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Monday, September 21, 2015

Rural NC track is last shortwave site in US for VOA

VOA Greenville NC
By EMERY P. DALESIO, Associated Press
 — Despite broadcast satellites and cell phones, the U.S. government continues to transmit that staple of Cold War spy movies — shortwave radio — from miles of transmission towers tucked away in a corner of rural North Carolina.
The last Voice of America shortwave transmission station in the United States spreads across 2,700 acres eastern North Carolina's flat coastal plain, ready in a crisis to blast news to the world's remote corners.
The taxpayer-funded transmission site near Greenville, named for legendary broadcaster and former director of VOA's parent agency Edward R. Murrow, reserves a domestic option for the government broadcaster that has overwhelmingly gone digital or sends its signals from overseas sites.