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Washington, D.C., March 20, 2001 - The Indonesian Service of the Voice of America launched a new interactive radio program yesterday with one of Jakarta's most popular FM radio stations, Radio Elshinta. A network of four Indonesian radio stations in the cities of Medan, Bandung, Semarang, and Surabaya will also broadcast the daily 15-minute program live, carrying it to much of the Indonesian population.

The program, entitled Jakarta-Washington Interactive, will air Monday through Friday at 10:30 p.m., Jakarta time. Each day the program will feature developments in different areas of life in the United States: science and technology, tourism, health, business and economy, entertainment, and arts and culture. The program will open with an Indonesian-language report by a seasoned VOA reporter before moving to questions from listeners for the rest of the program.

This will increase VOA Indonesian's daily airtime to more than 3 hours a day all across the country, including two weekly television shows, Halo Amerika on Indosiar TV and Dunia Kita (Our World) on Metro TV.

The director of VOA's Indonesian Service, Dr. Norman Goodman, said, "this will substantially increase our exposure all across Indonesia's most populous areas. It's an exciting step forward for U.S. international broadcasting's effort to bring current news and information to the people of Indonesia." 

The Voice of America broadcasts over 900 hours of news and information each week to an estimated worldwide audience of 91 million regular listeners. Broadcasting in 53 languages, VOA reaches its audience over radio, television, and the Internet. Based on a survey done in 1999, independent researchers report that the Voice of America has approximately two million listeners in Indonesia.

For additional information, please contact the Office of External Affairs at (202) 619-2538.