VOA LAO BROADCASTS     

The VOA Lao Service was established in February 1962 and today broadcasts a daily 30-minute program. The shows reach  6.3 million people in Laos plus 7-8 million Lao speakers in neighboring areas such as Northeastern Thailand, Burma, Western Vietnam, Southwestern China and northern Cambodia. Broadcasts are transmitted via short wave (from the Philippines and Udorn, Thailand) and medium wave (from Bangkok, Thailand).

1230-1300 UTC
7:30-8:00 PM Lao time

NEWS

News is the heart of all VOA programs. Lao broadcasts start with 10 minutes of the latest Lao and international news and end with 2 minutes of news summaries. Our newscasts are accurate, reliable, current, and objective. Our editors always follow the “two-source” rule. If a news item does not have two sources, then we don’t use it.

CORRESPONDENT REPORTS

Newscasts are supplemented by reports from VOA correspondents stationed in the world's major news centers. Background stories, U.S and world press round-ups as well as editorials are also used.

FEATURES

Regularly scheduled features include our Laos Today program that focuses on current news from Laos (including stories that Lao government media does not report) and our Lao Diaspora program that profiles Laotians living in the USA, Europe and Australia. Other features include stories about Americana, women, education,  business, science, technology, health/medicine, environment, agriculture as well as American and Lao music and English lessons.

MUSIC

Both Lao and American popular music are played per audience requests on Sunday airshows. Programs always contain information about artists as well as musical events. Occasionally, samples of jazz, blues or gospel are also played.

ENGLISH

Another main attraction for our listeners are the English lessons which are presented on Mondays and Fridays in two series:

For beginners - Special English World Book and New Dynamic English

For intermediates - Business English and Functioning in Business.