With a life-long career spanning more than 50 years, Clooney was born in Maysville, Ky. He has had an extraordinary career in broadcasting – from a game and talk show host, to a singer and a sought-after entertainer. He is best known as an award-winning journalist, anchoring newscasts at television stations from Cincinnati to Los Angeles.
Clooney is the brother of popular singer and actress Rosemary Clooney, who passed away in 2002. Oscar-award winning Actor George Clooney is Nick’s son.
Another local legend, Carmon DeLeone and his New Studio Big Band, will offer live entertainment throughout the evening and record a program for a later broadcast on WVXU.
“The stories surrounding the Voice of America are so iconic, and so important that for this museum to not be here would be losing a tremendous amount of history,” Dominic said.
He said visitors from all over the world often drop by and knock on the door to share their stories or bring in historic radios from war times. Most recently, the iconic building has officially been designated the National VOA Museum of Broadcasting with the help of the entire community.
“The success of the gala is certainly important for our future,” Dominic said.
The star-studded event will mark the 75th anniversary of the Voice of America and commemorate the Sept. 23, 1944 dedication of the VOA-Bethany Station. The event – also held on September 23 from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. – will be held at the VOA Museum in West Chester.
The evening will feature a cocktail reception, a dinner, big band music and swing dancing outdoors, plus VIP tours of the museum and the grand opening of a museum exhibit featuring Powel Crosley. The unveiling of the Powel Crosley exhibit is supported by The Smith Family Foundation.
Crosley, another local innovator, was an early 20th-century inventor, radio entrepreneur and industrialist, who developed groundbreaking technology for the VOA Relay Station.
“As part of the celebration, we’re opening a whole new exhibit, which is devoted to Powel Crosley,” Dominic said. “As important as he is, there is no overall exhibit of his life and work and the company’s life and work, so we are going to have the first encompassing exhibit. It’s going to not just be the radio’s, although that’s certainly the reason we’re here. Where he started was in automobile accessories, and through the years, he got into aircraft. He owned an airline. He built airplanes, cars and refrigerators.”
The history of the Voice of America and Bethany Station cannot be adequately told without an appreciation for Powel Crosley and his extraordinary list of inventions and innovations.
This new exhibit will be the most comprehensive exhibit in the nation highlighting his accomplishments. Crosley’s framework of engineers and machinists crafted six of the most powerful shortwave radio transmitters in the world at the onset of World War II, and they were constructed in only a year.
Sections of the exhibition will include a radio focus, household items, and other gadgets, such as a hair-growing machine. He also developed the IcyBall, a non-electrical refrigeration device.
The VOA museum includes items, collections and exhibits from the VOA-Bethany Station; Media Heritage’s Greater Cincinnati Museum of Broadcast History; the Gray History of Wireless Museum; and the West Chester Amateur Radio Association control room. Guests can also see the new VOA Radio Lab, located on the second floor of the building.
For 50 years, the VOA-Bethany Station transmitted Voice of America broadcasts to countries worldwide that lacked a free press, first in Europe during World War II and then to South America during the Cold War. It was decommissioned by the federal government in 1994.
“This was to communicate the truth, as Edward R. Murrow said, to get America’s story out everywhere. Fundamentally, that’s why it’s here,” Dominic said.
Joe Gruber, VOA board member said the essence was that the United States was trying to stay out of World War II until Japan provoked us with Pearl Harbor.
“That’s when they decided to crank up our radio presence because we needed to counter Hitler’s radio presence. So, that was the beginning,” Gruber said.
Tickets for the fundraiser are $150 per person, or $300 per couple with various sponsorship levels available for individuals, organizations and businesses. The deadline to order tickets is Wednesday, Sept. 20. For more information about tickets, or sponsorships, email admin@voamuseum.org, or call (513) 777-0027. Also, visit www.voamuseum.org. All proceeds from the gala will go toward making the first floor of the museum accessible to visitors of all physical capabilities.
To continue the celebration, the VOA museum announces expanded hours on weekends. Beginning on Saturday, Oct. 7, the museum will be open from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is $5 for adults and $1 for children. The museum is located at 8070 Tylersville Road.
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