VOA was established in 1942, and the VOA charter was signed into law in 1976 by U.S. President Gerald Ford. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), an independent agency of the U.S. government.

The Voice of America (VOA) is a dynamic international multimedia broadcaster with service in more than 45 languages. Serving an estimated weekly global audience of more than 326 million, VOA provides news, information, and cultural programming through the Internet, mobile and social media, radio, and television.