Kenneth R. Giddens (1908-1993) was an Alabama businessman and broadcaster. He is best known for serving as the director of Voice of America (VOA) during the administrations of Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford from 1969 to 1977; he is thus far the longest-serving director of the organization (1969-1977).

During World War II, Giddens, a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve, served in Washington, D.C. After the war, his interest in mass media was piqued further when he began buying radio advertisements for his theater company. As a result, he founded his own radio station, WKRG in Mobile, using his initials as the call letters. The AM radio station went on air on September 26, 1946, and WKRG-FM followed in 1947. WKRG-TV began broadcasting nearly a decade later on September 5, 1955.


Giddens' tenure as the chief of VOA was controversial. He debated whether the agency's primary role was broadcasting unbiased news or serving as a propaganda organ for the federal government. He vacillated between promoting the United States on air and criticizing the State Department's involvement in the agency. Giddens sought to enhance VOA's credibility through honest reporting. He considered it especially important to present unbiased reporting of the war in Vietnam and of the Watergate scandal.
In April 1977, Democratic president Jimmy Carter replaced Giddens with his own VOA director, R. Peter Straus. In 1985, Giddens returned to Washington briefly during the Reagan administration to serve as the acting director of Radio Martí, the U.S. government's station established by Reagan to broadcast pro-democracy news and information to communist Cuba. Giddens was appointed by Charles Wick, the USIA director and an old friend to prepare the station to go on the air. He continued to serve as a consultant for Radio Martí after his interim directorship.
Kenneth R. Giddens died on May 7, 1993, in Mobile and was buried in the city's Pine Crest Cemetery. In 1994, the Giddens family sold WKRG-FM to Coast Radio, LLC, and it was assigned the new call sign WMXC. It was sold again in 1997 to Clear Channel Communications. Spartan Communications purchased WKRG-TV in 1998. In 2000, Media General purchased Spartan Communications and took control of WKRG-TV. In 1998, Giddens was inducted posthumously into the inaugural class of the University of Alabama College of Communications and Information Sciences Hall of Fame.
Additional Resources
Alexandre, Laurien. The Voice of America: From Dtente to the Reagan Doctrine. 1988.
Additional Resources
Alexandre, Laurien. The Voice of America: From Dtente to the Reagan Doctrine. 1988.
Browne, Donald R. "The Voice of America: Policies and Problems." Journalism Monographs 43 (February 1976): 1-64.
Lambert, Bruce. "Kenneth Giddens, a Former Chief Of Voice of America, Dies at 84." New York Times. May 9 1993.