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BLACK FRIDAY REWIND

They didn't call it that in 1970 though the Post eXchanges were open and Danang was getting ready to have its own Army-Navy football game at Camp Tien Sha.

And you get a chance to listen to a condensed day on American Forces Radio.

It is posted on the AFRTS Archive site. Search for AFVN-November 27, 1970.  It is filed under the recordings posted on Sunday, 11/20/16.

One night I was casting around the AFVN Saigon production studio looking for a worktape to use to cut some spot announcements.  I discovered a reel of tape with this recording on it lying on top of a metal rack in a corner of the studio.

On to the high-speed tape dubber it went and presto I had my own copy to bring home.

The aircheck recording includes news, sports, AFVN's AM radio DJs, Millie from USO Showtime, Chickenman, AFVN's slickly-produced frankenstein jingles (patched together from multiple sources), movie schedules, TOH network ID, Sebastian Cabot liners, spot announcements and other features that most all who served in Southeast Asia will remember.

Note that the Roger Carroll and Charlie Williams excerpts positioned after the Texas-Texas A&M college football game probably represented syndicated shows from AFRTS-Los Angeles that the game pre-empted that day. Otherwise, the times don't jibe.

The AFVN afternoon country music DJ.....well some loved his act and others hated it.

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From The Delta to The DMZ

COMBAT ZONE RADIO

It was a struggle, but I recovered most of the audio track from a dilapidated 40+ year-old cassette tape to get almost an hour from one of my American Forces Vietnam Network Orient Express radio shows and put it into a digital file.  Nursemaid city!

A listener sent me the tape which was probably made using one of those cheap radio-cassette combinations widely sold in Army PXs then.

The audio quality is not very good.  It's distorted, limited-fidelity AM radio, but nevertheless representative of how AFVN broadcasts sounded to many in the "field" with news and hit music playing on a cheap AM transistor radio, a helicopter or other aircraft radio receiver, or piped through a military compound PA system.  

There were few alternative links then to "the World" so American Forces Radio was basically it.

In Leaving Saigon by William Hopkins,  Nguyen Thi Xuan wrote most influential of all, I think, was hearing the American popular music that GIs seemed to always have around them.  Music from AFRS Radio Saigon (AFVN) was everywhere and I quickly found that I liked it!

Once, I was walking to another building 100 meters away, listening to the Radio Saigon music from four different directions, and while I was thinking about how the music sounded like the war, three Huey choppers came by just over the rooftop and I could feel the deafening sound beating on my body and that was when I realized that the Americans had given the war a soundtrack, just like in a movie!

The music around us and the sounds of airplanes and choppers were there because of the war and it was impossible to hear them without feeling the presence of the war.

The music was rock and roll and the beat was like the sounds of the choppers and without even thinking about it, the war's soundtrack was the sound of choppers and rock and roll.

I could hear war in the music.

You can hear my Orient Express excerpt on the AFRTS Archive site.  Search for Billy Williams  AFVN 1972 and follow the link. It is filed as the fourth entry for Sunday, November 13, 2016.

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From the July 2016 Balanced Modulator

FAR AWAY ON HAM RADIO FIELD DAY

2016 was the 50th Field Day for me, I've only missed one.  That occurred courtesy of the draft board and the U.S. Army when I was 9,500 miles away from Jacksonville hosting the American Forces Vietnam Network's "Orient Express" radio show on FD weekend.

Instead of a Collins or Heath transceiver at NOFARS W4IZ Field Day in the Gator Bowl pressbox, it was the AFVN air chair, Gates Dualux audio mixer board, two turntables, three tape cartridge players and a microphone.

Instead of dots and dashes, it was the "AFVN stateside survey" and golden oldies.

Along with over 150kW of cumulative power from radio transmitters scattered throughout South Vietnam.

And no "QRZ Field Day".........it was CCR, Rolling Stones, Animals, Hendrix, Chicago, Argent and Gary Glitter. Even a little Wayne Newton, Neil Diamond and Partridge Family.  Plus announcing the latest battle happenings during hourly AFVN newscasts. 

I did get in several shoutouts to Amateur Radio operators. The Signal Corps and other military branches  included many hams. Together, we were stuck many miles away in a place with virtually no ham radio and missing out on Field Day.

If I had that much power now, along with those huge towers and antennas....bad bands, no problem.

What's Red and White and Blue All Over?

A bruised-up V C?

No, the Stars & Stripes

From an AFVN spot for Stars & Stripes newspaper

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