Voice of America

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The Voice of America (VOA) is the official international broadcasting service of the Government of the United States. It is similar to other international broadcasters such as the BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, and Radio France Internationale. Its oversight bureau is the International Broadcasting Bureau which is committed to "public diplomacy".

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 also available on the Internet in both streaming media and downloadable formats.

VOA 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, Okinawa, Liberia, Costa Rica and Belize. The Voice of America currently broadcasts in 44 languages, including Special English, which uses simplified vocabulary and grammar. Afan Oromo, Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Bosnian, Burmese, Chinese-Mandarin, Chinese-Cantonese, Creole, Croatian, Dari, English, French, Georgian, Greek, Indonesian, Macedonian, Hausa, Hindi, Khmer, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Korean, Lao, Mandarin, Ndebele, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Shona, Spanish, Swahili, Thai, Tibetan, Tigrigna, Turkish, Urdu and Uzbeki. VOA also produces television programs in many of these languages.

The Voice of America has 22 domestic and 16 overseas correspondents, who are U.S. citizens and employees of the U.S. government. They are augmented by contract correspondents and part-time "stringers," in numerous countries, who file in English and numerous languages used by VOA's various language services. 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.

VOA's parent organization is the International Broadcasting Bureau [1], which is overseen by the presidentially-appointed Broadcasting Board of Governors [2]. 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.

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History

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. 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 VOA has been broadcasting on the Internet since 2000 in English. Content in other languages is also available online through a distributed network, using more than 14,000 servers in some 65 countries. The International Broadcasting Bureau, in its 2007 budget, proposes reductions in VOA's English language programming, by eliminating VOA News Now radio while maintaining VOA English to Africa, Special English and VOA's English website.

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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 their domestic public, unlike many European countries. 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.

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International Broadcasting Bureau services

VOA broadcasts several programs aimed at specialist audiences through the International Broadcasting Bureau. Radio Martí and TV Martí are aimed at Cuba. Radio Sawa is aimed at a younger audience in the Arab world. Radio Farda is aimed at a younger audence in Persian for Iran. Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia are VOA sister services aimed at the ex-communist states and oppressive countries, particularly in Europe and Asia. 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 Voice of America headquarters is located at 330 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC, 20237, USA. IBB runs a number of transmitting sites throughout the world, including its domestic relay stations at Greenville, North Carolina and Delano, California. IBB operates a series of relay stations outside the US: Germany ( Transmitter Ismaning), United Kingdom, Botswana, Greece, Kuwait, Morocco, Saipan & Tinian, Philippines, São Tomé, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Guam relay stations are available for use if crises in East Asia develop.

For a comparasion of VOA-RFE-RL-RM (IBB) to other broadcasters see
Image:Estimated-program-hrs-per-week external-broadcasters.png

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See also

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External links

de:Voice of America eo:Radio Martí id:Suara Amerika ja:ボイス・オブ・アメリカ pl:Głos Ameryki ru:Голос Америки simple:Voice of America fi:Voice of America vi:VOA zh:美国之音

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