Although the station was uncensored in that that it shared information that was suppressed within the Communist Bloc, it was am important propaganda tool founded and funded by the US government.

Although a standard hamburger cost the price of ten loaves of bread, some news outlets estimated that 30,000 people passed through the doors on the first day.

The sensational defection of Stalin’s only surviving child made international news and four days later, at a press conference in the Plaza Hotel, she denounced the Soviet Communist regime and her father’s leadership.

On the 26th June 1963 American President John F. Kennedy declared US support for West Berlin with the phrase, “Ich bin ein Berliner” – I am a Berliner – 22 months after the Soviet-supported DDR, more commonly known as East Germany, built the Berlin Wall.