page_title: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
section_title: Radio Liberty
hierarchical_section_title: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty / Early history / Radio Liberty
caption_attribution_description: Español: Antenas de las instalaciones de emisión de Radio Liberty en la playa de Pals (Gerona), año 2005.
context_page_description: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a United States government-funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East where it says that "the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed". RFE/RL is a 501 corporation supervised by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, an agency overseeing all U.S. federal government international broadcasting services.
  During the Cold War, Radio Free Europe was broadcast to Soviet satellite countries and Radio Liberty targeted the Soviet Union. RFE was founded as an anti-communist propaganda source in 1949 by the National Committee for a Free Europe. RL was founded two years later and the two organizations merged in 1976. Communist governments frequently sent agents to infiltrate RFE's headquarters, and the KGB regularly jammed its signals. RFE/RL received funds covertly from the Central Intelligence Agency until 1972. During RFE's earliest years of existence, the CIA and U.S.
context_section_description: Whereas Radio Free Europe targeted satellite countries, Radio Liberty targeted the Soviet Union. Radio Liberty was formed by American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (Amcomlib) in 1951. Originally named Radio Liberation, the station was renamed in 1959 after a policy statement emphasizing "liberalization" rather than "liberation".
  Radio Liberty began broadcasting from Lampertheim on March 1, 1953, gaining a substantial audience when it covered the death of Joseph Stalin four days later. In order to better service a greater geographic area, RFE supplemented its shortwave transmissions from Lampertheim with broadcasts from a transmitter base at Glória in 1951. It also had a base at Oberwiesenfeld Airport on the outskirts of Munich, employing several former Nazi agents who had been involved in the Ostministerium under Gerhard von Mende during World War II. In 1955 Radio Liberty began airing programs to Russia's eastern provinces from shortwave transmitters located on Taiwan, while in 1959 Radio Liberty commenced broadcasts from a base at Platja de Pals, Spain.
  Radio Liberty expanded its audience by broadcasting programs in numerous non-Russian languages. By March 1954 Radio Liberty was broadcasting six to seven hours daily in eleven languages. By December 1954, Radio Liberty was broadcasting in 17 languages including Ukrainian, Belarusian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen, Uzbek, Tatar, Bashkir, Armenian, Azeri, Georgian, and other languages of the Caucasus and Central Asia.
caption: Antennas of the RFE/RL emission facilities on the beach of Pals (Catalonia, Spain) in 2005
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