COMMUNICATIONS : VOA Vies for Ears of World, Tests Water in New Markets

For half a century the Voice of America held a virtual monopoly in telling America’s story--warts and all--to the world. And from Africa to the Soviet Union, millions of listeners came to rely on VOA as a truthful, accurate source of news.

But the end of the Cold War and the democratization of previously closed societies has brought vast changes to international broadcasting. For the first time VOA faces real competition, and it is looking to carve out new markets in order to stay vital and influential.

“We’re no longer the voice coming over the wall or the voice through the door,” said John Lennon, VOA’s southern European division chief. “Now we’re just one voice in a cacophony of voices. We must say something important. If we don’t, people will go elsewhere for their news.”

CNN, USA Today, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal now are available in many countries. The venerable British Broadcasting Corp. has gotten more aggressive in trying to expand its reach, and new radio stations have sprung up in the old Soviet Union and other former one-party states, offering their listeners news untouched by government censors.

In addition, there is a general worldwide move, particularly in Africa, toward the privatization of FM radio stations. So today, whether you live in Guinea or Afghanistan, you have a choice of numerous sources that, unlike the old propagandist Radio Moscow, serve up a daily diet of relatively balanced news and commentary.

Radio Moscow--once the world’s largest station with broadcasts in 82 languages--is beset by budget problems and has cut the number of languages it broadcasts in by nearly half. That leaves VOA and BBC as the major players competing for listeners on the world’s half-billion shortwave radios.

VOA is moving to take advantage of the technological revolution under its new director, Geoffrey Cowan, who is on leave from the UCLA Center for Communications Policy, which he heads.

The end of the Cold War, Cowan says, doesn’t mean VOA’s work is done; rather, it presents the agency with new opportunities to establish an increased American presence worldwide and thus play a role in explaining the democratic process, teaching English, stimulating trade and discussing U.S. policies.

“Credibility is our most important product,” says Cowan, whose father, Louis G. Cowan, was VOA director from 1943 to 1945. “In today’s competitive news environment, if what you broadcast is not true, if you keep information from your listeners about, say, Whitewater, they’re going to find out and . . . think you’re a mouthpiece for the Administration.”

To increase its reach, VOA has recently gone on Internet, enabling listeners to retrieve VOA broadcasts in 15 languages on their personal computers. It has established a growing network of 1,100 AM and FM international “affiliates” that receive direct VOA feeds on dishes VOA often helps buy. (Four affiliates in Haiti were told by authorities there earlier this month to stop carrying VOA feeds.) And a news hot line in Arabic has received more than 250,000 calls since 1991 from stations that tap into and play for their listeners the latest VOA news on the Middle East.

VOA, which administratively is part of the U.S. Information Agency, already reaches an audience of 100 million people. It broadcasts in 46 languages from its studios on Independence Avenue here and has 25 correspondents stationed around the world. Whereas 10 countries once interfered with its broadcasts, only China and Cuba now regularly jam VOA.

Although VOA’s impact is difficult to assess, staffers say a line of graffiti scribbled on a Moscow building facing the U.S. Embassy provides the best endorsement: “Thank you Voice of America for the correct information.”