Voice of America

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The Voice of America (VOA) is the official broadcasting service of the United States government. It is one of the best-known stations in international broadcasting, is similar to international broadcasters such as the BBC World Service, BBC World, Deutsche Welle, and Radio France Internationale.

History

Early years (1942-1947)

VOA was organized in 1942 under the Office of War Information with news programs aimed at German-occupied Europe and North Africa. VOA began broadcasting on February 24, 1942. Transmitters used by VOA came from shortwave transmitters used by the Columbia Broadcasting System and National Broadcasting Company. Voice of America began to transmit radio broadcasts into the Soviet Union on February 17, 1947.

The Cold War years (1948-1992)

During the Cold War, VOA was placed under the U.S. Information Agency. In the 1980s, VOA also added a television service, as well as special regional programs to Cuba, Radio Marti and TV Marti.

The Internet era (1992-Present)

The VOA has been broadcasting on the WWW since 2000 in English.


Laws governing VOA-IBB's activities

Under United States law (the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948), the Voice of America is forbidden to broadcast directly to American citizens. The original intent of this legislation is to keep the federal government from having a direct outlet to the public, unlike many European countries.

  • It is only a matter of time until this 1942 shortwave broadcasting policy is undone. In many ways this 1942 law and policy has no real or residual strategic value, because of changes in the U.S. mass media system. The policy's post-9/11 strategic value is questionable.
  • The law explicitly forbidding VOA from carrying out any domestic broadcasting activities is partly derived from the U.S.'s lack of a state funded domestic radio or television broadcaster. The law was also designed to satisfy the needs of the U.S.'s commercial radio broadcasting companies.
  • The U.S. PBS (TV) and NPR (Radio) networks in the U.S. function with some public funding, but without the oversight that state broadcasting corporations typically have. Both networks supply material for VOA Worldnet TV or VOA's Radio's flagship English Service.
  • No other international broadcaster has these kinds of restrictions governing their activities.

In special cases, such as the 1981 TV program Let Poland Be Poland, Congressional approval was required to show Americans the program. However, VOA is audible on shortwave and broadcasts streaming audio over the Internet, which enables Americans to hear the programming.


IBB Broadcasting Activities, Non-VOA

VOA broadcasts several programs aimed at specialist audiences:

VOA Languages and Programming

The Voice of America currently broadcasts in more than 50 languages, including Special English, which uses simplified vocabulary and grammar.

Many Voice of America announcers, such as Willis Conover, Pat Gates, and Judy Massa became world-wide celebrities, though they were unknown in their home country.

The interval signal is "Yankee Doodle," played by a brass band, followed by the announcement: "this is the Voice of America, signing on." "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean" was used as the interval signal for many years.

Broadcasting centre

The Voice of America headquarters is located at 330 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC, 20237, USA.

Transmission Network

IBB runs a number of transmitting sites throughout the world, including its domestic relay stations at

IBB operates a series of relay stations outside the US

It formerly used a 625 [acre?] site in Union Township in southwestern Ohio's Butler County, the Bethany Relay Station, which operated from 1944 to 1994. Other former sites include Dixon, California, Hawaii, Liberia, Costa Rica and Belize.

There are also many "Affiliate" stations and contracted stations which carry VOA programs. VOA programs in many, if not most of its broadcast languages are available on the Internet in both streaming and downloadable formats. [[1]].

VOA's parent orgnization is the International Broadcasting Bureau [[2]], which is overseen by the presidentially-appointed Broadcasting Board of Governors[[3]]. Although the IBB was originally seen as a firewall, protecting VOA and other official U.S. civilian international broadcasters from political (specifically State Department/White House) interference, critics in recent years have questioned the degree of independence of VOA's news programs from government policies.

See also

External links

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