Geographic Collection – South East Asia

According to the official history of PBS, the Philippine Broadcasting System in the Philippine Islands, the first programming from OWI the Office of War Information in Los Angeles California, and VOA the Voice of America in New York City, was on the air from a low powered mediumwave transmitter aboard an American submarine in the Lingayen Gulf, off the west coast of Luzon Island.  This unique radio broadcasting station operated with just 50 watts under the callsign KZSO, and it took to the air in its Philippine service in December 1944.

The Voice of America radio stations in the Philippine Islands, that subsequently became so well known throughout the international radio world, underwent a very small though very interesting beginning towards the end of the Pacific War in the middle of last century.  In order to understand those early origins way back then, let’s go back to the year 1942. This is what happened.

By the end of January 1942, Japanese armed forces had scrambled down through the thick jungles and the multitude of rubber plantations on the Malay Peninsula until they finally reached Johore Bahru, facing Singapore Island. They then began sporadic attempts at bombarding the island and at crossing the waterway that separated the Malay mainland from Singapore Island itself.