This is dedicated to the coalition troops

Dedications and requests are staples of local radio stations everywhere, even in war zones.

Sure enough, they’re a regular part of the morning program hosted by Jonathan Bennett, who is not your run-of-the-mill DJ: He’s station manager and breakfast presenter of British Forces Broadcasting Services Middle East, a station serving coalition troops in Iraq.

“We could have people right on the front lines, sitting in a Challenger tank and tuned in to us on a pocket radio,” he says.

BFBS is the designated station for British troops serving in Iraq. But because the U.S. military decided not to install a local radio station on the ground in the Gulf region, as they did during Desert Storm in 1991, thousands of GIs are also tuning in to BFBS. Bennett and co-presenter Neil Knowles broadcast music, dedications from loved ones at home and snippets of information and irreverent humor. “To entertain, inform and keep morale high, that’s the mission,” Bennett says.

American forces have been encountering BFBS on their way into Iraq. The station is housed in two metal cabins within the perimeter of a huge U.S. Army camp on the outskirts of Kuwait City, essentially a transit stop before they are deployed inside Iraq.

“The American guys here hear about us and sometimes come round and knock on our door to thank us for playing a particular song,” says Bennett, 47, speaking by satellite phone.

The big difference for BFBS this time is that it is reaching troops on the front line. “We have two engineers with us, and they’ve been out with military escorts to put transmitters into Umm Qasr and Basra,” Bennett explains. “The transmitter near Basra has a 35-kilometer range, so all our troops around there can hear us. To know that our guys can be listening to us during combat, that’s an incredible feeling.”

BFBS is part of Services Sound and Vision Corp., a company that won the contract from Britain’s Ministry of Defence to broadcast to the nation’s troops serving abroad. But though its Middle East station is aimed primarily at British soldiers and their families, Bennett and Knowles go to great lengths to include their American coalition comrades.

“We always play a ‘track of the day for the U.S. of A.,’ ” Bennett explains. “That’s for the U.S. troops. Sometimes one track becomes two, but there are always songs by American artists. Earlier today, I played Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Freebird,’ then James Taylor singing ‘You’ve Got a Friend.’ ”

BFBS receives 2,000 dedications or music requests daily. Listening to these (the station is Web-cast on www.bfbs.com) is a moving experience, especially birthday messages for soldiers who are only 19 or 20. Bennett is convinced the station offers an invaluable service: “There’s no doubt when you’re feeling low, music lifts the spirit by evoking memories and emotions. As guys serving on the front line always say, war is nine parts waiting and one part fighting. While they’re waiting, the radio can take their minds off things.”

Not that all the music requests are grim or heartfelt. Some soldiers send jokey dedications to other units, asking for songs like the Animals’ “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” or Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back in Town,” two of the station’s most requested offerings.

But most requests let the lyrics of songs speak for the letter writers. “We’ve found the Beatles’ ‘All You Need Is Love’ hugely popular,” says Bennett. “So is ‘Don’t Know Why’ by Norah Jones.” And some of the most emotional letters have been from separated lovers requesting Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles,” with its lyric: “You know I’d walk a thousand miles if I could just see you tonight.”

Bennett, a 20-year BFBS veteran, has undertaken various postings. Since the 1991 Gulf War, he has served the station in Brunei, Northern Ireland and Germany, which included three trips to Kosovo.

He is bullish and upbeat, though the reality of war sometimes hits home: “The worst thing that happened here was a week ago. We’ve had about 30 British troops killed so far, and we receive casualty lists. We are scrupulous about vetting dedications against those lists. We wouldn’t want a dedication to go out [to a soldier killed in combat] because of the upset it would cause....

“One came in for a soldier who had been killed. We stopped it. It didn’t go out. This boy was very young. He was the same age as my son. The letter was from his mother. She’d written this when he was still alive, and I knew he was dead.”

For Bennett, Knowles and the engineers, the metal cabins function as broadcast booth, office and living quarters: Bennett’s bed is in the corner of the studio. They expect to be in Kuwait long after the Iraq conflict is over: “BFBS comes into its own in a postwar situation,” Bennett says. “There’s work to be done, but sometimes the attention of the world strays away from troops after a war. But we pride ourselves that wherever the forces go, we go.”

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Troops’ top songs

British Forces Broadcasting Service’s 10 most requested songs:

1. “The Boys Are Back in Town” -- Thin Lizzy

2. “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” -- The Animals

3. “Take Me Home” -- Sophie Ellis Bextor

4. “Don’t Know Why” -- Norah Jones

5. “Without Me” -- Eminem

6. “Half the World Away” -- Oasis

7. “Writing to Reach You” -- Travis

8. “Rock DJ” -- Robbie Williams

9. “Rock the Casbah” -- The Clash

10. “Hero” -- Chad Kroeger