Clark Taylor  Biography
WLBE     WZST     Army Information Radio       American Forces Network       Soldiers Radio and Television

I got into broadcasting via a very different way than most.  My mother had died at my birth and my father's mother came to Miami and brought me home to Leesburg to raise. When my Grandfather died, I had to support the family (me and grandma).  So I stopped going to high school and took a job cookin' chicken at the KFC in Leesburg.  Well my girlfriend, Patti Lynn Jackson, felt badly about my leaving high school and told her step-dad who was H. James Sharp, the WLBE(-AM 790) GM.  Jim Sharpe came by the KFC and told me if I would go back to high school he would give me a job making whatever I was making at KFC.  I gladly took him up on his offer and returned to school the following Monday, which was a life saver to a young kid.  My first jobs at WLBE were to mow the grass, take out the trash and wash Jim's car.  It was fun. Then they decided that I should write copy and so I began writing spots under the guidance of Mr. Grant. He had to have been a very patient man.   Then Jim decided they needed a evening show for the younger audiences and he ask me to do it.  So born was the "Clark Taylor Show" from 8 to 10 PM Monday  - Friday.  It was either late 1965 or early 1966.  I thought I was great....but the truth is I needed a lot of work.  The Chief Engineer, Richard Hogsboro really worked with me and I did improve. I had a wonderful time.  I ended up getting married to another Leesburg girl, (not Patti) then I was drafted and off to Vietnam as in Infantryman (Sep 69 - Oct 70).  There I received the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Bronze Star, and Purple Heart.  Upon my return from the Army, I went back to WLBE, but things had changed and so I moved over to WZST(-AM 1410) for a couple of years and then left radio.  Oddly enough, the Army recruiter became a friend, (since I was a vet) and I always wanted to go to Europe.  Naturally he could help me there.  So I enlisted in the Army as a broadcast journalist in 1974.    But then we all know the Army.  I went to their broadcast journalism school in Ft. Ben-Harrision, Ind.  and while there they asked the class if anyone had any experience in country radio.  Since I had worked at WZST, which was country, I raised my hand.  Maybe one of the best things I ever did. Instead of going to Germany, I was sent to Washington, DC and the Office of the Chief of Army Public Affairs.  I worked for the Army Information Radio Service (AIRS).  They did radio shows for the American Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) and on-post radio stations in the US.  They needed a country DJ to do a weekly magazine interview show  and a daily one hour county program.  My first guest on my show, Hallmarks of Country Music, was Tammy Wynette. After almost four years of interviewing the "who's who" in country music,  I finely got to Europe.  Not Germany, but Belgium.  Which turned out to be a great assignment especially since I had taken French in high school.  At AFN-SHAPE,  I did the morning show for two years and since I was an experienced interviewer, I was tasked to interview most celebrities coming through Paris, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam.  So I met Jerry Lewis the actor in Paris, Abba and Barry Manilow in Holland and Merle Haggard and many others in Rotterdam.  In 1980 I was selected by the Commander of the American Forces Network Europe to go to Wurzburg, Germany and build a radio station from the ground up.  What fun we had.  Our audience was about 60,000 soldiers and their families and several thousand American civilian employees from Neurenburg to Frankfurt, AFN-Wurzburg was on the air.  At the same time, I was asked to do a nightly one-hour block of country music and the show was "Country Roads".  Johnny Cash's little brother Tommy had done the same time block earlier, and it was called "Stick Buddy Jamboree".  I had a ball.  Plus I coached my son and the little kids (6 -12) in flag football and we were undefeated. Crazy.  I left Europe, got out of the Army and took a job as the radio news director at the same place I had left to go the Belgium, AIRS radio, in Washington, D.C.  Within the year, (1983) I began to do television news releases and send them to the overseas stations to use in their local television newscast.  I reported from the White House, Congress, the Pentagon and many Army agencies in Virginia, DC and Maryland.  In 1993 I became the Director of and organization I had formed, Soldiers Radio and Television.  We had a radio satellite network, radio and television newscast, and even the only government radio station on the internet, SoldiersRadio.com.   I was in Washington for almost 25 years, I retired in 2006, a few months after my second wife, Brenda, died from breast  cancer.  In May of 2010, I was asked back to Washington DC and was inducted into the United States Army Public Affairs Hall of Fame.  Of all the members, which there are only about 20, I am one of 3 broadcasters.  This is truly a great honor for me personally.  And its all because of a young lady who cared about my well-being and her step-dad at the time, and a couple of dedicated people at WLBE ...and my life was changed.  It's my WLBE Cinderella story. I now live in Nashville.  I have an old Army buddy here and I know a couple of journalist and retirement is treating me well.

Sergeant 1st Class (retired) Thomas “Clark” Taylor     June 22, 1949-September 1, 2021 A Vietnam veteran decorated for both heroism and wounds in battle, Thomas “Clark” Taylor was a legendary military broadcaster with a career that spanned 40 years of dedicated service to the United States Army. In 1980 he became the first enlisted AFN station manager, a job which until then, was entrusted solely to commissioned officers. His success directly contributed to NCOs being charged with leading all remote AFN broadcast stations worldwide, a practice which continues today. Well before the era of social media, Clark created the largest Army Public Affairs outlet with a direct connection to the American public. Soldiers Radio and Television, or SRTV, was widely recognized as the premier assignment for Army broadcast journalists. Clark taught, coached and mentored more DoD and Army Broadcast Journalists of the Year than anyone in Army Public Affairs history. During his tenure (1983-2006), Mr. Taylor’s broadcast troops earned a staggering 90% of all Army (and DoD) Broadcast Journalist of the Year awards. This was not by mistake. Mr. Taylor fostered a professional environment which nurtured young broadcasters into seasoned, world-class storytellers. He continually pushed his NCOs to be better versions of themselves. When the broadcast portion of the Army’s Major General Keith L Ware competition was placed in his charge, he recommended an additional category to recognize the Broadcast Journalist of the Year. He named the award after Master Sergeant John T. Anderson, a Vietnam veteran who was held as a prisoner of war for 7 years prior returning to the United States. In addition to creating the Broadcast Journalist of the Year award, Mr. Taylor also introduced the Rising Star award, which years later, would be awarded in his name. In 1994 Mr. Taylor, recognized that the Army was the only military service without its own television newscast, created the flagship broadcast “Army Newswatch,” which debuted June 1, 1994. It would go on to air on more than 900 civilian television stations nationwide, broadcasting in parallel to millions on the American Forces Radio and Television Service. It won multiple military and civilian awards throughout its run. Independent polling at the time indicated the newscast was the most widely recognized service newscast in the United States. By 2004, Mr. Taylor had transformed the DoD’s only 24-hour radio service (Soldiers Radio) to an internet streaming site called Soldiersradio.com. This also represented the first 24/7 internet streaming presence in the DoD’s history. He retired from civil service in 2006 after more than four decades of government service, having revolutionized Army broadcasting and touched the lives of so many. Clark Taylor passed away Sept. 21, 2021. While he’s no longer with us physically, his presence will continue to be felt by those whose lives and careers he positively impacted over his 40 years of service. Clark's CFLRadio connection was with WLBE-AM 790 and WZST-AM 1410.