The power of radio with pictures - VOA Khmer

In the heart of Washington DC, overlooking The Capitol, 330 Independence Avenue SW is an imposing building. Dark green marble lines the corridors; vintage Westinghouse escalators carry the building’s occupiers between floors. The building’s unsually high ceilings once housed tens of thousands of paper files running the US’s Social Security programme, when the building was opened in 1940.

Fourteen years later, the Voice of America moved into 330 Independence Avenue. And, after a scary security check involving my passport, an x-ray machine, and a not altogether cheerful security guard, I’m being escorted through the high, marble-clad corridors by Chris Decherd, who heads up the VOA Khmer service.

Chris, a former Associated Press Cambodian-based journalist, greets me with a strong handshake. In the lift on the way to room 2701, he tells me how proud he is of his team, and apologises that they’re not all around today. Some of the Cambodian government are in Washington DC, so he’s – unusually – been able to send some of his reporters out to cover the story.

VOA Khmer is a part of the output of what Wikipedia says is the world’s largest international broadcaster – not dissimilar to the BBC World Service, it produces what it claims is accurate, objective and balanced journalism into many regions in the world.

The vast coverage of VOA is a secret to many people. The taxi driver had never heard of it – not surprising, since the VOA isn’t available in the US itself – and I’d think few in Western Europe are aware of the VOA either. Indeed, its coverage is a secret even to some of its staff. Katherine Cole, who has been an on-air voice for VOA Music Mix for many years, still can’t quite come to terms with the coverage of VOA. On holiday in New Zealand, she tuned into the radio to hear something she thought was familiar. She listened harder. And realised she was listening… to her own programme.

VOA Khmer’s first broadcast was in 1955, and now it produces 90 minutes of radio daily to Cambodia and South East Asia. These programmes are broadcast on AM from Bangkok, as well as two FM affiliates in the capital, Phnom Penh.

The small team he introduces me to are wide-ranging in terms of experience. Some have been working for the VOA for many years; but many are fresh from Cambodia – successful journalists from the area, now serving their country from the USA. And they do it well – the service is the biggest international broadcaster in Cambodia, and reaches over 25% of the market; a figure the team are proud of, though they freely acknowledge the absence of some other international broadcasters – notably, the BBC. While the BBC is active in the area, it doesn’t produce anything in the Khmer language itself, leaving other broadcasters, like VOA and Radio Free Asia, to serve the area.

We chat for a while to the team, and later, Chris introduces me to Sarem. Sarem is a quiet, smiling Cambodian woman, who works on the team. In a matter-of-fact way, Chris discusses Sarem’s story: married and with two daughters, she left her family in Cambodia to study in Paris. In 1976, she returned to Cambodia, to find her husband and her daughters. She never found them, and instead, was detained in a work camp. Later, she found out that her husband and her two daughters died during the Khmer Rouge period.

Her story, in the Khmer language, is in an audio slideshow on the VOA Khmer website. We play it, with Sarem at my side. Smiling, she points at her wedding photograph on the slideshow. She points at her husband. Her daughters. Her friends.

As a piece of audio, I’ve no doubt that it’s a great, moving listen: but by adding the photographs, it’s an incredibly moving experience. I bite my lip, and ask goofy questions, so I can avoid thinking about what I’m seeing, reckoning that bursting into tears is probably the wrong thing to do.

New forms of radio all include a colour screen: a way of adding additional information to the radio experience. And while VOA Khmer is a long way from adding these to any broadcasts in the region they serve, their experiments on the internet with what we’d term ’slideshow’ are a powerful reminder of how the simple act of adding static images to radio is so powerful.

This isn’t crap TV – this is rich, moving, powerful radio.

I’m indebted to Chris, to Katherine, and to Jessica from the Broadcasting Board of Governors for helping me meet so many interesting people at VOA. The voanews.com website had a refresh yesterday.

I’m travelling round the world, meeting radio stations and sharing experiences. I’m next in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and San Francisco; and in the far east after Christmas. Please do contact me if you’re in one of these cities and I can come and see you.