Clyde David DeLay died last week of acute respiratory distress, just months after having significant heart surgery. He was 63.
DeLay was better known to the world as “Dave Rabbit,” the slick-tongued DJ behind Radio First Termer, a pirate radio station he ran from a Saigon whorehouse during the Vietnam War. Continue reading “Rest in Peace, Radio First Termer”
Tag: radio first termer
Dave Rabbit to Resurrect Radio First Termer
Following up on February’s reappearance of Dave Rabbit, the legendary DJ of Vietnam pirate Radio First Termer, Corey Deitz snagged extended correspondence with Rabbit last month, wherein he says there may be a feature-length documentary about RFT in the works. Rabbit’s also putting together a 35th anniversary program to air sometime this year, perhaps in Saigon (though he doesn’t say how).
Ragnar Daneskjold of the Pirates Week podcast has also extensively interviewed Rabbit and plans to play back that conversation in two parts, starting with next weekend’s show.
Dave Rabbit Reappears
The Vietnam-era GI pirate station Radio First Termer has long been a legend. DJ “Dave Rabbit” and friends played rock music and talked openly about sex, drugs, and the f*cked up nature of the U.S. military’s presence in-country. Scant audio evidence of the station has survived, and the last few decades have seen lots of speculation over whether the station and its personalities actually existed.
That speculation can now be laid to rest. A shortwave pirate sent me this PDF of a document reportedly written by Dave Rabbit himself. In it he gives details about how the station was put together (from military-grade broadcast gear courtesy of the U.S. Air Force’s “Midnight Supply”); where it broadcast from (the back room of a whorehouse in Saigon); and how long it remained on the air (a short three weeks). Continue reading “Dave Rabbit Reappears”