The start of Voice of America

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Jul 14, 2025

Discover the fascinating origins of Voice of America, which emerged during World War II to combat Nazi propaganda. Listen to Eugene Kern’s wild journey into wartime broadcasting, where he found himself producing a Finnish program despite not speaking the language. As the broadcasts expanded, they reached over 3,000 programs in 40 languages by war’s end. The podcast also tackles the modern challenges faced by the agency, including censorship and funding cuts, all while highlighting its pivotal role in shaping international communication.

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INSIGHT

VOA's Truthful Mission

VOA was established to counter Nazi propaganda during World War II via government control of broadcast stations.
It aimed to provide truthful news regardless of it being good or bad.

ANECDOTE

A Wild Start at VOA

Eugene Kern got assigned to produce a Finnish language show without knowing the language.
The fast-paced environment had staff producing new language broadcasts weekly irrespective of fluency.

ANECDOTE

Rapid Growth and Diverse Languages

John Houseman and a small group created VOA, starting from no broadcasts to 800 broadcasts a day within seven months.
Every week, new language services launched, spreading VOA globally.

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In March 2025, radio frequencies worldwide stopped carrying Voice of America broadcasts for the first time in 83 years.

President Donald Trump’s administration had imposed funding cuts on the US Agency for Global Media with the White House accusing the broadcaster of being "anti-Trump", "radical" and "leftist”. While the cuts are being disputed in courts, Josephine McDermott traces the beginnings of the overseas broadcaster which was designed to counter Nazi propaganda.

In the first Voice of America broadcast in February 1942 it promised, “The news may be good or bad; we shall tell you the truth”. We hear the testimony of Eugene Kern who walked in one day in 1942 to casually ask about a job, and was put to work straight away producing a Finnish programme – unable to speak a word of the language. He says, “It was a wild place. Every week a new language service began”.

By the end of World War Two, Voice of America was broadcasting more than 3,000 programmes in 40 languages every week. This Witness History is produced using the archives of the US Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, and the US National Archives and Records Administration.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.

(Photo: Gene Kern broadcasting in about 1960. Credit: Jonathan Kern)