Post by adriancronauer on Aug 4, 2009 20:13:56 GMT
AMERICAN FORCES VIETNAM NETWORK (AFVN)
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.
Electronic technology breakthroughs in miniaturization during the '60s led to cheap, mass-produced portable transistor radi.
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.
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, FM service during afternoon and evening hours on 99.9 MHz. was added. AM service expanded to 24 hours. U.S. Marines landed in Da Nang to start a buildup of American ground troops.
By 1967, signal coverage had been expanded to most of the Vietnam combat zone through establishment of detachments.
Since AFRS Saigon had become a network, the title American Forces Vietnam Network and call sign AFVN were adopted on July 1, 1967. A broadcast complex was completed at 9 Hong Thap Tu near the American Embassy. It contained a half dozen production and programming studios, headquarters administration offices along with high-powered FM and television transmitters.
AFVN eventually expanded to nine detachments that were scattered throughout South Vietnam to lend creedence to the AFVN slogan "Serving the American fighting man twenty fours hours a day from the Delta to the DMZ." Larger detachments consisted of a dozen or so AFVN servicemen assigned to provide AM and FM radio along with television broadcasts.
AFVN announcer Billy Williams
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.
Electronic technology breakthroughs in miniaturization during the '60s led to cheap, mass-produced portable transistor radi.
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.
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, FM service during afternoon and evening hours on 99.9 MHz. was added. AM service expanded to 24 hours. U.S. Marines landed in Da Nang to start a buildup of American ground troops.
By 1967, signal coverage had been expanded to most of the Vietnam combat zone through establishment of detachments.
Since AFRS Saigon had become a network, the title American Forces Vietnam Network and call sign AFVN were adopted on July 1, 1967. A broadcast complex was completed at 9 Hong Thap Tu near the American Embassy. It contained a half dozen production and programming studios, headquarters administration offices along with high-powered FM and television transmitters.
AFVN eventually expanded to nine detachments that were scattered throughout South Vietnam to lend creedence to the AFVN slogan "Serving the American fighting man twenty fours hours a day from the Delta to the DMZ." Larger detachments consisted of a dozen or so AFVN servicemen assigned to provide AM and FM radio along with television broadcasts.
AFVN announcer Billy Williams
