Tag Archives: Voice of America

In Zimbabwe, “if you want to hear the truth…listen to Shortwave Radio Africa…listen to VOA”

This is a brilliant piece on the lack of press freedom in Zimbabwe and the importance of shortwave radio. It was broadcast yesterday on Weekend All Things Considered. Links to the show and audio are below.

(Source: NPR)

In Seke, a rural community 40 miles outside Harare, James Chidakwa and his father eat roasted nuts and cornmeal inside a small brick hut. They’re farmers who rely heavily on maize and chickens to survive. James Chidakwa says that like many, his family refuses to listen to government TV or radio broadcasts.

“They always lie to the people,” he says. “Everything they say is a lie.”

So at 6 p.m. most evenings, they turn on a battery-powered, short-wave radio and tune in to a “pirate radio station.” Chidakwa says Shortwave Radio Africa and Voice of America are their favorites.

“If you want to hear the truth, wait for the end of the day to listen to Shortwave Radio Africa, to listen to VOA,” he says.

The stations, which are based in the U.K. and the U.S., send their signals through radio towers in countries that border Zimbabwe. That means Zimbabwean officials — who claim these broadcasts are illegal — have little recourse. In the past, they’ve confiscated short-wave radios. Chidakwa says that forces some people to listen undercover.

“Some of them, they will take the radios into their bedrooms and, low volume, they listen to the news. But the truth is, there is fear in them,” he says.

But for Chidakwa and his father, it’s a risk they are prepared to take.

The stations, which are based in the U.K. and the U.S., send their signals through radio towers in countries that border Zimbabwe. That means Zimbabwean officials — who claim these broadcasts are illegal — have little recourse. In the past, they’ve confiscated short-wave radios. Chidakwa says that forces some people to listen undercover.

“Some of them, they will take the radios into their bedrooms and, low volume, they listen to the news. But the truth is, there is fear in them,” he says.

But for Chidakwa and his father, it’s a risk they are prepared to take.

You can listen to the full story from Weekend All Things Considered, by clicking here (mp3), or read the transcript on this page.

This is just one more story we’ll file under “Why Shortwave Radio.”

RCI, and others, I wish you were listening. Those in Zimbabwe certainly are.

“VOA Looks to Future on 70th Anniversary”

1 Reply

(Source: Voice of America Press Release)

Washington, D.C. — February 1, 2012 — Voice of America turned 70 on Wednesday, and VOA Director David Ensor says the international broadcast agency is aggressively moving forward with new programs that ensure it remains an “information lifeline to people in closed societies like Iran.”

Addressing VOA journalists at the agency’s Washington headquarters, Ensor pointed to a television news show for Burma that began airing in January, a popular video blog that has been viewed more than 7 million times in China, expanded TV broadcasts to Iran, and new health programs on radio in Africa. He also described plans for a Russian language TV program that will harness popular social media programs to make citizen journalists and the audience a key part of the show.

Ensor said the one-time cold war broadcaster is “as relevant today as it was February 1st, 1942,” the date of the first shortwave radio broadcast to Germany.”

Created by the U.S. government in the opening days of World War Two, the Voice of America has evolved into a global multi-media organization, broadcasting balanced and comprehensive news in 43 languages to an estimated weekly audience of 141 million.

The first shortwave radio transmission, spoken in German just weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, began with the words “Here speaks a voice from America.” The broadcast went on to promise, “The news may be good. The news may be bad. We shall tell you the truth.” Ensor, the 28th Voice of America director, says the agency continues to be guided by those words.

VOA radio remains highly popular in many markets, including Somalia, parts of Pakistan and Haiti. Ensor says the agency is moving forward with new television and Internet programs that target countries like Iran, where the government restricts the free flow of information.

VOA programs are delivered on satellite, cable TV, mobile, shortwave, FM, medium wave, the Internet, and on a network of about 1,200 affiliate stations around the world. In addition to more than 1,100 employees in Washington, VOA works with contract journalists in trouble spots around the world. Last month the Taliban claimed responsibility for the murder of a reporter working for VOA in Pakistan.

Chucho Valdés: Inspiration from VOA Jazz Hours

Leave a reply

(Source: Kim Elliott via the Hartford Courant)

24 Jan 2012, Owen McNally: “Still very much an irrepressible life-force at 70, Chucho Valdés, the renowned Cuban pianist, composer and bandleader, is on a winter tour of the United States that sets down for high-energy maneuvers … at the cabaret series at the University of Connecticut’s Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. … The title track [of his new CD], ‘Chucho’s Steps,’ … is a 50-bar adventure in challenging harmony in which he pays tribute to John Coltrane’s intimidating masterpiece, ‘Giant Steps.’ Valdés notes that as a young man in Cuba he would listen on short-wave radio to a program called ‘The Jazz Hour’ on The Voice of America, an experience that opened his ears to Coltrane’s innovations and the creative fervor of the new, iconoclastic music that was fermenting in the States.”

The Voice of America turns 70

Leave a reply

(Source: Diplomatic Courier)

“The news may be good. The news may be bad. We shall tell you the truth.” – William Harlan Hale; February 1, 1942

Such began the first broadcast of a small team of dedicated men transmitting live from a claustrophobic New York City studio into Nazi Germany. Their group had no name, although their first broadcast was titled Stimmen aus Amerika—Voices from America. The equipment they used was borrowed. They had no direction as to what they would broadcast, except the truth. At that moment, the United States stepped into a role as guardian of the power of ideas and honest messenger of information to all corners of the world.

From the very beginning, the Voice of America has held at its core the mission to present to the world the policies and culture of the United States, while reporting on global news events accurately, clearly, and objectively. It has been one of the U.S.’s most effective public relations initiatives. All around the world, the Voice of America is highly respected as an honest and fair messenger, and in many places, as the only comprehensive source of news free from propaganda. From Nazi Germany to Communist Eastern Europe to Kim Jong Il’s North Korea, VOA has often been the only connection to the outside world that people of repressive regimes have. […]

Today, VOA broadcasts through the Internet, television, and a network of AM, FM, and shortwave radio signals. The approximately 1500 hours of programs per week include features on American culture, learning English, international news, discussion programs, and regionally focused programs to address the needs of the local populations. VOA broadcasts in 43 languages, televising programs in 26 of those, and reaches 141 million people weekly. All this makes VOA one of the largest multimedia news organizations in the world.

Read the full story at the Diplomatic Courier website.

CS Monitor: Don’t let Voice of America broadcasts go static

Leave a reply

(Source: Christian Science Monitor)

Voice of America (VOA), the jewel in America’s public diplomacy effort abroad, is set to be streamlined. Some programs can be downsized. But VOA is in the national interest, especially as Russia, China, and Iran expand state-supported media. Cuts should be handled with care.

[…]An earlier BBG decision to shut down VOA’s Mandarin and Cantonese services to China, in favor of TV and social media, produced a firestorm not only among VOA staffers but also with members of Congress who support VOA and preside over its budget (and who temporarily blocked the move). Though shortwave radio may be in eclipse, there are still remote areas of the world dependent on it.

This article is authoritative in that it’s author, John Hughes was once director of VOA during the Reagan administration.

We’ve echoed so many times on this website what Mr. Hughes puts forth in his argument, that any downsizing should be handled with care. There are still many communities on this planet where shortwave radio is literally a lifeline of information.

NPR: Voice Of America’s Role In Internet Age

1 Reply

(Source: NPR)

Host Scott Simon speaks with David Ensor, who took over directorship of Voice of America last month. A longtime journalist for NPR, CNN and ABC News, his most recent post was in Afghanistan, where he was director for communications and public diplomacy at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

Click here to listen to full story on NPR’s website.

North Carolina Public Television features VOA Greenville

Leave a reply

This is an excellent video about the VOA Greenville transmitter site produced by North Carolina Public Television. What I love most is the time they took to explain the importance of shortwave radio across our globe, how it is an existing technology that governments and regimes cannot easily block or track. We certainly repeat this theme often, here on the SWLing Post.

Please enjoy and share.