The KLIK Gang in 1967. At that time providing music and news
from the Third Brigade of the Big Red One.
Standing [l to r] are Pete Klusman, Ken Klepeis,
and Phil Dubbs. Lon Carruth is sitting.
SP4 Tim Abney spins a disk for listeners.
Fellow DJ Chuck Moody also entertained the troops...
...as did SP4 Ken Klepeis. He lives in NJ now.
SP4 Jim McDade -- a Tennessee boy who did the Country Corner-- and ...
SP4 Paige Pinkette also did music for KLIK.
Paige was a good DJ who knew his music well.
Ed Levinson and Lon Carruth were just buddies...honest!
The is the 3rd Brigade HQ Building. KLIK was located in the left end of the
the front wing (the portion in the photo. Our AM antenna was a dipole from
the water tower behind the Hospital wing (second wing can't be seen in
photo) just visible above the roof out to the top of the large tree in front
of the building. (click to enlarge picture)
This is a pic of Glenda Allen (I ran into her in Chicago in 1986) doing
the Clara Barton Show... Requests and dedications on Wednesday and Sundays
from 7-9PM.
Front door with First Division and 3rd Brigade insignias... Just in case
there was any doubt as to our "authorization satus." BTW - There was no
"Education Center" operation. We always got a kick out of that sign.
(click to enlarge picture)
Patch given to all DJs regardless of whether they were assigned or
volunteers. Mine was lost on the fight home. It was not sewn on but in a
plastic holder and held on by a rather flimsy pin. I discovered that mine
was missing when I got off the plane and they weren't about to let
me back on to look for it. Not that I wanted back on anyway.
SP4 Dan Bernard also provided a great sound at KLIK.
The tower for the nearby chopper base made it easy to find our way
to work in the daytime. But by night the VC used it as an 'aiming
stake' for mortar
fire -- until they turned it off -- most of the time. It
was good
they did because [continued]
One 122 mm rocket landed in front of our station.
[Thanks to SP4 Rich Agotness for demonstrating the rocket's penetrating power.]
Sometimes we wished that we had places to go off-base.
The view above of the 'North Gate' tells you why we did not do that
much.
Agent Orange killed all the vegetation in front of you.
On the road to nowhere, the roads were usually not crowded.
And even when you got somewhere,
the views were not always that good.
On base things got really boring at times.
This fellow was so bored that he decided to photograph burning shit.
I was so bored I took a photo of a fellow taking a photo of burning
shit.
One fellow got so bored he waxed the fire truck.
There was a swimming pool attached to the base.
It was built by the French colonialists who lived there before we came.
The pool was pretty nice. But I did not go much.
This is the way down Highway 13. The Iron Brigade HQ is on the left.
3rd Bde HQ Dead Ahead
Sometimes it was pleasant just to put one's feet up and relax.
"We should all have stayed this young and innocent!" --
Tim Abney
A last view of Tim Abney at Lai Khe
The small metal box behind my head is the actual transmitter!
Tim in Nov 2000 sporting his new AFVN T-shirt.
CLICK
here
to hear KLIK again.
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By Tim Abney
KLIK was originally set up as a repeater for AFVN with the transmitter set up in the back room of the MP station in the Brigade HQ Bldg. They had a 50 watt Bauer Broadcaster Transmitter provided by AFVN on 1330KHz. By the time I got there it had been moved to a location near the other end of the building between the museum and a civilian employment office of some sort. A new antenna system which was basically a coil loaded, unequal, dipole that stretched from the water tower behind the hospital to a large tree in front of the Brigade HQ. I understood that the antenna and loading system were a Phil Dubs creation. It actually worked quite well. They had already begun to provide live local programming while the station was in the back of the MP station. They used a Bogen PA amp for mixing and whatever equipment they could scrounge. Scrounging ability was a pre-requisite for KLIK people all the time I was there and certainly prior to that. After they moved, Phil Dubs, who was with 595 Signal, I believe, built the first mixer... It used some old broken Sony tape deck pre-amps and telephone switchboard switched and was quite ingenious. We sent it over to Radio Phouc Vinh when we were able to, through trading of "real" war souveniers, to AFVN supply people get a Gates console. That console will also be seen in some of the pictures. I installed the Gates console in Dec. of 1967 and sent the old "board" to Phouc Vinh. (anybody know what happened to those guys?) We also had a couple of Military Tape decks that worked well once they got warmed up in the morning that we used for most of our jingles and recorded spots. The two turntables that were there were of a unknown to me manufacture. I never even once looked at them except to operate them. Very reliable. We also had a Ampex Tape editing unit that seldom worked correctly due to voltage problems that seemed to be never ending. We actually had a decent record library due to the generosity of stateside record companies and GI donations that just sort of showed up now and then. I also brought back tapes and records from KPOI in Honlulu when I went there on RnR. I had a good friend named Donn Tyler who had been there for some time and I knew from KMEN in San Bernardino. We had a Modulation transformer melt down in May or June of 1968 a short time before my DEROS and came back on the air on FM using a military AN/TRC-24 transmitter at 104.9 MHz. That was how things were when I left. I heard from several aviation types (Robinhoods) that once airborn they were able to listen to our FM signal anywhere in their operation area. We were also able to by actually selling ads to the reup office and NCO and O Clubs buy a Akai M-9 Tape deck and other materials and supplies we needed to keep the place humming. [Nov 4, 2000] |
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