HistoricSiteMarkers
Postwar & Contemporary

Voice of America Relay Station

Pitt County, Pitt County, North Carolina

Marker Inscription

Voice Of America. Cold War broadcasts relayed from Greenville to Europe, Africa, and Latin America, 1963-89, via station 2 mi. S.W.

Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources

The Story

At the height of the Cold War, this quiet stretch of eastern North Carolina became a powerful voice reaching across the world. From 1963 to 1989, a transmitting station near Greenville relayed Voice of America broadcasts to Europe, Africa, and Latin America, beaming American news and culture past the Iron Curtain. Fields of towering antennas turned rural Pitt County into a node in the global information war.

Why it matters

It marks how the United States waged the Cold War with words as much as weapons, projecting influence through broadcasting to audiences living under authoritarian regimes.

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Related events

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Themes & tags

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