Civilian Agency Records RG 262
Other Agency Records
Records of the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service (RG 262)
The Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service (FBIS), originally called the Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service, was established in the Federal Communications Commission in February 1941 to record, translate, and analyze foreign broadcast programs and to report on them to interested Government agencies. Monitoring stations intercepted broadcasts of foreign news, intelligence, or propaganda emanating from belligerent, occupied, and neutral countries. At the monitoring stations recordings, transcripts, and translations of selected broadcasts were made and teletyped, cabled, or mailed to Washington headquarters where they were edited and significant parts (occasionally full texts) teletyped to concerned Government war agencies. Special analyses and daily and weekly summaries were also prepared at headquarters and distributed to appropriate agencies and officials. On July 28, 1942, the Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service was renamed the Foreign Broadcast intelligence Service.
The FBIS was transferred to the War Department in December 1945 and placed under the Military Intelligence Division of the General Staff. On August 5, 1946, it was transferred to the Central Intelligence Group of the National Intelligence Authority, where it was renamed the Foreign Broadcast Information Service on November 1, 1946, and the Foreign Broadcast Information Branch on December 31, 1946.
This record group comprises only records created by the FBIS and its predecessors. Records created after December 31, 1946, by the Foreign Broadcast Information Branch (later Division) are among the records of the Central Intelligence Agency (RG 263).
Central Files
Transcriptions
Transcripts of Monitored Foreign Broadcasts 1940-1946 (Entry 3)
English translations of foreign shortwave broadcasts, consisting of full texts, text excerpts, and summaries sent to the national office by typed transcript, teletype, and cable.
Records of the Princeton Listening Center
Transcripts of Monitored Shortwave Broadcasts, 1941-1945.