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 RADIO & TELEVISION IN VIETNAM DURING THE WAR

AMERICAN FORCES VIETNAM NETWORK (AFVN)

By Billy Williams, N4UF

Radio broadcasts were important to those in combat during the Vietnam War.  To an American soldier, each day of survival meant being one day shorter and a day closer to returning to "The World" on that "Freedom Bird." Radio helped those days pass faster.

Advances in consumer electronic technology and breakthroughs in miniaturization during the '60s led to cheap, mass-produced portable transistor radios, tape players and sound gear.

Almost anywhere Americans served in Vietnam, one could hear the American Forces Vietnam Network (AFVN) with its News on the Hour and Stateside Survey providing reminders of home.

At night, AFVN signals propagated into Australia, India, Pakistan and China.   AFVN sportscasts included results from professional baseball, basketball, golf, boxing, hockey, National Football League and college events.

When founded on August 15, 1962, the station was known as Armed Forces Radio Service, Saigon (AFRS Saigon). It had a five-man staff and used a modified tactical transmitter set up at Phu Tho near Saigon with a downtown studio in the Rex Hotel on Nguyen Hue Blvd. Programs were transmitted from 6AM until midnight on 820 KHz AM.

In February 1965, AFRS Saigon added FM service during afternoon and evening hours on 99.9 MHz.  AM programming expanded to 24 hours. U.S. Marines landed in Danang to start a buildup of American ground troops.

Over the next two years, signal coverage expanded to cover most of the Vietnam combat zone as broadcast detachments opened. AFRS Saigon became a network, so the title American Forces Vietnam Network and AFVN callsign were adopted on July 1, 1967. 

AFVN eventually expanded to nine detachments scattered throughout South Vietnam.  Larger detachments consisted of a dozen or so AFVN servicemen assigned to provide AM and FM radio along with television broadcasts. 

A new broadcast complex opened at 9 Hong Thap Tu near the American Embassy.  It included a half dozen production and programming studios, headquarters administration offices, generators, a tall tower plus high-powered FM and television transmitters. 

The U.S. Army Signal Corps began constructing the Integrated Wireless Communications System (IWCS) in 1965 to provide countrywide telephone and data communications service for Americans. It used high-powered troposcatter microwave radio transmission and "farms" of giant antennas that resembled 1960s drive-in movie screens instead of traditional long distance telephone lines and switching offices. The system provided wide geographic coverage with fewer relay points.

Radio programming from AFVN's studios in downtown Saigon reached detachments for rebroadcast using the IWCS.

Some AFVN detachments were in isolated, dangerous places. Several originated daily local radio programming and others rebroadcast the network feed from Saigon. Detachments usually were near signal sites on mountains.  High altitude allowed better transmission and reception of microwave signals.

Most detachments with radio capability used high-powered transmitters for extended coverage. The AFVN service area was supplemented further by fifty-watt unattended transmitters at dozens of remote installations.

The Saigon AFVN station fed a 50,000 watt AM transmitter located at Cat Lo, near Vung Tau on the South China Sea. It operated on 540 KHz and boomed a mighty signal across Southeast Asia. The Saigon FM and TV transmitters radiated signals from the tall tower in the AFVN compound.

The most popular music format with AFVN's young audience was Rock and Roll/Top 40. Portions of the AFVN schedule were dedicated to rhythm & blues, country & western, progressive and specialty music genres.  Like stateside stations, AFVN aired cult favorites Chickenman and Newton Snookers, the Tooth Fairy.

Probably the most relevant song was "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" by the Animals. Its lyrics about young people trying to escape a sweatshop existence made the message something which Americans in the combat zone could understand.  It never achieved a top ten chart ranking in the United States.  But in Vietnam,  it was a night club and party favorite guaranteed to bring a response.   

Wolfman Jack, Casey Kasem, Barbara Randolph, Roger Carroll, Chris Noel, Gene Weed, Tony Pigg, Bob Kingsley, Gene Price, Tom Campbell, Charlie Williams and Herman Griffith were among stateside radio personalities who produced programs in Los Angeles.  These 55-minute programs were flown to AFVN and other American Forces stations worldwide.

Service with AFVN was not without risk. The Hue AFVN detachment was overrun during Tet '68. One staffer was killed and four others were taken prisoner by communists. 

In May 1968, an exploding taxi with 110 pounds of TNT parked outside AFVN Saigon caused severe damage. This was a flashback to Christmas Eve 1964 when the station was knocked off the air by 250 pounds of plastic explosives near their studio at that time in the Brink Hotel.

In 1969, three AFVN reporters were killed near Danang when their jeep ran over a land mine. American troop strength peaked at 650,000 in mid 1969

The remote locations of some AFVN detachments contributed to hazardous duty in being a broadcaster in the combat zone.  AFVN technicians were greeted with sniper fire as they serviced antennas and equipment to keep signals strong.

U.S. troop strength declined rapidly and AFVN detachments closed.  U.S. strategy stressed "Vietnamization."  The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) was trained to take on a bigger defense burden.  AFVN staffers at detachments assisted Vietnamese technicians in improving the South Vietnamese television and radio system (THVN). 

The Paris Peace Accords led to most Americans leaving Vietnam in early 1973.  AFVN became the American Radio Service, scaled back to only one FM station in the Saigon area and several low-powered unmanned repeater transmitters in other areas of South Vietnam where American civilians remained under terms of the Peace Accords.

The ineffective South Vietnamese government crumbled. Following drastic funding cuts in U. S. foreign aid to Vietnam, the decline hastened. By Spring 1975, it was apparent that the end was near.

During the final days in April--Americans, including the four civilian broadcasters assigned to the American Radio Service, evacuated.

VIETNAM WAR SOUNDTRACK

While AFVN provided entertainment and information to U.S. and Allied military in Vietnam, millions of Asians also heard AFVN broadcasts.  In this excerpt from Leaving Saigon by William Hopkins,  Nguyen Thi Xuan writes:

"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!  

"I loved the rhythm and sounds of the voices and being able to understand some of the words made it even better for me.

"Once Diep, Nga and me were talking with several GIs about the music and we found out that they didn't understand some of the lyrics themselves!  After that we didn't feel so bad about our language skills.  It was the sound of the music that mattered and I liked the sounds so I gave up listening to the words and just listened to the sound.

"You could walk across the airport and never be away from the sounds of Radio Saigon that came from every building.  I loved 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.

"I began to hear the music in the war.  The sound of choppers, the jets, the different accents spoken, and the ever-present energy of it all merged the sounds of war and music.  

"Both had tunes that became almost hypnotic to me.  Both had words that I did not understand and both had endings."

AFVN VIETNAM RADIO SOUND MONTAGE

Combat zone radio from almost fifty years ago with over an hour of snippets of AFVN radio broadcasts compiled from recordings recently digitized by Billy Williams. 

CLICK HERE

AFVN DETACHMENTS

Detachment 1--Qui Nhon (Sept. 1966-Feb. 1972): 770 AM, 99.9 FM and Channel 11 TV.  AM radio transmitter, antenna and living quarters were at the base of Vung Chua Mountain.  TV studios & transmitter and FM transmitter were on top of Vung Chua within the IWCS signal compound.

Detachment 2--Danang (June 1967-Early 1973): 850 AM, 99.9 FM and Channel 11 TV.  AM transmitter site was at Red Beach.  Studios, FM and TV transmitters were on Monkey Mountain.

Detachment 3--Pleiku (Feb. 1967-Summer 1972): 560 AM, 99.9 FM and Channel 11 TV. First located on Dragon Mountain.  Moved to Camp Holloway.

Detachment 4--Nha Trang/Cam Ranh Bay/Dong Ba Thin/Hon Tre Island (March 1967-Late 1972): AM, 99.9 FM and Channel 11 TV.  Location varied throughout the war. FM/TV and  AM operated from different locations at times.

Detachment 5--Hue/Quang Tri (May 1967-Fall 1972): AM, 99.9 FM, Channel 11 TV.  Opened near Hue MACV complex and overrun during Tet 1968.  Relocated about 50 miles north to Quang Tri.  Returned to Hue in early 1972.

Detachment 6--Tuy Hoa (May 1967-Sept. 1971): AM, FM, Channel 11 TV.  Located at Tuy Hoa Air Base. 

Detachment 7--Chu Lai (March 1969-Early 1971): AM, Channel 13 TV.  

Can Tho--Channel 78 (UHF) TV.  Retransmitted AFVN-TV Channel 11 Saigon to the Mekong Delta area.

Cat Lo--The main AFVN AM Saigon transmitter (540 kHz) was located at Cat Lo, near Vung Tau--about 40 miles SE of Saigon.  Cat Lo was also  the site of a Swiftboat Navy Base and Coast Guard Squadron.

TELEVISION IN VIETNAM

American television started in Vietnam on January 22, 1966 with tests on two channels. On February 7th, regular transmissions commenced with American programming on channel 11 and Vietnamese broadcasts on channel 9.

No permanent studio had been built, so three C-121 Super Constellation aircraft, known as Blue Eagles, were specially outfitted with film projectors and transmitters. A fourth Blue Eagle was radio only. It was used to relay audio of the 1965 World Series.

Circling high over South Vietnam and transmitting U.S. TV programs on Channel 11, the Blue Eagles provided extended coverage to Americans who were arriving in increasing numbers.

Later in 1966, a permanent TV station was completed at 9 Hong Thap Tu in Saigon. A huge antenna provided more reliable coverage. Hours were expanded and daily newscasts began.

Concurrently, several detachments added television. Complete stations were mounted in vans similar to large semi trailers and the mountaintop locations of some detachments provided additional coverage.

But unlike radio, AFVN television programming could not be fed directly from the Saigon key station to detachments. Wideband technology still was primitive in the late '60s.

Programs on videotape and film were rotated among detachments using a weekly film flight and postal mail. In Saigon, sign-on was around noon daily while most detachments started transmissions around 4PM on weekdays and at noon on Saturday and Sunday. Troops watched favorite stateside series such as Bonanza, Mission Impossible, Gunsmoke, Laugh-In and Hawaii Five-O.

Tape-delayed NFL football games and the ever-popular Roller Derby were other highlights. A soldier could even watch the series Combat on AFVN-TV. When Archie Bunker and All In The Family broke new ground, Archie's antics were seen weekly on AFVN-TV. 

Television service declined with reductions in American troop population during 1971 and 1972.  Detachments closed and AFVN-TV left the air in early 1973 when the Paris Peace Accords took effect. Much equipment and facilities were transferred to THVN, the South Vietnamese TV network.

 

AFVN RADIO RECORDINGS

AFVN RADIO VIETNAM SOUND MONTAGE

AFRTS ARCHIVE  (SEARCH AFVN)

Billy Williams repaired aircraft radios at Aviation Electronics Central in Phu Loi, South Vietnam before becoming a television master control operator at AFVN's Qui Nhon detachment atop Vung Chua Mountain in the Central Highlands.

Next, Williams announced television news, sports and operated TV master control at the Danang AFVN detachment on Monkey Mountain.  He also hosted a daily radio music program on AFVN AM.

Williams moved to AFVN's network headquarters station in downtown Saigon to produce and announce a daily radio contemporary music show and deliver hourly news reports.

Upon returning to the U.S., Williams was a broadcaster at WFG-TV, the base television station operated by the U.S. Army Southeastern Signal School at Fort Gordon, near Augusta, Ga.

He also worked at WGUS AM & FM radio in North Augusta, as weekend announcer and subsequently as afternoon drive show host until being honorably discharged from the Army in early 1974.

After returning to Jacksonville, Williams worked weekends and fill-in at WIVY FM &  AM hosting Top 40 music shows--in addition to fulltime employment as professor and program director of communications electronics at Florida Junior College (now Florida State College at Jacksonville). 

He retired from the College in 2001.

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Check out the AFVN web site www.afvnvets.net

For more about AFVN and its parent organization, the Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) Office of Information, access www.macoi.net

An excellent site that details AFRTS history worldwide is http://afrtsarchive.blogspot.com/



Billy Williams

P.O. Box 9673

Jacksonville, FL  32208

n4uf at nofars.net