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Additional News Releases

Washington, D.C., Feb. 15, 2002 – As the polls were closing in Cambodia on Feb. 3, the Voice of America's Khmer Service went live for the first time on an FM station on Cambodian soil, thus becoming the first international station to broadcast live from inside Cambodia in Khmer.

The topic of the program was an instant analysis of the early results of Cambodia’s first village elections since the war. The interactive call-in show, moderated from a studio in Washington, D.C., received calls from all over Cambodia through VOA's affiliate, Radio Beehive, for instant relay to Washington and equally fast broadcast back into Cambodia. 

On Thursday, Feb. 7, Radio Beehive and VOA Khmer aired a second call-in featuring the venerable Ouk Chanhan, a monk from the Silver Spring, Maryland Temple, who took calls about "Freedom of Religion in the United States."

Building on the popularity of these two programs, VOA and Radio Beehive plan to air a 30-minute call-in show every Thursday at 9:00 p.m. Cambodian time (1400 UTC). To ensure the signal reaches the remote regions of Cambodia, the program will also be carried on 1575 AM and several shortwave frequencies. VOA's Khmer Service broadcasts one and a half hours a day--2200 to 2230 UTC and 1330 to 1430 UTC. It was on the air from 1955 to 1957 and after a brief lapse, returned to the airwaves in 1962. 

The Voice of America is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. Government. VOA provides over 1,000 hours of programming on radio, TV and the Internet every week to an audience of 94 million worldwide. Programs are produced and broadcast in English and 52 other languages. 

For additional information, please contact the Office of External Affairs at (202) 619-2538 or send email to pubaff@voa.gov.