VOICE OF AMERICA

This month marks the 75th anniversary of the Voice of America (VoA) whose first broadcast to Europe was made just 7 weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor and subsequent declaration of war on Germany.  The following year, their short wave transmitting site was built on property that sits almost in sight of my home.  To commemorate it, I'll take the easy way out and reprint my entry from September 23, 2006.

CINCINNATI LIARS

"Cincinnati Liars" were words spoken by Adolph Hitler during World War II. In 1943, the US Government purchased a large plot of land in Butler County, Ohio to use as a short-wave transmitting site. Powell Crosley Jr. built the three-transmitter site for the government. Their property was next to his WLW-AM radio tower site. In 1944, The Office of War Information began broadcasting there and transmitting war propaganda around the globe. It was then that Hitler supposedly denounced the broadcasters calling them the "Cincinnati Liars".

After the war, the site became property of the State Department. It eventually became part of the Voice of America system transmitting programming around the world. In 1994 it was shutdown because satellites took over the transmitting of short wave signals. And now, of course, it has become our Voice of America Park.