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Aden Forces Broadcasting Association
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The
Aden Forces Broadcasting Association (A.F.B.A.)
transmitted on 241.7 metres on the medium wave
band. Broadcasts were from 6 am to 8.30 pm and
all evening on weekdays and all day on Sundays,
more hours, it was claimed, than Radio
Luxembourg. AFBA's signature tune,
transmitted every morning, was "The Barren Rocks
of Aden" and closed each day with The National
Anthem.
Starting in 1954 from a room belonging to the
Clerk of Works, near the Sergeant's Mess at RAF
Khormaksar, it later moved to a building behind
the Main Guardroom then moved again in 1960 to
it's own studios named "Radio Sonde" on RAF
Khormaksar base. |
Initially AFBA took up most of the
spare time of the small band of volunteers for many of
whom it became an exclusive full-time hobby. It was
mainly staffed by Khormaksar people, being based at
Khormaksar, but there was also helped by members from
the Army and some charming female announcers.
Programming was initially aimed mainly at the many
single airmen living in the blocks at Khormaksar but by
1960 the programmes catered to an Aden-wide audience,
and new members were attracted from other parts of Aden.
One of the many AFBA volunteers was
Fred Caroe who wrote to
his father in England on Boxing Day 1955, "I have been asked to take part in a broadcast on
A.F.B.A. (Aden Forces Broadcasting
Association)-- the programme is called "English
Counties"-- Cheshire being the subject I have to help
write the script".
Fred clearly relished the experience
as shortly after he became a newsreader and disc jockey
on AFBA.
Programmes comprised news bulletins
and sports news which were relayed live from the BBC,
transcriptions provided by the BBC and other
broadcasting associations, and programmes arranged
locally which tended for various reasons to be musical
or request programmes. AFBA presented 'The Goon Show'
featuring Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers, and Spike
Milligan, every Saturday evening at 8:30 p.m.
Being entirely a voluntary
organisation, AFBA's old equipment was maintained till
1960 by a solitary technician who did a remarkable job
of keeping the equipment functioning, building new
equipment and often resorting to ingenious
improvisations. On moving into the new Radio Sonde
Studios in 1960 the technician was joined by a second
volunteer. AFBA was now looking like a professional
organisation!
In the early days the announcers
had to do everything themselves, and some, with
dexterity, accomplished the task admirably. It was a
different story in the new studios, where the announcer
led a relatively sheltered and stress-free existence
concentrating solely on his announcing, whilst a
controller handled everything else. There was also a
continuity announcer to announce the programme
announcer, of whom there could be two in the more hectic
progammes.
Following are some of
Fred Caroe's memories
of his times at AFBA:
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We were all
volunteers when I started, and when I moved back
to Steamer Point I had to pay my own taxi fares
to and from the Radio Station, except for one
night when we had to close down early as there
was a strike and riot at Steamer Point and the
RAF very kindly decided to take me back in a
Land Rover with an armed escort!
There were never
more than 2 of us working in the station at any
one time; a controller cum technician and
myself.
We all make
mistakes but the most embarrassing one was one
night at 11pm I was going through the usual
routine of closing down and said, "Now it
just remains for me to wish you all a very
goodnight and we will finish with the National
Anthem". At that I pressed the button to
start up the record with the National Anthem on
it, switched off the lights and was just leaving
with the controller when the phone went, so I
picked it up and a voice said, "Is that you
Caroe?". "Yes," I replied, "This
is the Air Officer Commanding here. Since when
has 'Begin the Beguine' been the National
Anthem?"
I knew instantly
what I had done, apologised and went back an
opened the station again. We had two turntables
and on one we kept the disc with the interval
music and that was of course 'Begin the
Beguine'. Muggins here had pressed the wrong
button. |
But the nice end
to the story is that the AOC was visiting The
S.M.O. at the hospital, by which time of course
everyone knew who the idiot was who had pressed
the wrong button. He came over to me and had a
good laugh about it and was very nice.
There was an
officer in charge of AFBA, I think his name was
Flying Officer Byrne.
The most difficult
part [of my job]was reading the news when there
were a lot of Arabic names in the content - had
to practice hard!
The great fun was
doing the request programmes - the Family
Requests involved people from the UK sending us
requests for servicemen serving in Aden -- one
or two were so filthy we couldn't use them!
I recall the
occasion there was a request from the patients
on one ward for 'Sister Jones' -- she was a
lovely person but huge -- The patients asked for
'Sixteen tons of muscle and blood'. We put it
out, she took it very well and had a laugh .
The red hot song
in those days was 'The Yellow Rose of Texas'. I
can still remember the tune!
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