Fighting Voices from Downunder
When World War 2 began in 1939, radio broadcasting was still just a
teenager, having started in the early 1920's in Australia, New
Zealand, Canada and the USA.
This young entertainment upstart was immediately drafted to 'the
cause' and Armed Forces Radio stations appeared first, unofficially,
in Alaska, whilst the Australian and New Zealand government
broadcasters sent mobile broadcast units to the Middle East.
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Australian Broadcasting Commission housed its Field Unit in
this imposing structure, suitably attired with antenna, at Gaza,
Palestine in October 1941
© Frank Hurley, Australian War Memorial
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This was new territory for both broadcasters, who had to juggle
wartime censorship and a legitimate demand for their volunteer
military units to stay in touch with their families back home.
When the Pacific War brought operations much closer to home, the
American AFRS mobilised private commercial radio broadcasters and
began to move their units into the South Pacific where they later
introduced radio to some local islands for the first and only time in
their history.
The first joint Australian and US station was 9PA in Port Moresby,
whilst the Australian RAAF also maintained a mobile station at Madang.
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RAAF Radio 'The Voice of the Islands' broadcast from Madang in
New Guinea in late 1944
© Australian War Memorial
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Like the Americans, the Australians could also draw on commercial
radio broadcasters although 9PA was technically under the control of
the ABC because Papua was an Australian territory.
This former troublesome teenager called radio was in it's early 20's
by now and getting the hang of romance and adventure.
'Tokyo Rose' began flooding the Pacific airwaves with soft and
seductive propaganda programs, and the AFRS responded by implanting
'hometown' radio stations everywhere GI's were gathering across the
region.
Australian Army Amenity Service radio stations were finally ready for
action as the Pacific War ended, and one of their earlier implants
was also a 'hometown' station in the exposed Northern Territory of
Australia itself.
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Corporal L Hobbs works on the installation of the transmitter
for 5DR Darwin in April 1945
© Australian War Memorial
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With the words 'This is Armed Forces Radio broadcasting from Tokyo' a
new era dawned, followed quickly with Australian, New Zealand and
other Commonwealth broadcasters adding their voices to Japanese
airwaves.
As well as the massive AFRS network covering Japan from north to
south, WLKS an Australian AAAS station with an American callsign was
on the air, and even New Zealand found space on the dial with AKAA at
Yamaguchi.
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Ulric Williams of AKAA Yamaguchi 'The Voice of the 2NZEF in
Japan' interviews Kiwis atop Empire House in Tokyo in 1946.
© Ulric Williams Collection, Radio Heritage Foundation
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AFRS and AAAS radio stations were scattered across the broad expanse
of the Pacific at the close of World War Two, with additional AFRS
stations throughout colonial India and pre-revolutionary China.
British Forces Radio, British Military Administration Radio and Radio
SEAC broadcast from Singapore and Malaya, with AFRS and AAAS stations
also located in the Dutch East Indies and Labuan.
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AAAS Radio 9AF broadcast from the small Straits Settlement
territory of Labuan island off the coast of Borneo in November 1945.
© Australian War Memorial
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Radio SEAC [South East Asia Command] was re-establishing itself from
Ceylon ahead of Indian independence and by 1950, as China and Korea
emerged as new areas of concern and the 'Bamboo Curtain' began to
sweep down across northern Asia, Australia's WLKS still entertained
remaining ANZAC troops at Kure, near Hiroshima in Japan.
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Captain Ken Collie [third from left] joins others to support
the on air announcer at WLKS Radio, Kure in August 1950
© Australian War Memorial
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On the Korean peninsula, the Korean War had erupted, with the United
Nations sending forces and a by now very mature thirty-something
'radio' into the conflict. AFRS mobile radio stations were shipped
from Japan and in the fast moving battles, an entire station was lost
near Seoul.
ANZAC and other Commonwealth units were also engaged in the fighting,
and
'Radio Commonwealth' rotated broadcasters from the UK, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand in front of its microphones to provide
links with home, and cricket commentaries instead of the baseball
found on Vagabond and the other AFRS stations.
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Sgt. Kevin O'Donnell spins the records at Radio Commonwealth on
the Imjin River, a few miles from North Korean troops in November
1955.
© Australian War Memorial
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During the Malayan Confrontation with newly independent Indonesia,
ANZAC forces were again to be found patrolling the jungles of Borneo
and the Malay peninsula, and the RAAF established a long term radio
station at Butterworth, near Penang Island.
Radio RAAF Butterworth [RRB] emerged out of use of the tannoy system
at the camp by the RAAF No 2 Construction Company in 1956, when
personnel wanted a local station with their own music instead of
listening to shortwave broadcasts from AFRS on Guam.
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RRB became a long established radio station for several decades
and in its later years used this large studio building.
© www.raafschoolpenang.com
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Even whilst Malaysia and Singapore were coming of age as new nations
in 1963, Australian, American and New Zealand personnel were being
drawn into events in Vietnam, where a major US military broadcasting
operation was being established, known popularly as AFVN [Armed
Forces Radio Vietnam].
Little known outside Australia and New Zealand is Australian Forces
Radio located at Vung Tau, in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam. This
station also featured taped shows from a number of well known
broadcasters, including popular New Zealand DJ Keith Richardson.
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Australian Army Red Cross Field Officer Carmel O'Shea plays a
request for listeners at AFR Vung Tau in January 1970.
© Australian War Memorial
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By now, radio had progressed from its formative teenage years in 1939
through to respectable middle age some 30 years later in 1970. Along
the way it entertained and informed ANZAC forces in many fields of
conflict from the Middle East and North Africa through the Pacific,
the shores of Australia, and throughout South East Asia.
Together with American Armed Forces Radio stations such as 1ZM in
Auckland, New Zealand and 4QR in Brisbane, Australia, AAAS, WLKS,
AKAA, Radio Commonwealth, Radio RAAF Butterworth and AFR Vietnam were
some of the memorable icons of the Fighting Voices from Downunder.
Radio had come of age.
For more detailed information about the Australian AAAS radio
stations check out 'Diggers on Air' and for a
photographic review of the 9AA and other AAAS stations and the NZBS
Middle East Unit, see 'ANZAC Day Salute'.
There's also a review of the joint AFRS/ABC Papua station at '9PA
Port Moresby'.
There are over 30 AFRS related features - see the header 'AFRS Armed
Forces Radio Memories' for a full listing.
Key features are 'AFRS Alaska', 'AFRS
China-Burma-India', 'AFRS Japan'
and 'AFRS Jungle Network'.
If you have any information, photos, recordings, memorabilia or any
other items of interest about ANZAC radio broadcasts since 1939, we
would like to hear from you and would be honored to share this
material here.
You can 'email' us or write: Radio Heritage
Foundation, PO Box 2213, Stoke, Nelson 7041, New Zealand.
Donations to help us research and present more ANZAC and AFRS
broadcasting heritage are very welcome and can be made in memoriam to
family members and friends if desired.
^Top
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 "ABC Gaza 1941")
 "RAAF Voice of the Islands HQ 1944")
 "5DR Darwin 1945")
 "AKAA Williams in Tokyo")
 "9AF Labuan 1945")
 "WLKS 1950")
 "Radio Commonwealth 1955")
 "RAAF Butterworth")
 "AFR Vietnam 1970")
