RIP Adrian Cronauer

From this morning's Tom Taylor NOW column...

“On my tombstone, it’s going to say ‘Vietnam DJ,’” said Adrian Cronauer. Sorry to report that the man who inspired the manic Robin Williams role in the hit 1987 movie “Good Morning, Vietnam” has died at 79. But what a life – Adrian was a ham radio operator by age 12, he enlisted in the Air Force to do radio and TV, was stationed in Crete and then (1965-1966) Vietnam. In the Mediterranean, he’d used the catch-phrase, “Good morning, Crete” – and at Armed Forces Vietnam Network Radio and Television, that became “Good morning, Vietnam,” later stretched out by Robin Williams to comic proportions. After Cronauer got back stateside, he worked in radio and TV, and thought he had autobiographical material for a TV series or movie – and when it eventually came on the big screen, it made him some nice money. He earned his law degree and worked as a communications attorney (including at the FCC). Later came work as an advisor to the Pentagon and to numerous groups focused on issues around veterans affairs and POWs. Following 9/11, Cronauer served in the George W. Bush Administration as an advisor. (Though in 2014, he agreed to disbarment in DC owing to his involvement in a company that advised consumers on problem loans.) Cronauer worked in radio extensively in the Roanoke area, immediately after his military time and then later. Among his stations was the predecessor to today’s WVTF/89.1. The Roanoke Times says Cronauer “started an advertising agency, which led him to doing voice-over commercials for Lipton, Columbia Records and Welch’s Grape Juice. The William Morris agency in New York offered him work, so he left Roanoke.” Cronauer died Wednesday in the Roanoke area, after time in a nursing home.