It was born in the final years of World War II, and was part of a vast global communications network that brought American messaging to Asia and beyond. Today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots the story of Delano’s massive Voice of America Transmitting Station.
The year was 1944, and the war in the Pacific was still raging. The U.S. was preparing to retake the Philippines and defeat the forces of Imperial Japan. Here in the Valley a high-tech project was underway that was crucial to the war effort. The Department of War Information hired broadcaster CBS to build a massive shortwave broadcast facility to send U.S. government-back information to the Pacific, Latin America and beyond.
The Delano facility occupied 800 acres west of Highway 99 with over 20 towers, and a combined output of over 1 megawatt. It was one of a handful of such facilities in the U.S. including Bethany Ohio and Dixon California.
The Delano operation was later expanded and modernized in the Cold War, and broadcast content including the Voice of America, the BBC, and Radio Marti for the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. The government eventually added television broadcasts to the facility’s capabilities, but it wasn’t enough to keep up with changing technologies. The facility shut down in 2007, and the towers were demolished starting in 2023.
