@#25 ... I must admit, I've never heard of it. ...
Back when I was a teen, I built a shortwave receiver. My Dad helped me put up the long-wire antenna, complete with the lightning arrestor. And, fwiw, during thunder storms, I could hear that lightning arrestor sparking, as it was right outside my bedroom window.
In the mid- to late-1960's I listened to Radio Moscow, Radio Peking (as Beijing was called back then), Radio Hanoi, Radio Saigon (there was that Vietnam War at the time), the BBC, Deutsche-Welle, Voice of America, etc. So many different viewpoints.
In that world before the Internet was available, shortwave radio was where you heard different viewpoints.
The Voice of America was cherished, at the time, by those under the domination of USSR. People in the SSR's used to risk arrest for having a radio receiver that could listen to the Voice of America broadcasts.
Voice of America
www.britannica.com
... Voice of America (VOA), radio broadcasting network of the U.S. government, a unit of the United States Information Agency (USIA). Its first broadcast, in German, took place on February 24, 1942, and was intended to counter Nazi propaganda among the German people. By the time World War II ended, the VOA was broadcasting 3,200 programs in 40 languages every week. It became part of the USIA when that agency was established in 1953.
The VOA's function is to promote understanding of the United States and to spread American values.
During the Cold War it concentrated its message on the communist countries of eastern and central Europe.
Its daily broadcasts include news reports, stories and discussions on American political and cultural events, and editorials setting forth U.S. government policy.
The VOA produces and broadcasts radio programs in English and foreign languages and operates broadcasting and relay stations to transmit them....
