Bradley radio buff picks up messages to troops in Mideast

A Bradley man, a radio buff, scanning the airwaves with his shortwave receiver Friday morning picked up a broadcast by Radio Australia.

Edward Bunn, 45, a part-time radio announcer, listened as the station relayed one-way messages to troops and civilians in the Persian Gulf.

Bunn picked up a message from a woman named Rose, to her husband. Rose told him: “Heavy with child, expect baby to be born soon.”

Last weekend, before national television reported that Iraq would use Westerners as a barrier against aggression, Bunn heard the Voice of America radio network telling Americans to stay calm. “If you are arrested or picked up,” VOA said, “give your name and social security number and nothing more; their legal system is different from ours.”

“They were telling the Americans to not make waves, and giving advice on how to leave Iraq or Kuwait,” said Bunn. The VOA suggested Americans use their own discretion.

Bunn said the VOA broadcast warned Americans looking for a way out of Iraq or Kuwait that crossing the desert was extremely dangerous, but offered advice for those who wanted to try. The station said that one person attempting such an escape had died but did not give the person’s nationality.

Bunn attributed his interest in radio to his grandfather and uncle. His grandfather was a radio announcer and his uncle a weatherman.

When he was a few months shy of 10 years old, Bunn hitchhiked to his grandfather’s station and watched him do his show. “The radio bug bit, and I made up my mind then that that’s what I wanted to do.”