honors segments.

We also had fans reach out via email from as far away as Yuma, AZ, California and TasmaniaDown Under!

Thank you to everyone for the helping hands with the setup and breakdown and everything inbetween.

It was a memorable episode for our 20th Anniversary Year!

THANK YOU to our guests who were willing to share their story of military service, authoring of a book, performing a song, discussing a business plan, and more. You are the heart of our program and why our audience follows Veterans Radio.

THANK YOU to our corporate sponsors, special grantors and private individuals who have provided financial support!

Your participation and financial support keeps us on the air as THE VOICE OF AMERICA’S VETERANS.

2022 Was a Banner Year for VRA

It’s been a BIG year and in November of 2022 we celebrated 19 YEARS of radio broadcasting.

We reach over 1 MILLION each week through our radio broadcasts, website archives, social media and our podcast channel that ranks in the TOP 10 VETERANS PODCAST in the US. Our popular podcast nearly doubled in playback as we added 97 new episodes over the last 12 months. As in past years, we provided a platform for well over 100 veterans and organizations to share stories and veteran centric services. Our monthly Veteran Benefits hour continues to provide timely news and solutions for millions of veterans and their families and caregivers. We know this is an important feature of our programming.

Veterans Radio has archived over 2,000 veterans stories of service and over 500 podcast episodes.

Credit: “Good Co-Pilot” song shared with permission by @OperationSong – Veterans Radio heard about Navy man Richard Stroud while interviewing Operation Song earlier this year. While perusing their awesome collection of works we ran across Richard Stroud’s song titled “Good Co-Pilot”. The song was written by Steve Williams and Richard Stroud and directed by Amanda Byer.

THANK YOU to our guests who were willing to share their story of military service, authoring of a book, performing a song, discussing a business plan, and more. You are the heart of our program and why our audience follows Veterans Radio.

THANK YOU to our corporate sponsors, special grantors and private individuals who have provided financial support!

Your participation and financial support keeps us on the air as THE VOICE OF AMERICA’S VETERANS.

2022 Fundraising Event for Veterans Radio America

Radio on the River Banner

2022 VVA 310 Recognition and $1K Donation

Charles S. Kettles VVA 310 Awards Veterans Radio Founder and Host

In April of 2022, the VVA Chapter 310, aka Charles S. Kettles VVA in Ann Arbor, Michigan, awarded Dale Throneberry, our founder and host of nearly 20 years, the John Thompson Member of the Year award along with a $1,000 donation.

Thank you VVA 310 for continuing to support the mission of Veterans Radio. Your support inspires us to stay the course.

Celebrating 18 Years of Broadcasting

November 14th, 2021
5pm – 6pm ET
(4pm CT, 3pm MT, 2pm PT)

"The Best of Veterans Radio" - Celebrating 18 Years of Broadcasting

Celebrating 18 Years of Broadcasting (1)

Over 900 Hours of Programs and 1,800 Stories

We Couldn't Have Done it Without YOU!

Veterans Radio has expanded our radio affiliations, more than doubled our podcast playback and provided a platform for over 100 veterans and organizations to share stories and veteran centric services in 2021. Our monthly veteran benefits hour continues to provide timely news and insights for millions of veterans, their families and caregivers. We know this is an important feature of our programming.

We couldn’t have done that without you! Thank you!

Podcast Glory July 2021

Podcast-20k-300x300

We have doubled our listening audience and rapidly expanded our podcast feature stories since this time last year. “THANK YOU” to the many who have chosen to check-in and add our program to their Favorites using their chosen podcast app.

You can find our podcast channel for a variety of popular apps on our LISTEN LIVE page.

 

 

2020 Program Review

2020 has been some kind of year! This YouTube video showcases our program guests, sponsors, hosts, website offerings, while you listen to a favorite veteran troubadour, Michael J. Martin, featuring “Sound Off”. 

Graef Grant 2020September

Rodger and Kate Graef Family Foundation - September 2020

Many thanks for the generosity of the Rodger and Kate Graef Family Foundation that has provided Veterans Radio America, our 501(c)3, with funding to support our radio broadcasting  and our mission to reach a larger veteran and patriot audience. 

BlogTalk 2020PODCAST GLORY – June 2020

Dale and Jim are building a podcast channel to reach the Veterans Radio audience that needs “on demand” access to the programming. Thanks to the many who have chosen to check-in and add our program to their Favorites using their chosen podcast app.

You can find our podcast channel for a variety of popular apps on our LISTEN LIVE page.

The Voice of America’s Veterans Turns 15

 

Celebrating 15 Years

Veterans Radio 15th AnniversaryCelebrating its 15th anniversary on Sunday, November 18, 2018 Veterans Radio is listened to by more veterans around the world than military personnel sent to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq at maximum deployment.

Veterans Radio is not just for veterans, but also for their families, caregivers, history buffs and students. The show has interviewed veterans and their families who served in World War II, Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Central America, Serbia, Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and less well-known conflicts. You name the conflict and the survivors have been on Veterans Radio.

Many of the guests have been impressive warriors, including legendary Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager, Medal of Honor recipients Lt. Col. Charles S. Kettles, Flo Groberg, James McCloughan, author Joe Galloway, national security experts Rebecca Grant, PhD, and Bing West. Women pilots, nurses and Red Cross workers have been on the program, along with Brigadier General (USAF ret.) Carol Ann Fausone, and Veterans Service Officer Michael Smith, experts in veteran’s benefits.

“Celebrity military is a real draw,” notes Dale Throneberry, cofounder and producer/host of Veterans Radio—The Voice of America’s Veterans, www.veteransradio.net, which broadcasts over Ann Arbor, 5 PM Sundays on Michigan’s WAAM 1600 AM, and Pirate Radio of the Treasure Coast.

“But I think our even larger appeal is our stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things while they served,” the former Huey pilot observes. “The American soldier builds schools and hospitals, digs wells for safe drinking water, inoculates against disease, cares for the sick, feeds starving families, to name a few of our contributions wherever we go,” Throneberry observes.

How it all began in 2003

The show began in a tiny studio equipped with ancient technology and steadily grew from there.

“I was talking with a client of mine who had been in WWII,” Throneberry recalls. “Max was diagnosed with cancer and wanted to make sure everything was in order. I visited his house and he invited me into his garage, which was covered with World War II posters and all kinds of military paraphernalia, including a huge 101st Airborne banner. Four hair-raising hours later, his wife told me he had never told his stories to anybody. All the way from a D-day landing to Germany’s surrender, Max had been there. It got me thinking about doing a radio program for veterans.

“I was selling investments and insurance in 2003, and what finally triggered me to take action was the foreboding similarity of the Iraq War to our exhausting and disheartening experience in Vietnam,” says the former Chief Warrant Officer who was in Vietnam in 1969. I was afraid another generation of soldiers was going to fight in a war that did not make sense to many people. How were these modern warriors going to be treated when they came home? I had long been bothered that most vets, including me, then had almost no one to talk to about their service experience.

At almost the same time as retired Army General Harold “Hal” Moore, the hero of the Battle of Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam, stunned the American military by denouncing the Iraq War in a speech at West Point, Throneberry sought out a fellow insurance representative, Bob Gould, and pitched him on a veteran-centered radio show.

“Bob had served in the Army, and I didn’t know that. I just thought of him as very entrepreneurial. In a way, it was a proof of concept for the show. Our veterans had no one to confide in—so naturally Bob didn’t tell me about his service–and whatever distress veterans may feel, whatever they may be proud of, or whatever thoughts they may have, they had virtually no one to talk to in 2003,” Throneberry says.

“We put our heads together, and with virtually no resources other than being too stubborn for our own good, we started a show now heard around the world.”

Ordinary People doing Extraordinary Things

Photo of Dale Throneberry during Vietnam War

The former Huey helicopter pilot has a history of good luck. Throneberry was downed twice in Vietnam in 1969. He calls them unscheduled landings. “Any landing you walk away from is a good landing,” he says. He ended his Army flight career with over 2,200 flight hours with 1,150 as combat hours in Vietnam. Yet today at 72, Throneberry walks into the studio for Veterans Radio interviews under his own power.

“Veterans Radio has helped me, too,” the co-host says. “My on-air guests have taught me about P.T.S.D., what works for some people, and what doesn’t, about nightmares that won’t go away, and about saving the world while on some secret combat mission that we still can’t talk about.”

“Today, Americans are in harm’s way today in fifty spots around the world. When they come home, they, too, will need someone to talk with,” he continues.

“We are the living chronicle of ordinary people doing extraordinary things,” Throneberry says. “It’s better—and truer—than the movies.” Our variety of programs keeps the show fresh. We are not stuck in this continuing churning of stories about ineptitude and failure. Our job is to let veterans tell their stories and to tell other stories that are uplifting. They went through hell, came out, and somehow made a life. So, it’s the human spirit we are talking about here”.

“Stories of Service” with Fisher House Michigan

Fisher House Michigan 2018 Stories of Service

Dale Throneberry joined Kate Melcher, Director of Fisher House Michigan, to co-host the 2018 “Stories of Service” on November 5, 2018 at the Hill Auditorium. The program began with a special presentation of the National Anthem, sung by Joe Everson who painted a patriotic canvas which was auctioned after the program.

The veteran storytellers included Guy Stern, a Ritchie Boy from WWII, Flip Colmer, a veteran with BentProp Project, Melissa Raulerson, a covert intelligence agent in the Army, Ray Christian, 82nd Airborne in Korea, and Edie Meeks, a nurse in the Intensive Care Unit of Saigon.

 

2017-2018 Program Review

Listen in to a recent program while reviewing several of our guests featured over the last 2 years. 

CTN Ann Arbor Spotlight on Veterans Radio – November 2014

Click to view the CTN ANN ARBOR video spotlight

CTN Ann Arbor Spotlight 2014 on WAAM 1600

 

Aljazeera Video Spotlight on Veterans Radio – November 2013

Click to view the Aljazeera video spotlight

Aljazeera Spotlight November 2013 at Ave Maria Radio

 

Hour Magazine – November 2013

Click to view the Hour Magazine Article and Listen to the Anniversary Podcast

Hour Magazine Voice for Vets