 Radio propaganda is propaganda aimed at influencing attitudes towards a certain cause or position, delivered through radio broadcast.  The radio, like later technological advances in the media, allowed information to be transmitted quickly and uniformly to vast populations.  Internationally, the radio was an early and powerful recruiting tool for propaganda campaigns.

 Before television, radio was by far the most effective way to prevent or promote social change.  In many areas, it still is. Radio propaganda can be broadcast over great distances to a large audience at a relatively low cost.  Through radio, a propagandist can bring his voice and all the persuasive power of his emotions to millions of people.

 Radio became a powerful propaganda tool because it ignored national borders and made enemy lines more accessible.  The use of radio as a wartime propaganda tool was made famous during World War II by broadcasting organizations such as Voice of America and by shows such as Tokyo Rose, Axis Sally, and Lord Haw Haw.

 The radio was an important tool of the Nazi propaganda effort and it has been argued that it was the Nazis who pioneered the use of what was still a relatively new technology.  In the first year of Nazi propaganda programming, broadcasters attempted to destroy pro-British feeling rather than arouse pro-German sentiment.  These propagandists targeted certain groups, including capitalists, Jews, and selected newspapers/politicians.  By the summer of 1940, the Nazis had abandoned all attempts to win American sympathy and the tone of German radio broadcasts towards the US had become critical.

 German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels along with the Nazi party, recognized the power of the radio in the propaganda machine of Nazi Germany.  Recognizing the importance of radio in disseminating the Nazi message, Goebbels approved a mandate whereby millions of cheap radio sets were subsidized by the government and distributed to German citizens.  Goebbels' "Radio as the Eighth Great Power“.  As well as domestic broadcasts, the Nazi regime used the radio to deliver its message to both occupied territories and enemy states.

 British propaganda during World War I set a new benchmark that inspired the fascist and socialist regimes during World War II and the Cold War.  This English propaganda was a new weapon, which had never been employed on such a scale and so ruthlessly in the past.  A large numbers of civilians could be mobilized for a massive war effort through persuasive techniques derived from the emerging disciplines of behavioral psychology and social sciences.

 When the United Kingdom stood alone to face the German onslaught in the fall of 1940, Edward Murrow covered the Battle of Britain.  Murrow wanted to let the world know that the United Kingdom was fighting a “people’s war,” not a war for its colonies, as the American isolationists charged.  He wanted Americans to see the UK as their natural ally and hurry to extend a helping hand.  Many say he had far greater influence than the American ambassador to London.

 America’s first venture into international broadcasting was in 1940 after Nazi victories in Europe, when the Roosevelt administration was becoming increasingly concerned about the affects of Nazi propaganda, both domestically and internationally.  In August 1940, President Roosevelt issued an Executive Order establishing the Office of Coordination of Commercial and Cultural Relations to promote the use of government/private radio.  By 1942, the most famous radio program airing overseas became known as the Voice of America.  A popular government wartime radio show, performed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was known as "fireside chats".  Two of the most famous programs on the radio show were entitled "On National Security" and "On the Declaration of War with Japan"

 Soviet authorities began to install Communist regimes in liberated territories of Eastern Europe.  By 1946, it became clear to the United States that the Soviet Union did not share the American vision of postwar collaboration for peace in Europe.  The radio became crucial in the propaganda war between the two blocs and was the main concern of both participants’ information agencies as the “war of ideas” began. In 1948, the Soviet Union organized the Communist Information Bureau Cominform which was formed to unite the Communist states in forthcoming struggle against “Anglo-American Imperialism.

 One of the earliest responses in Europe was known as Radio in the American Sector (RIAS).  RIAS was established in 1946 to serve the American sector in West Berlin.  The RIAS broadcasts concentrated on the idea of democracy and the importance of the breakdown of the international communications barriers erected by the Communists.  The programming was generally geared towards “special groups” within the East German population, including youth, women, farmers, etc.  The broadcast became known as the “bridge” from West to East Germany over the Berlin Wall.

 Voice of America (VOA) began broadcasting in 1947 in the Soviet Union for the first time as a part of U.S. foreign policy to fight the propaganda of the Soviet Union and other countries.  Initially, there was only one hour per day of news and other features broadcast on the pretext of countering "more harmful instances of Soviet propaganda directed against American leaders and policies" on the part of the internal Soviet Russian-language media.  The Soviet Union responded by initiating aggressive, electronic jamming of Voice of America broadcasts on April 24, 1949.

 While many acknowledged the importance of propaganda as an instrument of foreign policy, it was primarily the Cold War that institutionalized propaganda as a permanent instrument of U.S. foreign policy.  President Truman in June 1948, authorized a comprehensive program of clandestine warfare, including black propaganda, psychological warfare, subversion, assistance to underground resistance movements, paramilitary operations, and economic warfare.  During these years, the practice of propaganda became inextricably tied to the practices of psychological warfare.  During World War II, psychological warfare was largely seen as an accessory to military operations, but during the Cold War psychological warfare was utilized to influence public opinion and advance foreign policy interests