Good point, Smudge. I recall that the local news in Singapore in the '60s was well, very local. The reliable news came in via the BBC World Service (via the "The Changi Broadcasting System" cable service around the station, and by a loudspeaker outlet in the Temple Hill Officers Mess in my case. Once you heard the distinctive playing of Lillibullero played by the The Royal Marines Band (a recording that became "worn out" in the '70s but miraculously reappeared unscathed after howls of protest around the globe following an insipid rendition deemed more PC) you knew that the real world was going to be spelled out without let or hindrance (well, mostly).
I believe it was previously the BBC Overseas Service, but whether "Overseas" extended to the south-eastern United States, and if indeed the means of reception (presumably SW receivers) existed in the USAAC barracks that Danny inhabited, he alone can say. It was of course famously tuned into on illicitly hand built receivers in many of the POW camps housing captured British and Commonwealth service men around the World.
On a more personal basis, I still have a school atlas with which my mother kept track of all the unfamiliar place names that appeared in the newspapers about far off battles and deployments world wide.
The news was of course heavily censored, but it gave an insight into the global conflict that raged, and no doubt gave a topic of conversation while queuing for the rationed basic commodities necessary for everyday living.
As Danny says, the important news was of one's loved ones and of their welfare. If that was good news then that was news enough for most.