Hello, my friends!
Yes, it’s not a typo; more than one year before the revolution in Romania, teenagers from all over Romania (now, adults in their forties or early fifties!] enjoyed listening [secretly and to their parents’ dismay!] to the rock & roll and heavy metal music on the VOA.
This was the opening line of the rock & roll and heavy metal show broadcast by the Voice of America 30 years ago. HelloMyFriends is the Webpage dedicated to Andrei, the teenager DJ of the show, and to the fans who listened to this show, most of them teenagers themselves. The hundreds of letters mailed to the Voice of America (VOA) are testimony of Andrei’s friendship with the listeners of the rock & roll and heavy metal show broadcast on VOA every Tuesday, for six years, starting in March 1988!
Yes, it’s not a typo; more than one year before the revolution in Romania, teenagers from all over Romania (now, adults in their forties or early fifties!] enjoyed listening [secretly and to their parents’ dismay!] to the rock & roll and heavy metal music on the VOA.
Ada(16) from Suceava sent Andrei the first message on March 8, 1988, when VOA launched the show: “Dear Andrei, my name is Ada, I’m 16 and I love music. I listened to your first show and decided to send you a message right away because I think this show is interesting, even very interesting. I bet many young music lovers like myself will turn on the radio to listen to your show.”
Let’s add a brief P.S.: Ada wrote the letter in Suceava (Northern Romania), sent it to Chisinau, Moldova, (part of the USSR at that time), and then it was mailed to the VOA in Washington.
Let’s add a brief P.S.: Ada wrote the letter in Suceava (Northern Romania), sent it to Chisinau, Moldova, (part of the USSR at that time), and then it was mailed to the VOA in Washington.
Indeed, the letters sent to the VOA backed up Ada’s thoughts. Two years later, on January 2, 1990, Luminita (17) and Mariana (16) wrote, “First and foremost we’ll start our letter with thanks on behalf of all the music lovers in Romania for the shows you’ve been broadcasting during that crazy regime …shows you’re still producing.”
In 2019, VOA’s 30-year old music shows are part of the radio archives! In 1988, when Andrei broadcast the rock & roll pilot show, teenagers (12-19) and college students (20-24) were happy to “discover” the Tuesday music show of VOA’s Romanian Service. Here is Nicoleta from Bihor who, in a seven-page letter, wrote in June 1988,
”I am 14 and will be in ninth grade this year. I’ve started to enjoy heavy metal songs after I’ve started listening to your shows. I missed the first two months of your show; I found it on a Tuesday evening, quite unexpectedly, and I’ve been listening to it ever since. First, because I like how you present it, and especially I love your voice and, then, for all the music you broadcast. I never miss your Tuesday show now!”
”I am 14 and will be in ninth grade this year. I’ve started to enjoy heavy metal songs after I’ve started listening to your shows. I missed the first two months of your show; I found it on a Tuesday evening, quite unexpectedly, and I’ve been listening to it ever since. First, because I like how you present it, and especially I love your voice and, then, for all the music you broadcast. I never miss your Tuesday show now!”
On December 23, 1989, Ciprian from Măinești wrote in his letter to Andrei: “I’m bursting out with joy I can still muster the strength to send you a letter feeling FREE…I was waiting for the Tuesday 9:30 pm shows as if they were a true oasis of happiness. During the twenty minutes of heavy metal, my friend and I felt we were carried away in a world of liberty, democracy, of entertainment, a world where youngsters are free to think and to express their thoughts.”
In February 1990, Nicoly, “just an ordinary teenager of 17 from Clit, a small town in the Suceava county,” wrote to Andrei he had been listening to his show since he was 14. “First, I want to say that, you, Andrei, are now in my brothers’ life (Dan, Paul, and Bogdan), and, more than that, you are a part of my life. We love you very much. For me, when I think of radio, I think of the Voice of America and ANDREI!”
In February 1990, Nicoly, “just an ordinary teenager of 17 from Clit, a small town in the Suceava county,” wrote to Andrei he had been listening to his show since he was 14. “First, I want to say that, you, Andrei, are now in my brothers’ life (Dan, Paul, and Bogdan), and, more than that, you are a part of my life. We love you very much. For me, when I think of radio, I think of the Voice of America and ANDREI!”
During the Cold War, over five million people listened to the VOA programs in Romanian. Among them were the hundreds of teenagers, college graduates, and other rock & roll and heavy metal fans who listened to the show broadcast by VOA’s Romanian Service and produced by Andrei Staicu. Andrei’s show was the first and only VOA music show produced by a teenager. On the first-year anniversary of the show, VOA’s annual progress report noted: “The [Romanian] Service’s new appeal to youth is credited in part to the 17-year old host of a weekly rock show that is drawing highly favorable attention.”
Andrei wrote the scripts, recorded the Tuesday shows and interviewed well known bands [Scorpions, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Poison, Beach Boys, Kage]. With his dynamic and engaging personality, as the DJ of this music show, Andrei made many friends in Romania. Here is what Jane and Joan of Cluj-Napoca wrote on January 26, 1989: “Dear Andrei, your show is fantastic. We’ve been listening to it for a long time. We are anxiously waiting for every Tuesday night. We’re both 17.”
Andrei wrote the scripts, recorded the Tuesday shows and interviewed well known bands [Scorpions, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Poison, Beach Boys, Kage]. With his dynamic and engaging personality, as the DJ of this music show, Andrei made many friends in Romania. Here is what Jane and Joan of Cluj-Napoca wrote on January 26, 1989: “Dear Andrei, your show is fantastic. We’ve been listening to it for a long time. We are anxiously waiting for every Tuesday night. We’re both 17.”
In 1988, Juju wrote that, “every Tuesday, I’m with my radio enjoying the moments I listen to the music of the famous bands broadcast on your show. Your friend, Juju.”
Remus (21), an undergrad student in Timisoara, wrote on December 28, 1989: “First, I’d like to thank you for everything you have done for us, the heavy metal fans, and for everything you’ll be doing. Your shows are excellent, and I want you to know I can hardly wait for Tuesday nights to listen to these shows that are indeed very good.”
Remus (21), an undergrad student in Timisoara, wrote on December 28, 1989: “First, I’d like to thank you for everything you have done for us, the heavy metal fans, and for everything you’ll be doing. Your shows are excellent, and I want you to know I can hardly wait for Tuesday nights to listen to these shows that are indeed very good.”
All the letters (some of them 16-page long) sent from Romania by girls and boys of Andrei’s age or younger (12!) are written with sincerity, warmth, humor, and enthusiasm and show the senders’ strong desire to contact their friend from across the ocean.
Daniela [17] from Huși, took a break as she was cramming for the baccalaureate exam and for the higher education admission test to “introduce one of my best friends. Andrei X; he’s about 20 and loves heavy metal. We met one summer night, when we listened together to an Iron Maiden radio show and we’ve been friends ever since. We do get along although our friendship seems on the rocks sometimes; one day, I threw away the radio that wouldn’t let me study for my math exam. But, in general, Andrei is a perfect young man; he never misses our Tuesday dates and has a wonderful gift: he says everything he has to say in 20 minutes! What do you think of my friend?”
Pisica Metalistă [the Metalist Cat] and Jimmy agree with Daniela in their letter of February 17, 1989: “We’ve been listening to your HEAVYMETAL show for some time now, but we haven’t sent you a letter. Although we actually don’t know you, except for VOA’s shows, I know you are a very pleasant guy… All the youngsters in this town love you. My friend and I enjoy listening to heavy metal.”
Pisica Metalistă [the Metalist Cat] and Jimmy agree with Daniela in their letter of February 17, 1989: “We’ve been listening to your HEAVYMETAL show for some time now, but we haven’t sent you a letter. Although we actually don’t know you, except for VOA’s shows, I know you are a very pleasant guy… All the youngsters in this town love you. My friend and I enjoy listening to heavy metal.”
On March 8, 1988, at 10h10’ pm, Ioana, a biology undergrad at the University of Bucharest, wrote in her letter to Andrei that she “stopped measuring the artificial tension of liquids for the biophysics lab test..So, Andrei, I put everything away (that’s your risk as a universal correspondent!)..I like you! Welcome Andrei on my radio! “
On June 1, 1990, Irina from Câmpulung mailed a one-page letter. “I’ll tell you only that my name is Irina. I’ll also tell you that you are a very good old friend and that Tuesday is a blessed day…I can say that, for me and for my friend Ana, you are the only real dream. I can’t imagine how you look (you are just a voice!). If you really understand what you, your show, and the moments we spend together mean for me, just let me know…”
On June 1, 1990, Irina from Câmpulung mailed a one-page letter. “I’ll tell you only that my name is Irina. I’ll also tell you that you are a very good old friend and that Tuesday is a blessed day…I can say that, for me and for my friend Ana, you are the only real dream. I can’t imagine how you look (you are just a voice!). If you really understand what you, your show, and the moments we spend together mean for me, just let me know…”
Adrian (16) from Baia Mare and Raluca from Curtea de Argeș shared with Andrei stories about their towns, about school, and introduced themselves as faithful listeners of the rock and heavy metal show. Here is what Adrian wrote about Baia Mare: “It’s like magic to live in this small town, surrounded by hills and mountains, covered with a white blanket of snow welcoming Santa Claus who will bring us both the joy of having been released from Ceausescu’s grip and the sadness of the thousands of lives lost—many of them young lives.”
Raluca, who found accidentally Andrei’s extraordinary “hello my friends” wrote that “three quarters of the students in my high school [the best in town!] start the week with Tuesday; we are all anxiously waiting for this day. We have an excellent opinion about the show and about…you. On Wednesday, you are the talk of the high school. We talk about the tone of your voice, and we repeat every sentence in the show. Then, especially the girls try to imagine how you look! But… We know nothing about you, except that you have a perfect voice. Well, your voice is promising, and we decided you are cute!”
Aurica from Gurahonț was also curious and asked Andrei to send her a picture, because “if you don’t, I’ll imagine you are just a voice floating on the wings of the evening breeze, bestrewing music and perfume.” A sensitive young girl, Aurica told her friend from across the ocean how she found his show: “It was one summer evening, some three years ago, when I returned from my stroll among the plantation of dwarf fruit trees behind our house. That’s where I go to be by myself, to gather my thoughts that will become poems. So, getting home, I thought of listening to the Voice of America…Then, after about five minutes, your explosive voice broke in with “hello my friends” And your voice merged with the scent of flowers and with the evening breeze floating through the open window...It was for the first time that I enjoyed listening to this type of music. I was so happy when, at the end of the show, you invited us to meet again next Tuesday! I’ve been anxiously waiting for your show.”
We close this brief review of some of the fan letters. When you click here ,you will find scans of other letters Andrei received 30 years ago from the young listeners of the rock & roll and heavy metal show he produced for VOA’s Romanian Service.
We close this brief review of some of the fan letters. When you click here ,you will find scans of other letters Andrei received 30 years ago from the young listeners of the rock & roll and heavy metal show he produced for VOA’s Romanian Service.
