Radio First Termer

From HFUnderground

Radio First Termer was a pirate radio station active in Saigon, Vietnam for 21 days in January 1971. It was hosted by Dave Rabbit (Sergeant Clyde David DeLay Jr.), along with Pete Sadler and Nguyen. Shows consisted of "hard acid rock music" (Steppenwolf, Bloodrock, Three Dog Night, Led Zeppelin, Sugarloaf, James Gang, and Iron Butterfly) and very raunchy, anti-war commentary.

It operated out of a whore house in Saigon, South Vietnam. Equipment was acquired through the "midnight supply" company and consisted of many high-quality items (including three Akai reel to reel tape recorders). Broadcasts were done live, but all music and gimmicks were pre-recorded.

The Dave Rabbit claims the frequency was 69 MHz FM (which was also announced on air), but there is some doubt about the truth to this. While 69 MHz is part of the FM Broadcast Band in Asia, most US military personnel would have only had radios that tune the US FM band. Some military radios could tune to 69 MHz, but not in wideband FM Stereo. It is more likely the frequency was something like 96.9 or 106.9 (or any other FM frequency with a similar combination). It is rumored the programs were somehow broadcast over the American Forces Vietnam Network transmitters after it went off-air at night, but this is also doubtful.

The plan was to have 30 days of programming for all of January 1971. Dave Rabbit claims the following message was played on AFVN's own frequency just before it signed on at 8:00 PM on January 1, although the accuracy is this is doubtful because of the reasons in the above paragraph: "Vietnam, in just 30 seconds your radio experience will change forever. Turn your radios to 69 Megahertz on your FM dial. If you don't, we are going to re-up you for another tour of Vietnam". A total of 21 days (63 hours) worth of broadcasts were made. RFT was cut short of its original 30-day plan due to Dave Rabbits increased concern that he or someone else helping with the show was going to get caught and sent to jail.

Dave Rabbit kept in contact with Pete for a few years after returning home, but eventually lost contact with him. The true identities of "Pete Sadler" and "Nguyen" are unknown.

All the equipment was given to the "madam" as payment for rent associated with the station. Unfortunately, only one of the 21 programs produced is known to have been recorded and preserved. The recorder is unknown, although the Phan Rang relay station is one possible source. Most likely it was some listener who enjoyed the programs enough to record one. A stereo copy is known to exist in decent quality from a reel to reel, and given it is probably many generations from the original, it must have been a very high-quality recording in the beginning. The recording was widely circulated by cassette tape and was heard by many listeners all over the world this way. Many of these low-quality copies have also been uploaded to the internet. While there is always a possibility of another recording appearing in the future, it seems unlikely at this point.

Interest in Radio First Termer Programs

There has been a large interest in the RFT programs for decades, with the cassette copies circulating. In 1995 Will Snyder created the RFT home page. He is one of many who first heard the program on cassette, but he decided to create a website for RFT. It contains many (low quality) audio clips from the program, along with information and memorabilia about the station. It created an interest in RFT among a much larger audience.

An NPR program titled "Vietnam: Radio First Termer" was aired on Veteran’s Day, 1987 and is available under the "see also" section of this page.

Dave Ribbit was not aware of the interest in his programs for years. He first heard about it when he met someone with a tape of the program in summer 1982. Dave made a copy of the tape, but it was later erased by accident. On February 9, 2006, Dave Rabbit was looking for pictures for a Vietnam project and happened to come across recordings of RFT. He googled Dave Rabbit and Radio First Termer and came across the huge number of websites featuring RFT.

Dave Rabbit was a member of the Free Radio Network, and occasionally posted there. His program is occasionally rebroadcast by shortwave pirates in North America.

In 2006 Dave Rabbit produced an additional program called Radio First Termer Iraq. It follows a very similar format to the original recording.

Dave Rabbits real name was Clyde David DeLay Jr. He died January 27th, 2012 at Baylor Medical Center at Garland of acute respiratory distress syndrome at the age of 63 years old.

See also

• Radio First Termer - Wikipedia
• The Radio First Termer Home Page
• Biography of Radio First Termer
• Vietnam: Radio First Termer (NPR Program)
• Radio First Termer Restoration Project
• FLAC Files of the Highest Quality Source
• Radio First Termer (Vietnam) 69 FM January 1971 (highest quality version on YouTube)