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The Evolution of U.S. Government-Funded External Broadcasting

From the dawn of broadcasting to 1948

by Steven L Herman

Mountain State University

February, 2011

Governments can be quick to regulate emerging technology, but slower at utilizing it for their

own benefit. That was certainly the case with radio broadcasting in the early 20 th century in the United

States.

The initial radio technology was known as wireless telegraphy, which revolutionized

communications.

Radio amateurs, or ham operators, began communicating with each other as the new century
http://tvtokyo.com/steve.htmlhttp://tvtokyo.com/steve.htmlhttp://tvtokyo.com/steve.htmlhttp://www.mountainstate.edu/http://www.mountainstate.edu/http://www.mountainstate.edu/http://tvtokyo.com/steve.html


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began, using spark gap, 1 while the U.S. Navy, as early as 1898, had begun outfitting its fleet with

radiotelegraphy capabilities. 2 The technology was quickly adopted by the maritime industry, which was

understandably excited to have overcome the barrier of traditional land-based telegraphy to keep in

touch, in real-time, with its ships.

Within a few years of the first stations operating, attempts at international regulation of the ether

had begun. A preliminary conference concerning wireless telegraphy was held in Berlin in 1903 with

the first comprehensive international agreement reached there three years later. 3

The emerging problem caused by the lack of coordination concerning transmitters operated by

various U.S. Government agencies prompted President Theodore Roosevelt to convene a board to

prepare recommendations to coordinate government development of radio services. 4

By 1909, in North America, the Caribbean and in the Pacific, there were more than 100 regular

wireless telegraph stations on shore, at Naval facilities, U.S. Army Signal Corps-operated radio units

and those operated by amateurs, as well as on naval and commercial vessels. 5 The Navy also began

using wireless technology for navigation and time signals, implementing broadcasts in the first years of

1 S.M. Kintner, "Some Recollections of Early Radio Days," QST , July 1932, American Radio Relay League,

Newington, CT, 31-33.2 See: http://www.fcc.gov/omd/history/radio/documents/display_case.pdf 3 U.S. Navy Department of Bureau of Equipment , International Wireless Telegraph Convention (Convention

Radiotlgraphique Internationale) , Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1907.4 Wireless Telegraphy: Report of the Inter-Departmental Board Appointed by the President to Consider the Entire

Question of Wireless Telegraphy in the Service of the National Government, Government Printing Office, Washington,D.C. 1907.

5 See: First Annual Wireless Bluebook of the Wireless Association of America . H. Gernsback. Modern ElectricPublications. NYC. 1909. Retrieved from:http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~uparc/documents/First%20Annual%20Official%20Wireless%20Blue%20Book%20-%201909.pdf
http://www.fcc.gov/omd/history/radio/documents/display_case.pdfhttp://www.fcc.gov/omd/history/radio/documents/display_case.pdfhttp://www.fcc.gov/omd/history/radio/documents/display_case.pdfhttp://www.seas.upenn.edu/~uparc/documents/First%20Annual%20Official%20Wireless%20Blue%20Book%20-%201909.pdfhttp://www.seas.upenn.edu/~uparc/documents/First%20Annual%20Official%20Wireless%20Blue%20Book%20-%201909.pdfhttp://www.seas.upenn.edu/~uparc/documents/First%20Annual%20Official%20Wireless%20Blue%20Book%20-%201909.pdfhttp://www.seas.upenn.edu/~uparc/documents/First%20Annual%20Official%20Wireless%20Blue%20Book%20-%201909.pdfhttp://www.seas.upenn.edu/~uparc/documents/First%20Annual%20Official%20Wireless%20Blue%20Book%20-%201909.pdfhttp://www.fcc.gov/omd/history/radio/documents/display_case.pdf


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the 20 th century. 6

With the Radio Act of 1912, amat eurs, also known as hams, were licensed by the U.S.

Department of Commerce from that year.7

The Agriculture Department began transmitting weatherreports in telegraphic code that same year. 8

While these transmissions could conceivably be heard by anyone constructing or obtaining the

proper receiver and erecting an antenna, their potential as a mass medium was limited: one needed to

learn the telegraphic code to decipher the messages.

Radio, as a medium for reaching the public, would have to wait until the transmission and

reception of speech was perfected. Those technical hurdles were overcome by World War I. As early as

1915 it had been demonstrated by AT&T and Standard Electric that broadcasts carrying the human

voice could travel across the sea; in the first experiment a 3kw transmitter, containing 300 vacuum

tubes, in Arlington, Virginia, broadcast a signal that was heard by a receiver installed atop the Eiffel

Tower in Paris. 9

It was, however, not until the U.S. Government lifted wartime restrictions April 15, 1919 10 on

the public directly receiving radio transmissions that the elements were in place for viable radio

broadcasting to commence.

6 Linwood S. Howeth, History of Communications-Electronics in the United States Navy , Government Printing Office,Washington: 1963, 11.

7 Neil D. Friedman, "83 Years of U.S. Amateur Licensing," The AWA [Antique Wireless Association] Review , Vol. 9,(1995).

8 Annual Reports of the Department of Agriculture, For the Year Ending June 30, 1912 , Government Printing Office,Washington: 1913. 285. Retrieved from: http://www.archive.org/stream/annualreportsofd12unit#page/n5/mode/2up

9 James Wood, History of International Broadcasting, Volume 1 , IET, Hertfordshire, UK, 1992, 110.10 The Electrical Experimenter , June 1919: 131.
http://www.archive.org/stream/annualreportsofd12unit#page/n5/mode/2uphttp://www.archive.org/stream/annualreportsofd12unit#page/n5/mode/2uphttp://www.archive.org/stream/annualreportsofd12unit#page/n5/mode/2uphttp://www.archive.org/stream/annualreportsofd12unit#page/n5/mode/2up


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Newspapers in major American cities and hobby magazines documented that numerous types of

broadcasts, including musical concerts 11, playing of phonographic records 12 and a Wesleyan vs. NYU

football game 13, were heard by the public in1919. Within a few years, a number of stations in the

United States were regularly radiocasting programming for the public 14.

While some of the prototype broadcast station, as mentioned, were government operated, by

mid-1922, the only government-connected broadcast station being logged was WL2, a U.S. Army

experimental station in Fairfield, Ohio. 15 (Police departments were also, remarkably, early broadcasters

with WRR, operated by the Dallas, Texas Police Department, airing daily news and music programs

and there is also record of the Detroit Police Department having a broadcast station under the fitting

callsign, KOP 16).

By this time the government had come to view radio broadcasting as a public service and put all

non-government stations under the jurisdiction of the Commerce Department's Bureau of Navigation,

which banned the hams (amateur operators) in1922 from broadcasting , considering their repetitive

scratchy transmissions of a few phonograph recordings a frivolous contribution to the needs of the

community, which it feared would prompt the public to lose interest 17 in the fledgling technology.

The hams were also exiled to the shortwave region of spectrum, which was thought to be of no

commercial value. Their experiments in this less desired region, however, would soon demonstrate the

11 H. Gernsback, Radio Amateur News , Sept. 1919: 106-7.12 Phonograph's Music Heard on Radiophones, New York Times , Dec. 26, 1919, 3.13 Foot Ball Score Via Wireless Telephone, Morris Press via Radio Amateur News , Dec., 1919: 295.14 The Consolidated Radio Call Book , 4th edition, May, 1922, Consrad Company, NYC, 267.15 Ibid.16 Ibid.17 W.D. Terrell, Annual Report of the Chief of the Radio Division to the Secretary of Commerce for the Fiscal Year Ended

June 30, 1929, U.S Department of Commerce, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1929, 8. Retrieved from:http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Mass_Media/Databases/documents_collection/290701.pdf
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Mass_Media/Databases/documents_collection/290701.pdfhttp://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Mass_Media/Databases/documents_collection/290701.pdfhttp://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Mass_Media/Databases/documents_collection/290701.pdf


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consistent ability of shortwave signals to carry considerable distances.

The advent of commercial broadcasting on the medium waves coincided with the somewhat

paradoxical understanding of broadcasting as a public utility.18

Putting advertisements on air wascontroversial initially (its critics bemoaning that many a concert or lecture has been spoiled by a

station broadcasting advertising information such as the price of eggs or the bargains at some store 19).

But its eventual acceptance (in contrast to other streams of revenue, such as the slot -machine coin -

operated receiver 20) and the formation of networks to relay and synchronize programming on multiple

stations gave birth to a new mass media industry.

European regulators were on a different wavelength. They tended to favor radio being a

government monopoly and charging listeners a licensing fee. On a continent where one horrible war

had just ended (and another would come in less than two decades), there were stronger concerns about

radio emerging as a weapon of espionage and thus the need for firmer government control of the

airwaves. 21

There were also advocates in the United States who favored government programming the

airwaves, (including future U.S. Senator Robert B. Howell of Nebraska declaring this a way to rectify

the frivolity of content of amusing vaudeville of the privat e-run stations 22). Proponents envisioned a

nationwide government broadcasting service that would be as important to the public welfare as the

postal service. By this means,important public addresses and debates on vital practical problems, like

18 Waldemar Kaempffert, Who Will Pay for Broadcasting, Popular Radio , Dec. 1922, 236.19 Radio. Problem Created by Advertising, New York Times , Aug. 13, 1922, 90.20 H. Gernsback, The Slot -Machine Radio, Science and Invention , Sept. 1922, 442.21 Charles William Taussig, The Book of Radio , D. Appleton and Co., NYC,1922, 288. Retrieved from:

http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924003626037#page/n7/mode/2up 22 Charles B. Duffie, Why I Believe in Government Radio, Popular Science Monthly , Oct., 1922, 65.
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the bonus, tariff, and prohibition, would be broadcasted over the whole country from Federal

transmitting stations. 23

In the United States, the federal government stations intended to reach a domestic publicaudience were destined to be limited to those providing time signals and weather reports. Indeed they

survive to this day as the shortwave and VLF time signal broadcasts 24 and the nationwide VHF weather

radio network 25, both under agencies in the Commerce Department.

In the early years of U.S. radio broadcasting, voice transmissions were amplitude modulated

(AM) -- due to several technical, commercial and legal factors; frequency modulation (FM) would not

make become a factor in U.S. commercial radio until the 1950's and the AM broadcast stations would

occupy what became known as the medium wave band (between 535 and 1600 kilohertz).

U.S. stations were authorized a power output to the antenna ranging between a few hundreds

watts up to 50,000 watts (although WLW in Cincinnati was authorized 500,000 watts between 1934

and 1939 for which the transmitter's electricity bill apparently totaled $1,000,000 annually, in addition

to the expense for the frequent replacing of the 20 final stage five-foot high vacuum tubes, each costing

$1625. 26)

The transmitter power limitations and ionospheric propagation characteristics meant that these

stations broadcast to a mainly domestic audience local communities during the daylight hours and for

the stations fortunate to have higher power on clear frequencies, a regional reach at night.

23 Ibid., 67.24 See: http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/grp40/ 25 See: http://www.weather.gov/nwr/ 26 Rusty McClure with David Stearn and Michael A. Banks, Crosley. the story of two brothers and the business empire that

transformed a nation , Clerist Press,Cincinnati,2006, 273-4.
http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/grp40/http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/grp40/http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/grp40/http://www.weather.gov/nwr/http://www.weather.gov/nwr/http://www.weather.gov/nwr/http://www.weather.gov/nwr/http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/grp40/


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Except for stations operating in Mexico and Canada, along the borders, there was really no such

thing yet as international broadcasting in North America. That would require innovations in radio

technology to make feasible transmission and reception of shortwave (now defined as frequencies

between 3 and 30 mhz). The reports of the ham operators, who had been relegated to the radio frontier,sparked interest beyond the experimenter community.

The European governments, especially those with far-flung empires, realized the practical

applications of the shortwave bands. The Dutch government began shortwave transmissions to its East

Indies possessions in1927 via the PCJ transmitter in Eindhoven. On March 31 of that year, Queen

Wilhelmina addressed her colonial subjects via PCJ. 27

In 1929 the Soviet Union, committed to propagating communist ideology, initiated foreign

service broadcasting, targeting Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Japan. Initial languages were

English, French and German (with additional ones by 1939). From 1935, Radio Moscow was devoting

much effort to warn the rest of Europe about the dangers of German national socialism. 28 (Germany

itself, along with Britain and Italy, were engaged in international propaganda broadcasting by 1938). 29

By the beginning of the 1930's home reception of shortwave signals became practical with the

commercial introduction of the first consumer all wavereceivers powered by alternating current,

replacing models which required changing coils for different bandwidths and were powered by

batteries prone to spilling acid on the rug. 30

27 See: History of Radio Netherlands Worldwide, RNW , http://www.rnw.nl/english/info/history-radio-netherlands-worldwide

28 James Wood, History of International Broadcasting, Volume 2 , IET. Hertfordshire, UK, 2000, 110.29 Ibid.30 The New Pilot Universal Super -Wasp, Radio Design , 3, no. 4 (1931): 4-5.
http://www.rnw.nl/english/info/history-radio-netherlands-worldwidehttp://www.rnw.nl/english/info/history-radio-netherlands-worldwidehttp://www.rnw.nl/english/info/history-radio-netherlands-worldwidehttp://www.rnw.nl/english/info/history-radio-netherlands-worldwidehttp://www.rnw.nl/english/info/history-radio-netherlands-worldwidehttp://www.rnw.nl/english/info/history-radio-netherlands-worldwide


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London's initial efforts were designed primarily to reach King George V's subjects around the

world, hence the debut of the aptly-named BBC Empire Service, in 1932 on shortwave in a very

understated manner with the BBC's founder, John Reith, cautioning that the programs, initially, would

not be very interesting nor very good. 31With war looming, its German language broadcasts

commenced in late September, 1938 (and continued for the next 60 years) 32.

The earliest documented licensed shortwave broadcaster from the United State began as a 1921

garage gimmick of engineer Frank Conrad, evolving into Westinghouse -operated station 8XK (also

8XS and later W8XK), using a 40,000-watt transmitter in east Pittsburgh to relay KDKA programming.

It would become the most venerable of the pre-war American shortwave stations, not only broadcasting

in English and French but also in Danish, Icelandic and Eskimo languages. 33

There had been discussions in the United State government, as early as the 1920's for the

government to beam shortwave transmissions to general audiences in Latin America. The Navy was to

provide the technical support to air programs provided by the Department of Education.

The early U.S. shortwave stations (in the late 1920's and early 1930's), however, were those

primarily operated by commercial broadcasters repeating medium wave programming (and in most

cases, the goal was to use shortwave to get the signal to the target region for reception and rebroadcast

by local medium-wave stations). 34 The propagation characteristics of the shortwave bands meant that

31 Audio of archival recording retrieved from:http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/ondemand/worldservice/meta/dps/2007/10/071003_1932?bgc=003399&lang=en-ws&nbram=1&nbwm=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=1&size=au

32 World Service language timeline, BBC World Service . Retrieved from:http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/history/story/2007/02/070208_html_multilingual_audio.shtml

33 Radio: X (for Experimental), Time , Aug. 28, 1939. Retrieved from:http://205.188.238.109/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761937,00.html

34 Jerome S. Berg, On the Short Waves, 1923-1945, Broadcast Listening in the Pioneer Days of Radio, 1999, Jefferson,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/ondemand/worldservice/meta/dps/2007/10/071003_1932?bgc=003399&lang=en-ws&nbram=1&nbwm=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=1&size=auhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/ondemand/worldservice/meta/dps/2007/10/071003_1932?bgc=003399&lang=en-ws&nbram=1&nbwm=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=1&size=auhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/ondemand/worldservice/meta/dps/2007/10/071003_1932?bgc=003399&lang=en-ws&nbram=1&nbwm=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=1&size=auhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/history/story/2007/02/070208_html_multilingual_audio.shtmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/history/story/2007/02/070208_html_multilingual_audio.shtmlhttp://205.188.238.109/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761937,00.htmlhttp://205.188.238.109/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761937,00.htmlhttp://205.188.238.109/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761937,00.htmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/history/story/2007/02/070208_html_multilingual_audio.shtmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/ondemand/worldservice/meta/dps/2007/10/071003_1932?bgc=003399&lang=en-ws&nbram=1&nbwm=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=1&size=auhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/ondemand/worldservice/meta/dps/2007/10/071003_1932?bgc=003399&lang=en-ws&nbram=1&nbwm=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=1&size=au


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their programs potentially could reach a global audience, something not possible with their standard

medium-wave transmissions 35.

Some of these shortwave stations relayed network programming internationally and alsocreated or repeated distinct foreign language programming. Historical records show NBC/RCA

programming on a 25,000-watt transmitter in Bound Brook, N.J., as early as 1925, with the call sign

W3XAL.

WABC and CBS programs were relayed internationally from the late 1920's on W2XE from

Wayne, N.J 36. In 1939, W2XE was transmitting with 10,000 watts on five separately scheduled

frequencies ranging from six to 21 mhz. 37

W1XAL (later WRUL) initiated by a wealthy inventor of radio technology, Walter Lemon,

began experimental broadcasts from Boston in 1927. 38 Later with some support from charitable

organizations, including the Rockefeller Foundation, it aired mostly educational programming and

promoted international culture, with a bias towards promoting the Christian Scientists religion and

IBM, both of which Lemmon has an association. 39 In the early 1930's it beamed some programs to

Central and South America in Spanish and Portuguese and by the time hostilities began in Europe, its

150,000-watt signal from seaside Scituate was one of the most powerful of the U.S. international

broadcasters reaching the war fronts in Europe, Asia, Africa, as well as Latin America, 40 with

NC, Mcfarland, 95.35 Adrian M. Peterson, WCAU Used Shortwave in Philadelphia, Radio World , Aug. 15, 2007. Retrieved from:

http://www.rwonline.com/article/80854 36 Hermits of the Air Waves, Popular Mechanics , June 1939, 143A.37 Ibid., 853.38 Jim Cumbie, Brief WRUL/WYFR History. Retrieved from: http://pl703.pairlitesite.com/Stations/WRUL-WYFR.pdf 39 William J. Buxton, Rockefeller Family Support for W1XAL/WRUL, 'Boston's Vest - pocket BBC, Concordia

University, 2009. Retrieved from: http://www.rockarch.org/publications/resrep/buxton2.pdf 40 Propaganda from the USA: The Nazis Hate and Fear Boston's Station WRUL, Life , Dec. 15, 1941. 43. Retrieved from:
http://www.rwonline.com/article/80854http://www.rwonline.com/article/80854http://pl703.pairlitesite.com/Stations/WRUL-WYFR.pdfhttp://pl703.pairlitesite.com/Stations/WRUL-WYFR.pdfhttp://pl703.pairlitesite.com/Stations/WRUL-WYFR.pdfhttp://www.rockarch.org/publications/resrep/buxton2.pdfhttp://www.rockarch.org/publications/resrep/buxton2.pdfhttp://www.rockarch.org/publications/resrep/buxton2.pdfhttp://www.rockarch.org/publications/resrep/buxton2.pdfhttp://pl703.pairlitesite.com/Stations/WRUL-WYFR.pdfhttp://www.rwonline.com/article/80854


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programming in 24 languages. 41

With the threat of war spreading in Europe and Axis propaganda broadcasts expanding, in 1939, the FCC took a

hard look at the international shortwave scene in the United States and issued a set of new rules.

The edict, issued on May 23, 1939, required that (by July 1940, a deadline later extended to 1941 42), shortwave call

signs should be regularized; power should be increased to 50,000 watts; and directional antennae should be installed. 43

The shortwave stations were no longer considered experimental. They could now sell

commercials but were expected to promote international good will. 44

It seems, at least partly, a reaction to what was already an effective German propaganda

shortwave campaign. The Nazis had realized early on the power of radio for domestic mass propaganda

use. Reich Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, in a 1933 speech, predicted radio will be for the

twentieth century what the press was for the nineteenth century 45. The Germans turned rhetoric into

reality quickly, taking the lead in building arsenals for the propaganda war, even before actual world

war had begun.

Previous to and during World War II, Germany employed sympathetic foreigners or those who

had lived overseas extensively, such as Chicago- born Douglas Chandler (known on air as Paul

Revere) 46, Iowa born-and-raised Fred W. Kaltenbach (who opened each of his programs with

http://books.google.ca/books?id=Zk4EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA43&ots=84dlbZ0zQz&dq=wrul%20latin%20america&pg=PA43#v=onepage&q=wrul%20latin%20america&f=false

41 L. Paul Saettler, The Evolution of American Educational Technology , Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, NC. 2004,201

42 Berg, 97.43 Peterson44 Time45 Joseph Goebbels, Der Rundfunk als achte Gromacht, Signale der neuen Zeit. 25 ausgewhlte Reden von Dr. Joseph

Goebbels (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP., 1938), 197.46 Radio: Hi-Yo, Chandler! Time , June 9, 1941. Retrieved from:
http://books.google.ca/books?id=Zk4EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA43&ots=84dlbZ0zQz&dq=wrul%20latin%20america&pg=PA43#v=onepage&q=wrul%20latin%20america&f=falsehttp://books.google.ca/books?id=Zk4EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA43&ots=84dlbZ0zQz&dq=wrul%20latin%20america&pg=PA43#v=onepage&q=wrul%20latin%20america&f=falsehttp://books.google.ca/books?id=Zk4EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA43&ots=84dlbZ0zQz&dq=wrul%20latin%20america&pg=PA43#v=onepage&q=wrul%20latin%20america&f=falsehttp://books.google.ca/books?id=Zk4EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA43&ots=84dlbZ0zQz&dq=wrul%20latin%20america&pg=PA43#v=onepage&q=wrul%20latin%20america&f=falsehttp://books.google.ca/books?id=Zk4EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA43&ots=84dlbZ0zQz&dq=wrul%20latin%20america&pg=PA43#v=onepage&q=wrul%20latin%20america&f=false


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Greetings to my old friend, Harry in Iowa) 47, William Joyce (Lord Hee Haw) 48, Edward Delaney

(E.D. Ward) 49, former London Daily Mail correspondent Jane Anderson (Georgia Peach) 50,

wartime Chicago Tribune correspondent Donald Day 51, Robert Best (Mr. Guess Who) 52, Constance

Drexel53

and Prof. Max Otto Koischwitz (Jim and Mr. OK) 54

and one of Koischwitz's formerstudents at Hunter College 55, Mildred Gallars from Maine (Axis Sally). 56

These on-air propaganda activities prompted, in 1937, an anti-isolationist Congressman,

Emanuel Celler (D-NY), to begin introducing legislation to fund a government station that would

respond, officially, to the German propaganda. But commercial broadcasters, beginning in 1937,

lobbied against the establishment of a government shortwave station.

That left the United States as the only significant power without a government-funded

international radio service. Robert Sherwood, the playwright who would become President Franklin

Roosevelt's speechwriter, recognized the emerging impact of international broadcasting, saying, in

1939: "We are living in an age when communication has achieved fabulous importance. There is a new

decisive force in the human race, more powerful than all the tyrants. It is the force of massed thought-

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,795376-1,00.html

47 Radio: Canine Cat. Time , Jan. 8, 1940. Retrieved from:http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,763172,00.html

48 Mary Kenny, Germany Calling: A Personal Biography of William Joyce, Lord Hee Haw , New Island Press, Dublin,2003.

49 Radio: Mr. Wisecrack. Time , May 20, 1940. Retrieved from:http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,849257,00.html

50 Donald E. Wilkes, Jr., Jane Anderson: The Nazi Georgia Peach, The Athens Observer , May 18, 1995, 5. Retrievedfrom: http://www.law.uga.edu/dwilkes_more/his25_peach.html 51 John Carver Edwards, Berlin Calling: American Broadcasters in Service to the Third Reich , 179-181, Praeger , NYC,

1991.52 Ibid., 109-13.53 Ibid., 19-20.54 Ibid., 73-5.55 Lewis Emerson, How Axis Sally Cheated the Hangman, The Oakridger , Nov. 15, 2010. Retrieved from:

http://www.oakridger.com/features/x1270138703/How-Axis-Sally-cheated-the-hangman 56 Ray P. Browne and Pat Browne (Editors), The Guide to United States Popular Culture , 53. The Univ. of Wisconsin

Press, Madison, 2001.
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thought which has been provoked by words, strongly spoken." 57

This was already evident by the impact that the U.S. commercial broadcasters were having as

war began in Europe. Their professionalism and credibility in many parts of the world had listenersrelying on the U.S.-based commercial broadcasters for objective news about the war, countering the the

transmissions of the Axis powers.

Prior to 1941, however, the only U.S. government effort to get its voice out internationally via

radio was to have State Department- written commentaries delivered to WRUL, regarded as Boston's

vest- pocket BBC 58 for transmission to Latin America. Other U.S.-based stations were also encouraged

to beam friendly material to the rest of the Americas. 59 By 1941, the commercial stations combined,

were airing more than 13 hours of news per day to the Americas with NBC News (via WNBI and

WRCA) airing numerous 15-minute newscasts daily in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian

and German. 60

President Franklin Roosevelt declared an unlimited national emergency on May 27, 1941, in

part, to be able to cope instantly and decisively with any attempt at hostile encirclement 61 of the

Western Hemisphere. That paved the way for the establishment, two months later, of the Office of

Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, known as the CIAA, which, in cooperation with the State

Department, was to utilize governmental and private facilities, including radio, to further the national

57 International Broadcasting Bureau, VOA History, IBB . Retrieved from: http://ibb7-2.ibb.gov/pubaff/history.html 58 Buxton.59 Walter E. Roberts, The Voice of America: Origins and Recollections, American Diplomacy , Oct. 26, 2009.Retrieved

from: http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2009/1012/fsl/roberts_voice.html 60 Robert E. Martin, America Raises Her Voice, Popular Science , Jan. 1941, 101.61 Franklin D. Roosevelt, We Choose Human Freedom radio address, May 27, 1941, Public Papers of Franklin Delano

Roosevelt, Volume 10 . Retrieved from: http://www.usmm.org/fdr/emergency.html
http://ibb7-2.ibb.gov/pubaff/history.htmlhttp://ibb7-2.ibb.gov/pubaff/history.htmlhttp://ibb7-2.ibb.gov/pubaff/history.htmlhttp://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2009/1012/fsl/roberts_voice.htmlhttp://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2009/1012/fsl/roberts_voice.htmlhttp://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2009/1012/fsl/roberts_voice.htmlhttp://www.usmm.org/fdr/emergency.htmlhttp://www.usmm.org/fdr/emergency.htmlhttp://www.usmm.org/fdr/emergency.htmlhttp://www.usmm.org/fdr/emergency.htmlhttp://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2009/1012/fsl/roberts_voice.htmlhttp://ibb7-2.ibb.gov/pubaff/history.html


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defense and strengthen the bonds between the Nations of the Western Hemisphere 62.

On July 11, 1941 the Office of Coordinator of Information was established. 63 It was publicly

announced that the office was to collect relevant national security data for the President but it had asignificant covert role as a propaganda and covert intelligence agency (it would be succeeded by the

Office of Strategic Service, the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency). 64

Initially, the government leased 15-minute blocks of air time from the private shortwave

broadcasters and produced programming, introduced with the still-used Yankee Doodle theme. But, at

the outset, what became known as the Voice of America was neither a station nor a government agency,

but, rather a series of short government-produced programs. 65 By the end of 1942, however, using 11

different transmitters operated by six distinct broadcasting companies, the United States government,

would for the first time in its history, take complete control over a news medium, formally launching

VOA, what would eventually become the world's largest broadcasting agency. 66

Under the COI, which would be the first parent organization of the nascent VOA, was the

Foreign Information Service (FIS) with the aforementioned playwright Sherwood its first director, who

in 1941, prior to America's entry in the war, began planning the first broadcasts. 67 But Sherwood and

COI's head, William Donovan, had divergent view on how the overseas broadcasts should be overseen

62 Executive Order 8840 Establishing the Office of Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. July 30, 1941 Cited by: John T.Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project [online]. Santa Barbara, CA. Retrieved from:http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=16152

63 Letter from Comptroller General of the United States to Col. William Donovan, B-22307, Dec. 23, 1941, U.S.Government Accountability Office. Retrieved from: http://redbook.gao.gov/9/fl0040868.php

64 Roger Z. George, James B. Bruce, Georgetown Univ. Center for Peace and Security Studies, Analyzing intelligence:origins, obstacles, and innovations , Georgetown University Press, 2008, Washington, DC, 20.

65 Berg, 105.66 Wood, Vol. 1, 77.67 Harriet Hyman Alonso, Robert E. Sherwood: the playwright in peace and war, Univ. of Massachusetts Press, Boston,

2007, 239.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=16152http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=16152http://redbook.gao.gov/9/fl0040868.phphttp://redbook.gao.gov/9/fl0040868.phphttp://redbook.gao.gov/9/fl0040868.phphttp://redbook.gao.gov/9/fl0040868.phphttp://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=16152


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and their focus.

Donovan, the wartime spymaster, desired a black propaganda service, under the military,

intended to subvert the hostile, target countries while the wordsmith Sherwood, wanted a decentralizedentity under civilian control that would disseminate positive messages about the United States. 68

Sherwood was convinced that America's image would suffer if it tried to emulate the Axis

methods of disseminating lies and deceit; instead the U.S. propaganda broadcasts should stick to facts

and let the truth eventually prevail. 69

The difference in philosophies and the turf wars among the personnel in various government

agencies with conflicting and confusing bureaucratic structures hampered any attempt to expeditiously

begin the broadcasting service. Congress was frustrated that nearly two months after the United States

entered the war it sill had no voice in the battle of the airwaves. Sherwood would testify to a

Congressional committee in February, 1942 launch efforts were hampered by a lack of political

mandate in the field of political warfare and confusion of his agency's relationship with the State

Department, Army and Navy. 70

After dry runs in January, 1942 the first broadcast, in German, appears to have been on

Feburary 1 71, although VOA celebrates the anniversary of its initial program as occurring on February

25. Scripts of the introductions to those initial voice from America broadcasts demonstrate the tone

68 Ibid.69 Alfred H. Paddock Jr., US Army Special Warfare, Its Origins: Psychological and Unconventional Warfare, 1941-1952 ,

University Press of the Pacific, Honolulu, 2002, 7.70 Alonso, 242.71 Chris Kern. A Belated Correction: The Real First Broadcast of the Voice of America. Washington, DC., Sept. 2010.

Retrieved from: http://www.chriskern.net/essay/voaFirstBroadcast.html
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Sherwoo d wanted to be set by the programs: ...The news may be good or bad for us We will always

tell you the truth. 72

By the end of the next month, 15-minute programs were inaugurated in English, French andItalian.

Within the next two years the total would swell to more than 40 languages and hundreds of hours of

broadcasts per week and 3,000 employees. 73

Sherwood, in late December, 1941, had asked the famed director John Houseman to take charge

of the overseas radio department, giving the FIS programming the gravitas it would need. 74

Houseman's background a polyglot, born in Romania to an Alsatian Jewish father and British mother

and raised in France and England 75, was invaluable in allowing VOA to strike the proper tone with the

target audience. Ironically, Hous eman was technically an enemy alien who was not to go near a

shortwave radio set. 76

The urgent early days lacked organization or direction with no name for the broadcaster, the use

of shared studios and borrowed transmitters. The only directive, Houseman would recall, was merely to

broadcast the truth. 77 Initially, the truth was painful, compelling the Americans to broadcast the

72 Stimmen Aus America III, radio script. February 3, 1942, U.S. National Archives. Retrieved from:http://www.chriskern.net/essay/voaFirstBroadcast_files/1942-02-03-voaScript.pdf

73 Alan L. Heil, Jr., Voice of America: a history . Columbia Univ. Press, NYC, 2003, 37-8.74 Holly Cowan Shulman, The Voice of America: propaganda and democracy, 1941-1945 . Univ. of Wisconsin Press,

Madison, 1990, 25.75 Alonso, 244.76 Keming Kuo and Bob Doughty, Actor John Houseman, VOA's First Director, VOA News script, May 8, 2002.

Retrieved from: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-a-2002-05-08-48-Actor-66282682.html 77 Heil, 36-7.
http://www.chriskern.net/essay/voaFirstBroadcast_files/1942-02-03-voaScript.pdfhttp://www.chriskern.net/essay/voaFirstBroadcast_files/1942-02-03-voaScript.pdfhttp://www.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-a-2002-05-08-48-Actor-66282682.htmlhttp://www.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-a-2002-05-08-48-Actor-66282682.htmlhttp://www.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-a-2002-05-08-48-Actor-66282682.htmlhttp://www.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-a-2002-05-08-48-Actor-66282682.htmlhttp://www.chriskern.net/essay/voaFirstBroadcast_files/1942-02-03-voaScript.pdf


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battlefield reverses without weaseling, 78 as Houseman remembered.

There were troubles within and pressures from nearby. As many of the early broadcasts were

carried over BBC transmitters the British felt it was their right to offer policy guidance and vetprogram content. 79

The OSS clashed with the Office of War Information, created in June, 1942 to consolidate

several pre-war information agencies 80 and which separated Donovan's operation from the Foreign

Information Service. Donovan and the OSS stood ready to pounce for control should OWI err. 81

There were moments that threatened OWI's control, such as an ill-advised commentary, which

President Roosevelt was personally compelled to disown, quoting a newspaper columnist referring to

the King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel II, following Mussolini's resignation as a moronic little king and

implying the country was still under fascism 82. The incident, which forced the resignation of a

newsroom chief, a control desk top editor and a Sherwood deputy in charge of psychological warfare

policy would presage the post-war domestic ideological battles affecting VOA.

When war-time VOA tenaciously stuck to the unvarnished truth it really shined. Despite

opposition in Washington, VOA accurately quoted General Joe Stilwell commenting that his troops had

taken a hell of a beating at the hands of the Japanese in Burma. Citizens in the Axis count ries would

78 Kuo and Doughty.79 Heil, 41.80 Clayton R. Hoppes and Gregory D. Black, What to Show the World: The Office of War Information and Hollywood,

1942- 1945, The Journal of American History , 64, June 1977, 87.81 Shulman, 98.82 The Strange Case of John Durfee, Life , Aug. 9, 1943, 31.


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later testify that such admissions enhanced the credibility of the official American broadcasts 83.

By mid-1942, amid a desire for its own broadcast facilities from which the British could not edit

content, FSI had a dozen U.S. stations able to beam across the Atlantic.

WLWO, with a 75,000-watt transmitter in Mason, in suburban Cincinnati, was leased from

Crosley Corp., 84 which would custom-build four other transmitters (three of them at 200,000 watts) and

put them on the air for VOA transmissions by the war's end on the 625-acre site 85. The Nazis heard it

loud and clear. No other station in the world is so bad as Cincinnati, a German radio official

declared. 86

During the patriotic atmosphere of war-time America, the commercial broadcasters supported

the cause and, as was the case with Crosley, reaped commercial benefits. The U.S. Government, from

November 1942 when the shortwave stations in the country were effectively nationalized, paid the

actual operating costs plus depreciation (a good deal since none of the private shortwave stations had

been making money before the war). 87

There was also a need to broadcast entertainment programs to the millions of American military

personnel overseas. While the same network of transmitters initially had to be used, another entity, the

Armed Forces Radio Service (which still exists as the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service and

83 Thomas C. Sorensen, The World War: The Story of American Propaganda , Harper & Row, New York, 1968, 231.84 McClure, et al., 364.

85 Ted Landphair, Our Temple of Radio, VOA , July 30, 2009. Retrieved from:http://blogs.voanews.com/tedlandphairsamerica/2009/07/

86 McClure, et al. 365.87 Berg, 109.
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which retains three Navy shortwave transmitter sites 88 as part of its virtually global reach) was created

with this responsibility. 89 By the start of 1943, AFRS was on the air from 47 countries. Programming

was either airlifted to overseas studios or relayed to field service units by shortwave. 90

The 1945 victory would quickly restart the debate about government's role in non-military

broadcasting.

Just 10 days after the Japanese surrender, President Harry Truman signed an order abolishing

the OWI. At the time of its demise it operated a network of 30 transmitters, including several in North

Africa. But its operation paled in comparison to what the BBC had, by then, built: the world's largest

radio network with 37 transmitters beaming 850 hours of programming weekly in 45 languages. 91

The VOA moved into purgatory under a State Department unit called the Interim International

Information Service (IIIS). Many of the staff left for other jobs, assuming VOA would cease

broadcasting at the end of the year. 92

The private broadcasters, however, appeared reluctant to get back into the business of

shortwave. CBS and NBC would continue to provide government programming under contract until

1948 and then ceased shortwave transmissions. Only educational-oriented WRUL, the sole shortwave

broadcaster which had to be seized under government order during the war, chose to resume as a

88 See: Armed Forces Network Shortwave High Frequencies http://myafn.dodmedia.osd.mil/ShortWave.aspx 89 Wood, Vol. 1, 78.90 Ibid., 80.91 Ibid., 79.92 Heil, 45.
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private entity after the war. 93

A State Department commission, chaired by Columbia University professor Arthur McMahon,

advised that the United States, after the war, could not ignore how it was perceived overseas. But therewas no constituency for that viewpoint and by early the following year American newspapers were

editorializing against foreign information programs by the government. 94

By this time, the VOA was still in limbo, although slightly under more secure footing in the

International Broadcasting Division of the IIIS' successor, the Office of International Information and

Cultural Affairs (OIC) of the State Department. OIC contained other remnants of OWI and CIAA and it

operated for 1946 and 1947 without any legal authorization other than that of appropriations acts. 95

The future for VOA still looked precarious.

Secretary of State James Byrnes, on the recommendation of the assistant secretary for public

affairs, William Benton, whose tireless personal effort deserves the bulk of the credit for VOA's

survival 96, urged President Truman to allow the broadcaster to stay on the air on a reduced scale until

its ultimate fate could be decided. 97 Despite the reluctance of the commercial broadcasters to return to

the shortwaves, they also did not endorse the government continuing in their business in the post-war

era. That was also a view shared by Republicans and conservative Southern Democrats.

The president of the Associated Press news cooperative, Philadelphia Bulletin publisher Robert

93 Berg, 109.94 Heil, 45.95 Charles Alexander Holmes Thomson, Overseas Information Service of the United States Government , Brookings

Institution, Washington, DC, 1948, 7.96 Berg, 110.97 Walter L. Hixson, Parting the Curtain: propaganda, culture and the Cold War, 1945-1961, St. Martin's Press, NYC,

1998, 30.


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McLean, termed the government's overseas programming a form of censorship because propagandists

omitted unfavorable information about the United States, while the influential commentator Walter

Lippmann also decried VOA as a propaganda machine, declaring there should be no single voice of

America.98

Both the Associated Press and United Press, which had provided their wires services output free

to VOA during the war, cut off copy to any U.S. government stations, even if they were willing to pay

for it. 99

America's international voice, at this juncture, was dropping in volume and a permanent switch-

off became imaginable. A spark that would lead to its revival was provided by an unlikely rescuer a

South Dakota Republican congressman who had an isolationist track record. Former schoolteacher and

freelance magazine writer Karl Mundt eloquently stated that VOA should not be silenced because of a

faulty lisp or a foreign accent. Instead, Mundt suggested having Congress steer VOA to make certain

it develops the sturdy American twang. 100

Mundt's support was even more surprising because he was an early staunch anti-Communist at a

time that VOA had a reputation among conservatives as a haven for communists. 101

Mundt pushed forward legislation in 1947 that would extend VOA's life for another year and

overcame concerns among his fellow Congressmen that VOA would not be a politically liberal voice

98 Ibid.99 Burton Paulu, The Voice of America and Wire Service News, The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television, Vol. 6, No. 1

(Autumn, 1951), 30.100 Foreign Relations: The American Twang, Time , May 26, 1947. Retrieved from:

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,793708,00.html 101 David F. Krugler, The Voice of American and the Domestic Propaganda Battles 1945-1953 , Univ. of Missouri

Press, Columbia, MO, 2000, 58.
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echoing the views of the suspect left-leaning diplomats of the State Department and apprehension

about a government broadcaster competing with the private sector. The latter worry prompted Senator

Joseph Ball (R-Minnesota), a journalist, to successfully stipulate that most of VOA's programming

would be produced by NBC and CBS.

Ball's subcommittee approved an additional year of funding for VOA but at the cost of a drastic

staff cut and the elimination of two planned relay stations in Eastern Europe and the Far East. 102

The House bill, H.R. 3342, required the FBI to conduct background checks on current and

prospective employees to ascertain loyalty to the United States and prohibited the State Department

from having a monopoly on U.S. international shortwave broadcasting. 103 An amendment allowing

members of Congress to review scripts, changing VOA's oversight leadership and the anti-Communist

security provision, Mundt believed, helped the bill win passage by a vote of 272 to 97, on June 24,

1947. 104

A key event for Senate passage was a joint House-Senate international tour to investigate the

efficacy of OIC programs and the necessity for the Marshall Plan. Beginning in September of 1947, the

members visited 22 countries in five weeks. Members of the subcommittee returned home convinced

of the need for the Marshall Plan and the information and cultural programs of the State Department. 105

The House and Senate approved the Smith-Mundt bill in January, 1948 and President Truman

signed Public Law 402, The United States Informational and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 on

102 'Voice of U.S.' Radio Program Voted by House, New York Times , June 25, 1947.103 United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1947, in House Committee on Foreign Affairs,

Hearings on H.R. 3342, 80 th Cong. 1 st sess., 3-8.104 Krugler, 63-4.105 Ibid., 68.


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January 27. It became the post-War peacetime charter for U.S. government overseas information and

education exchange activities and, unlike previous efforts, prohibited domestic dissemination of the

materials authorized under the act. 106

Congressional suspicion and scrutiny of VOA hardly ended with legislative approval for the

broadcaster's standing. VOA had limited control over its own content as U.S. commercial networks

were to supply the majority of its programming, making it difficult for VOA's overseers to control what

was supposed to be said in the name of the U.S. government. And VOA had the tough and vague task

of disseminating information about U.S. policies promulgated by the executive and legislative

branches, the Secretary of State, as well as other responsible officials of Government having to do

with matters affecting foreign affairs. 107

Furthermore, State Department officials wanted to use VOA to counter Soviet propaganda about

the United States, an increasing concern as Moscow aggressively expanded its international shortwave

broadcasts in the mid-1940s.

VOA's management preferr ed to follow a policy of free and fair which put it at odds with

those in the intelligence community, military and other branches of government which wanted the

United States to pursue more blatant psychological warfare against the Soviet Union. 108

This dilemma coincided with a push to use European refugees to broadcast to their homelands

106 Kennon Nakamura and Matthew C. Weed, U.S. Public Diplomacy: Background and Current Issues , Dec. 18,2009, Congressional Research Service, Washington, DC, p. 4. Retrieved from:http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R40989.pdf

107 United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948, Public Law 402, 80 th Cong., 2 nd sess. (Jan 27,1948), 6.

108 Krugler, 76-8.
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behind the Iron Curtain. This was part of a plan, conceived by top officials of the intelligence

community to utilize these refugees to fill gaps in current official intelligence, public information and

politico-psychological operations. 109

This would, in great part, be the impetus for the creation of the Radio Free Europe/Radio

Liberty broadcasters, using transmitters in Europe beginning in 1950, to act as surrogate broadcasters

for countries without free media, essentially aspiring to become, in each target country, an indigenous

national station. 110

The RFE/RL broadcasters, primarily covertly funded by the CIA and created under the auspices

of a non-government membership corporation, were not intended to duplicate VOA's goals to explain

or defend U.S. policies, propagate American ideas, its way of life and prestige, etc. 111

While the Cold War ensured VOA's survival after its war mission and birthed the RFE/RL

broadcasters, the public and congressional concerns over U.S. funding of international broadcasting

and the government's role in external broadcast propaganda efforts would continue for decades to

come. It remains an ongoing issue as the United States faces a new set of external security challenges

in the 21 st century. VOA and the RFE/RL broadcasters remain on air (and, increasingly are influential

online) with calls for their reform or consolidation to better meet the contemporary challenges amid a

change global and technological environment.

The ability of the U.S.-funded broadcasters to reach their intended audiences is also being

109 A. Ross Johnson, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty: The CIA Years and Beyond , Woodrow Wilson CenterPress, Washington, DC, 2010, 8-9.

110 Ibid., 42.111 Ibid., 39.


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questioned. In some cases, such as the Middle East, the American voice is one among many (and a

region now where VOA suffered a without VOA's Arabic language service, which was axed in 2002

and replaced with new surrogate broadcasters in what some see as a misguided attempt to move away

from broader, comprehensive services to younger audiences and news seekers of all ages. 112

In other parts of the world, such as Russia, China and Iran, the American external broadcasts are

silenced or suppressed through jamming, deliberate interference to satellites, blocking internet access

or intimidating local broadcast affiliates into not carrying U.S. programming. 113

The ranking minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar (R-

Indiana), recently noted that the U.S.- funded international broadcasters operate in an environment

where technology is changing rapidly, competitors are multiplying, the global political scene is fluid

and the federal budget is under stress. 114

That is strikingly similar, in many aspects, to what policy makers confronted after World War II.

A decision was made at that point, as we have noted here, after considerable debate, to retain this

powerful element of public diplomacy for U.S. foreign policy goals. In the months and years ahead, the

executive and legislative branches, along with critical commentary from policy analysts and the

domestic media, are likely to extend the historical debate.

112 Retired VOA Veterans and BBG Managers Talk About Challenges Ahead for US International Broadcasting, NewsAnalysis, VOA, May 5, 2008. Retrieved from: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/news-analysis/a-13-2008-04-29-voa49.html

113 Richard G. Lugar, Keeping America Connected: Challenges for the BBG, Foreign Service Journal , Oct. 2010, 19.114 Ibid., 21.
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