The International Broadcasting Bureau's Greenville, North Corolina, Transmitting Station

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) assessed the operations of the International Broadcasting Bureau’s Greenville Transmitting Station, including its program management, program performance, and management controls. Although the Greenville Transmitting Station’s two sites, sites A and B, have virtually identical physical plants, they have notable differences. Historically, the two sites have been managed as if they were stand-alone facilities. As a result, differences in operational decisionmaking, particularly at the shift supervisor level, produced different solutions to common problems regarding identical equipment and to differences in day-to-day use of the transmitters, contributing to greater wear of the transmitters at site A.

The current station manager deserves praise for his decisions, initiatives, and style of management. These have moved the station forward and have positively affected morale, despite the January 2005 announcement of planned budget and staff reductions.

Additional work remains to be done to maintain and upgrade station facilities. The reductions being made by the Broadcasting Board of Governors could mothball or close site A or site B. To avoid wasting taxpayers’ money upgrading a facility that may be put out of service, the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) needs to decide soon about the future of the two sites.

Sites A and B face preventive and scheduled maintenance challenges, but site A has suffered much more wear and tear. Furthermore, much of the maintenance at both sites is corrective, not preventive.

The Greenville Transmitting Station has transmitters that are serviceable but also are aging, obsolete, and require considerable maintenance. Site A or B may be a candidate for a modernization and equipment upgrade. Complete modernization and automation would allow for some cost-effective benefits, such as manpower reductions, reduced operating budget, minimized need for maintenance and parts, and reduced fuel and power costs.

The Greenville Transmitting Station provides shortwave broadcasts for U.S. government-funded, nonmilitary, international broadcasting and serves as a standby, alternate gateway for the Satellite Interconnect System to use to uplink programming, should the Washington, D.C., SIS gateway become unavailable. The station is also a backup facility for uplinking programming to the Atlantic Ocean Region satellite and serves as the primary return link of that satellite. The main target areas for the station’s shortwave broadcasts are Latin America, Cuba, the Caribbean, North Africa, and Africa. The station’s broadcast customers are the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Voice of America (VOA), the British Broadcasting Corporation, and Greece’s Elliniki Radiofonia Tileorasi.

The Greenville Transmitting Station, located about 300 miles from Washington, D.C., includes three sites (A, B, and C). The broadcasting complex was designed with two nearly identical and independent transmission sites, sites A and B, both east of Greenville, North Carolina. President John F. Kennedy formally dedicated the Greenville Transmitting Station on February 8, 1963. In 1968, the station was rededicated as the Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station in honor of the director of the former U.S. Information Agency. Today, the station is generally referred to as the Greenville Transmitting Station.

All of the Greenville Transmitting Station sites began operation in 1963. Sites A and B each used three General Electric 250 kilowatt (kW) transmitters, three Continental 500 kW transmitters, and three Gates 50 kW transmitters and a Technical Material Corporation 10 kW transmitter. In 1985, the four small Gates transmitters were removed to make space for four 500 kW transmitters that had unique, contemporary designs and were installed to determine the requirements for the VOA’s new stations. Map of Greenville station’s sites

Office of Inspector General

The Office of Inspector General’s mission is to assess Department of State and Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) operations and recommend ways to strengthen their integrity, effectiveness, and accountability.

OIG’s Office of Inspections provides systematic and independent evaluations of the domestic and overseas operations and related activities of the Department of State and BBG. Inspections cover policy implementation, resource management, and management controls.

July 25, 2005