The Business of Radio

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CELEBRATING RADIO | WORLD RADIO DAY 2016 | 39
BROADCASTERS | THE BUSINESS OF RADIO
VOICE OF AMERICA
KEY CONTACT INFORMATION
KELU CHAO
Acting Director
VOICE OF AMERICA
330 Independence Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20237
USA
T +1 202-203-4959
IN BRIEF
Voice of America started in 1942 as a radio news service
for people living in closed and war-torn societies. It has
grown into a multimedia broadcast service. VOA now
reaches people on mobile devices and Facebook, through
Twitter feeds and call-in programmes – using the medium
that works best for specific audiences.
PROFILE
The Voice of America (VOA),
headquartered in Washington,
D.C., houses 20 radio broadcast
studios, 30 radio production and
recording studios, and 29
professional audio mixing and
dubbing stations.
32 language services broadcast
approximately 1,900 hours of radio
programming every week. VOA’s
first radio broadcast began in 1942
as a response to the needs of people
in closed and war-torn societies for
reliable news. It is dedicated to
broadcasting accurate, balanced
and comprehensive news and
CENTRAL ASIA
Uzbek
EAST ASIA
Burmese; Cantonese; Indonesian;
Khmer; Korean; Lao; Mandarin;
Thai; Tibetan; Vietnamese
EURASIA
Azerbaijani; Georgian
LATIN AMERICA
Creole; Spanish
NEAR EAST/ NORTH AFRICA
Kurdish
SOUTH ASIA
Bangla; Dari; Pashto; Persian;
Urdu
OTHER KEY FACTS
Founded: 1942
Staff: 1,115
Bureaux in 10 countries
Global audience
78.4 million (2015 estimate,
radio)
452,000 average weekly on
social media engagements
(includes Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube)
6.8 million average weekly
visits to all services’ websites
LANGUAGES
GLOBAL
English
AFRICA
Afaan Oromoo; Amharic;
Bambara;
French; Hausa; Kinyarwanda;
Kirundi; Ndebele; Portuguese;
Sango; Shona; Somali; Swahili;
Tigrigna
PARENT ORGANISATION BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS
information to an international
audience.
VOA has the largest integrated
digital audio system in the world.
A network of transmitting stations
operated by the International
Broadcasting Bureau, along with
some leased stations, sends VOA’s
programmes instantaneously
around the globe.
Journalists in VOA’s 30,000-
square-foot newsroom work
around the clock with a global
network of correspondents to
provide comprehensive news and
analysis on key issues and cultural
developments.
Aung San Suu Kyi visiting Voice of America’s
Washington headquarters
Staff of the Voice of America’s Urdu service