“Photo: golosameriki.com radiosvoboda.org “to further instructions” – with this wording went on a paid vacation for an indefinite time employees of Voice of America and Radio Liberty radio stations. Presidential Decree Donald Trump to stop their activities raises questions and surprise, as these radio stations are an integral part of the world’s life in recent decades. Briefly about – about history […]”, – WRITE: Businessua.com.ua
Photo: golosameriki.com radiosvoboda.org
“To further instructions” – with this wording went on a paid vacation for an indefinite time employees of radio stations “Voice of America” and “Radio Liberty”. Presidential Decree Donald Trump to stop their activities raises questions and surprise, as these radio stations are an integral part of the world’s life in recent decades. Briefly about – about the history of stations and misunderstandings with Trump.
Voice of America (Voice of America, VOA) Callawful radio stations were aired in the midst of World War II, February 24, 1942 in the United States. Then the first broadcast of the Voice of America began with the words: “News can be good or bad – we will tell you the truth.” Presenter William Harlan Hale later mentioned how the record was made in a small studio in New York, where the microphones barely worked.
Initially, the radio station was managed by the US military information, and after the war, it was under the control of the State Department, becoming part of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM). The one who was liquidated by the Decree of the 47th President of the United States. The main purpose was to present an American point of view and to combat misinformation, especially in the Cold War.
In the USSR, broadcasting began in 1947, becoming one of the first “western voices” available to Soviet listeners. In 1955, Voice of America launched the US Music program with leader Willis Konover. Jazz Louis Armstrong and Duke Hellington served as a cultural bridge in the USSR. Soviet listeners were secretly tuned to the wave, and Konover, who never visited the USSR, became a cult figure for millions.
In October 1962, during the Caribbean crisis, Voice of America broadcast Kennedy’s appeal to Soviet citizens, which was why the Soviet leadership accused the station of instigating. It was not just forbidden to listen to “votes” – it was punished as a serious criminal offense. In the 1970s, Soviet dissidents, such as Andrey Sakharov, recorded the broadcasts of Voice of America to a tape recorder and distributed them to friends.
The influence of the station was such that in 1983 the USSR spent about $ 100 million a year on Voice of America’s radio and other Western stations. After the collapse of the Union, engineers said that the operators of the “glutchyl” themselves secretly listened to the “Voice of America” - to “understand what to duplicate.”
During August 1991, the first and last President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, isolated in Crimean Foros, listened to the Voice of America on a short -wave receiver to find out what was happening in Moscow. He later confessed that it was his only source of news until the PSUC had fallen.
After the US terrorist attacks, on September 11, 2001, Voice of America launched the Languages of Pushta and Gifts to confront the Taliban propaganda. In 2002, the Afghan shepherd told a radio station to the Taliban’s fall from Voice, listening to the radio in the mountains.
Such structures were named in the USSR the name “glushing” – with their help interrupted signals of Western broadcasters. Photo: Pikabu
Radio Liberty (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, RFE/RL) Radio Liberty appeared in 1949 as a project of the National Committee for Free Europe (NCFE) under the name “Radio Liberation”, which was funded by the CIA by the early 1970s. By the way, the CIA’s participation in the fate of the radio was not advertised – this became known only after the declassification of some documents. In 1959, the radio station changed its name to Radio Liberty and declared its mission “providing independent information to the residents of the Eastern Bloc and the USSR, where the freedom of the press is depressed.”
Unlike the Voice of America, which represented the official position of the United States, Radio Liberty made the main rate for the votes of emigrants and dissidents. This caused dissatisfaction much more than American voices: if the Voice of America could not have accurate information about life in the USSR and publish not entirely accurate information (which could undermine confidence in it as a source of information), then emigrants and dissidents from Radio Liberty.
On July 4, 1950, Radio Free Europe (RFE) began in Czechoslovak’s language from a small studio in New York. By the way, the future President of Czechoslovakia Vaclav Gavel in the 1970s secretly listened to RFE as a dissident. He later said that the transfer of the station inspired him to write the Charter 77, which became an important step towards the fall of communism in the country.
The influence of the radio station was such that it was literally hunting. The most humble precedent was the explosion at Radio Liberty headquarters in Munich on February 21, 1981. The terrorist attack was organized by the Romanian Security Security Service at the request of the dictator Nikolae Ceausescu. The bomb injured several employees, but the broadcasting continued in a few hours, which became a symbol of stability.
For the citizens of the USSR, Radio Liberty was no less symbol. They rewrite the texts by hand or on printing machines and distributed them in self -publishing. Once in Kiev, the KGB seized a text where the transfer of Radio Liberty about Solzhenitsyn was disguised as a recipe for borscht. Well, probably the most famous case is an accident at the Chernobyl NPP in April 1986. Radio Liberty became one of the first sources that reported the truth about the extent of catastrophe.
Radio Liberty, 1950s. Photo: radiosvoboda.org
“Outdated” radio stations that “no one listens” For decades, both stations have played a key role in spreading information in the world. Voice of America spoke in 45+ languages and focused on news, culture and American lifestyle. Radio Svoboda worked mainly on the audience of Eastern Europe and the USSR, often with a focus on local problems and forbidden information in social Ukraine.
In March 2025, US President Donald Trump signed a decree to reduce personnel and financing for seven federal agencies, including USAGM, which led to the cessation of Voice of America and Radio Liberty. So the US President understands the fight against “state democracy”, and also musk sang that these stations are “outdated” and “no one listens to them.”
It would seem that how many such “outdated” radio stations – why did these two get? And here the Internet, which remembers, tosses us from 2020, when Donald Trump accused the Voice of America of the Promotion of Foreign Propaganda. Just this media released material about the light show in Uhan, dedicated to quarantine removal after the first wave of Covid-19. Trump called it “Chinese propaganda” and accused the “Voice of America” that instead of promoting US values, the media spent money on taxpayers to support US opponents. He stated: “This is not the” voice of America “, it is the voice of our enemies.”
Radio Liberty also fell into Trump during his first presidential term. The Trumpists in Congress stated loudly that the radio station is too critical of the policy of the Head of State, especially in Russia.
The fact is that in 2018–2019, Radio Liberty journalists investigated Russia’s interference in the 2016 US elections. As a result, it turned out that the intervention was, and there was a conspiracy of Trump with the Kremlin. Trump, of course, denied everything, calling the investigation into “witch hunting.”
But the US president has not forgotten the image on very talkative media. The 2025th-and here the US made a gift of Russia, which inevitably rolls into the USSR 2.0,-“hostile voices” was struck. However, the fact that radio journalists were not released but sent to paid holidays gives a tiny hope that the US President will change his mind again.
The US expanses have respected radio stations. In the photo in the Voice of America studio Ronald Reagan. Photo: Golosameriki.com
Specifically
The Voice of America Speech format: News, information and cultural programs available through radio, internet and television
Language – about 50 in 70 states
Weekly audience – 362 million people
Budget for a year – $ 300 million
Platforms: Digital, television, radio platforms, satellite, cable, FM and MW.
Partner radio stations – more than 3500.
Number of employees -1300-1500 people
Department: Headquarters in Washington. The number of correspondent points is not published
In the USSR, including the USSR, Western radio stations were branded and ridiculed, for example, in the Pepper Magazine. Photo: dumskaya.net
Radio Liberty Speech format: News, information and cultural programs available through radio, internet and television
Language – 27 in 23 countries
Weekly audience – 47 million people
Budget for a year – $ 153 million
Number of employees -700-800
Department: Headquarters in Prague (moved from Munich in 1995). Earlier, large bureau in Munich and Washington, as well as local offices in broadcasting countries (for example, in Kiev, Moscow by 2022, Vilnius) operated. The number of active branches is not published, but they are just over 10-15
Source: kp.ua
Please wait …