Before becoming VOA’s third director, John Ogilvie was responsible for the first radio broadcasts from Puerto Rico to the mainland United States. He later went on to encourage broadcasting between the U.S. and other areas in North and South America, connecting the contiguous hemisphere through the growing technology of radio. As an accomplished broadcast executive, Ogilvie held leading roles at many Latin American businesses before becoming Head of Radio Operations in 1938 for the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation. His position as Director of the Radio Division of the Office of Inter-American Affairs encouraged cooperation between Latin America and other regions to counter Axis propaganda.
While at the Office of Inter-American Affairs, he wrote about the transformation of the organization as broadcasting efforts became a larger piece of global affairs, citing its growth from a ‘half-hour’ of programming each week to ‘280 program hours a week’ in ’20 other American republics.’