A VOA Snapshot - Part of VOA's 60th Anniversary Year Coverage
VOA is celebrating 60 years on the radio, but these days many of our programs are also on television. Lisa Keathley, the director of the VOA-TV Project, says that in recent years, VOA has joined "a worldwide, television movement of journalists who capture a story with small digital video cameras."
Ms. Keathley said, "And by that I mean, one journalist taking a video camera can gather pictures and sound - and use what she or he gathers in video reports, Internet reports, as well as radio reports."
VOA's Ukrainian Service aired the agency's first television program. George Krawciw helped inaugurate the service to Ukraine in the mid-90s.
"In its heyday," Mr. Krawciw said, "about 1995, half of Ukraine, which is 25 million people would watch us at least once a month, and this was a weekly show. Presidents watched us. Prime Ministers watched us. Little villages watched us. They would get around their single television set."
In those days it was called Worldnet. Today, VOA-TV transmits its programs via satellite to local cable and broadcast stations around the world. So viewers don't just hear the news in Russian, Albanian, Indonesian, and many other languages.
They see compelling images to go along with the stories - like reporter Betty Van Etten's report about a man who got a kidney transplant. "I was actually shooting into the body," she said, "seeing this kidney go into the patient, and slowly turn pink as the blood began to flow. As the doctors said, 'It's a miracle.'"
Betty Van Etten says she'll remember that moment forever. And thanks to the new VOA-TV, our viewers probably will, too.
Snapshots will contine throughout our 60th anniversary year, here at VOANews.com.
To write to us about our anniversary, send an email to anniversary@voanews.com. Or, send regular mail to Anniversary, VOA News Now, Washington, D.C. 20237, USA.