A few years ago, my family and I visited an exhibit of Blackbeard’s ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, in Greenville. East Carolina University had the display at the Voice of America site just outside town.
I was almost as fascinated about the VOA as the pirate stuff, as it seems like something from a black and white spy movie.
Beginnings
In 1942, the Foreign Information Service was started to counter Nazi propaganda during World War II. It was the forerunner of the VOA and was located in New York City. It later relocated to Washington, D.C. in 1954.
By 1939, the United States was the only world power without a government sponsored radio service. Germany and Japan had been using radio since 1933 as they built empires.
The first director of the VOA was American playwright Robert Sherwood. The first broadcasts were from New York to Europe via the BBC.
Announcer William Harlan Hale opened the German-language program with the words: “We bring you Voices from America. Today, and daily from now on, we shall speak to you about America and the war. The news may be good for us. The news may be bad. But we shall tell you the truth.”
Post War
VOA service was reduced after the war, but the Berlin Blockade of 1948 showed there was still a need to get information across hostile borders.
In 1983, WorldnetTV was started and merged into VOA in 2004. Today, there are 50 radio stations and 14 TV stations. The last short wave station is Site B of the Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Facility in Greenville. There was a Site A (Beaufort) and a Site C (also in Greenville), which are no longer in use.
Today, the VOA broadcasts in 47 languages and is particularly important to parts of the world that don’t have Internet or any other means of getting information from the outside world.
The VOA Mission is drawn from The VOA Charter, and according to the insidevoa website:
These principles will therefore govern Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts:
1. VOA will serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news. VOA news will be accurate, objective, and comprehensive.
2. VOA will represent America, not any single segment of American society, and will therefore present a balanced and comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions.
3. VOA will present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively, and will also present responsible discussions and opinion on these policies.
A more complete history can be found on voanews. com and insidevoa.com.
Sources:
Voice of America
Inside VOA
Engineering Radio
Legeros.com
N.C. Dept. of Cultural Resouces.