{"id":10477,"date":"2014-08-08T16:10:41","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T20:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=10477"},"modified":"2014-08-08T16:10:41","modified_gmt":"2014-08-08T20:10:41","slug":"voa-greek-language-service-to-end-tuesday-august-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/voa-greek-language-service-to-end-tuesday-august-12\/","title":{"rendered":"VOA Greek language service to end Tuesday, August 12"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"voa-greek-service\"<\/a>Many thanks to TheGreekRadio.com<\/a> for commenting<\/a> with details about the August 12 closure of VOA’s Greek language service<\/a> and allowing the following article to be republished on the SWLing Post<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\n

End of an era: The Greek Service of the Voice of America ceases operations<\/h2>\n

The end of operation of the Greek Service of VOA (Voice of America) after 72 years was announced yesterday by the radio network. The decision was taken due to cuts in the budget allocated for the operation of the news organization, but also due to the effort to use the broadcaster for the diplomatic needs of the United States. The last show will be aired Tuesday morning via satellite and it will be relayed to Greece by Skai Radio and City 106,1 in Thessaloniki. The first broadcast of the Voice of America, the official foreign-language radio in the United States was the February 1, 1942 in German with the announcer WIlliam Harlan Hale. The Greek was one of the 25 languages of the first network and airs on November 1, 1942.<\/p>\n

The history of the Greek service<\/strong><\/p>\n

The presence of the Voice of America was very evident in the Greek territory, as the giant of American propaganda during the Cold War had settled in Greece, two of the most powerful transmitters in order to broadcast to Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n

The radio transmitters of the Voice of America settled in Greece after the civil war, as part of the implementation of the Truman Doctrine. Then, the American state sent to Greece a set of equipment, “to facilitate the Greek Institute of Radio”, but which was used extensively for broadcasts programs from Washington. The first equipment arrived in 1949, and included a medium wave transmitter WESTERN ELECTRIC 50 KW and four shortwave transmitters COLLINS 30 KW, placed by the Voice of America in Perea Thessaloniki, by providing facilities for radio broadcast abroad: ‘Voice of homeland “of E.I.R (later the 5th of ERA). Also, the Voice of America originally had a floating the radio station on the medium wave powered 150 KW, aboard a ship called Courier, which was anchored in Rhodes and had its antenna mounted on a balcony.<\/p>\n

The almost arbitrary installations of radio transmitters legalized later by a series of agreements between the American and the Greek Government and the relocation of equipment in Rhodes (Koskinous, Sgouros, Afandou), Xanthi (Dasochori) and Kavala (Agiasma). The last two agreements in 1997 and 2002, under which the American service undertook the responsibility to provide technical assistance and equipment (transmitters medium and short) to the Greek Radio. The transmitters in the Greek area set off in 2006, as part of policy to reduce shortwave. Then it was considered that the Greek stops as well, but the reactions of Greek-American associations eventually blocked the decision and the Greek radio program continued to broadcast via satellite, internet and FM stations as relayed by the Sky and the City International.<\/p>\n

In 2006, despite the fact that the Voice of America left behind two very powerful transmitters, which could be used by the Greek Radio, eventually due to high maintenance cost , the broadcasting sites remained inoperative. Indeed, a few months ago, the abandoned facilities of the Voice of America in Xanthi to contain dangerous materials for the environment.<\/p>\n

\n

Readers:<\/strong> please contact me if you are able to record this final broadcast as I would like to add it to the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Again, our thanks to\u00a0TheGreekRadio.com who publishes news about\u00a0all aspects of Greek radio on their site<\/a>. Please check it out!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many thanks to TheGreekRadio.com for commenting with details about the August 12 closure of VOA’s Greek language service and allowing the following article to be republished on the SWLing Post: End of an era: The Greek Service of the Voice of America ceases operations The end of operation of the Greek Service of VOA (Voice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[960,3,43],"tags":[3167,10,3166,182],"class_list":["post-10477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-broadcasting","category-news","category-shortwave-radio","tag-thegreekradio-com","tag-voa","tag-voa-greek-language-service","tag-voice-of-america"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-2IZ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8034,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/voice-of-greece-has-become-a-relay-of-radio-station-of-macedonia-ert-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":10477,"position":0},"title":"Voice of Greece has become a relay of Radio Station of Macedonia, ERT 3","author":"Thomas","date":"November 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In response to my post and recording yesterday,\u00a0TheGreekRadio.com commented on the current state of the Voice of Greece: \"After the forceful eviction of the redundant ERT employees from the Radio House in Athens, the shortwave frequencies no longer transmit the normal program of Voice of Greece as there is no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ERT3","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/ERT3-300x92.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7370,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/voa-radiogram-this-weekend-includes-greek-and-images-in-mfsk64-and-128\/","url_meta":{"origin":10477,"position":1},"title":"VOA Radiogram this weekend includes Greek and images in MFSK64 and 128","author":"Thomas","date":"September 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"(Source: VOA Radiogram) VOA Radiogram for the weekend of 21-22 September 2013 is produced using Fldigi3.21.76AB. For best results, use this version, available from www.w1hkj.com\/alpha\/fldigi\/v3.21\/ One improvement in 3.21.76AB is that it can send images in MFSK64 and MFSK128. Previously, MFSK32 was the fastest MFSK mode for sending images without\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"VOARadioGram","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/VOARadioGram.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5809,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/voa-protests-jamming-of-english-service-to-china\/","url_meta":{"origin":10477,"position":2},"title":"VOA protests jamming of English service to China","author":"Thomas","date":"February 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"(Source: VOA) The Voice of America is protesting new jamming of its English broadcasts in China. VOA Director David Ensor condemned the new interference and said the U.S. government broadcaster is working with experts to determine the precise origin of the jamming. He said \"the free flow of information is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"voa logo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/a999voalogo_2050081722-26491.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11996,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/seeking-a-recording-of-the-voa-greece-station-id\/","url_meta":{"origin":10477,"position":3},"title":"Seeking a recording of the VOA Greece Station ID","author":"Thomas","date":"January 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"My friend, Gary Wise (W8EEY), recently wrote with an inquiry; I'm hoping an SWLing Post reader can help... Gary writes: \"As you might know I was the Station Manager of the VOA Greece Transmitting Station when it closed down in 2006. I\u2019ve been contacted by one of the Greek employees.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Broadcasting"","block_context":{"text":"International Broadcasting","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/international-broadcasting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"GreeceMap","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/GreeceMap.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/GreeceMap.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/GreeceMap.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":38759,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/07\/voa-launches-rohingya-language-program\/","url_meta":{"origin":10477,"position":4},"title":"“VOA Launches Rohingya Language Program”","author":"Thomas","date":"July 30, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors, Eric McFadden and Bruce who share the following item from NPR: The Voice of America has begun a daily radio show in Rohingya, the language spoken by Muslim refugees who have been forced to flee Myanmar. The program is called \"Lifeline.\" Click here to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VOA-Lifeline-e1564505197779.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VOA-Lifeline-e1564505197779.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VOA-Lifeline-e1564505197779.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VOA-Lifeline-e1564505197779.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1137,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/voa-criticized-for-dropping-mandarin-service-to-china\/","url_meta":{"origin":10477,"position":5},"title":"VOA criticized for dropping Mandarin service to China","author":"Thomas","date":"May 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I just noticed this article from the VOA website regarding criticism it recently received from the Heritage Foundation for shutting down VOA's Mandarin language shortwave radio service to China. It's may be once in a blue moon when I agree with a Washington think tank, but in this case, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/a999voalogo_2050081722-26491.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10477\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}