The Public Diplomacy of Willis Conover

Michael Hedges November 2, 2004

The end of October brought the end of Swiss Radio International broadcasting on shortwave and as I considered this I could not help but think of Willis Conover.

Many in the community of publicly funded international broadcasters hung sad faces as Swiss Radio International (SRI) passed into history October 30th. Although the decision to migrate this international service to the Internet was made more than five years ago, the timing seemed significant as interest in and debate over public diplomacy, particularly through broadcasting, gathers more interest.

SRI’s rich history bears recalling.  Joining the ranks of shortwave broadcasters in 1935, SRI – originally called Swiss Shortwave Service - was an important and well-regarded neutral voice throughout World War II and the Cold War. Now it joins the ranks of other public international broadcasters pulling the plug on their shortwave services. Radio Slovakia is gone. Radio Vlaanderen International (Netherlands) will stop English, French and German broadcasts in March 2005. Belgium’s VRT is “cutting back.”

But SRI’s annual budget was a paltry $30m, compared to about $400m for the BBC World Service, $500m for the various US international broadcast services and figures we’ll never know for Russia and China. So the Internet is far more efficient, particularly when the intent is to reach “influentials.”

That same cadre of publicly funded international broadcaster fans hanging their heads as SRI shuts down its shortwave service never have a kind word for Radio Farda or Radio Sawa, the Persian and Arabic semi-pop radio stations the US recently started for the Middle East audience. The main complaint is that these stations reach kids who like music and not those all-important “influentials.” It’s interesting that the critics of Radio Sawa never mention Radio Monte Carlo – Moyen Orient, the successful – and largely pop music - French-Arabic channel of Radio France International, which has been broadcasting into the Middle East for more than 30 years.

It would seem that reaching and persuading influential persons in any given country or region is the job of diplomats, who can best sort out the very tiny group of decision makers in any given area and ply their talents on molding opinions on relevant and timely issues. The international broadcasters role in public diplomacy then becomes one of opening doors to broader populations and allowing a much longer view of influence.

Traveling around fifteen years ago that part of the world that would soon become what we now call the former Soviet Union I learned my first important lesson in successful public diplomacy. I shared with those I met a common interest in broadcasting and media but from almost every other perspective we shared frightfully little in common history or culture. They were in the throws of creating new institutions, new governments, new ideas. I found that we also shared something else in common; a love for American jazz. I knew it and loved it. They knew it and loved it.

The knowledge of American jazz music ran incredibly deep in the regions of the former Soviet Union. My new colleagues knew Miles, Dizzy, Duke and Coltrane. They learned from Willis Conover, host for 40 years of VOA’s Jazz Hour. If they knew no other English they could say “This is Willis Conover in Washington D.C. with the Voice of America Jazz Hour.”

Willis Conover opened a door and provided an access point for millions. VOA estimated at one point that his audience reached 100 million. Did he debate the finer points of news and policies? No. Did he paint a lasting picture of America? Yes. Is this not public diplomacy?

Conover died in 1996, before Radio Sawa was a twinkle in Norm’s eye. I can’t help but think that those young people listening in Qatar, Baghdad or Teheran are much like those young people who listened to Willis Conover in Tbilisi, Krasnodar and Odessa a generation ago. And in their generation, they will be just as influential.