Voice of America

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.

Transmission Network

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

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Greenville, North Carolina
• Delano, California

IBB operates a series of relay stations outside the US

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Botswana
• Greece
• Kuwait
• Morocco
• Northern Marianas (Saipan & Tinian)
• Philippines
• São Tomé
• Sri Lanka
• Thailand

It formerly used a 625 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.

Related Topics:
Union Township - Ohio - Butler County - Bethany Relay Station - 1944 - 1994

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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. .

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

VOA's parent orgnization is the International Broadcasting Bureau , which is overseen by the presidentially-appointed Broadcasting Board of Governors. 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.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~