I doubt there was a time since the early days of the Cold War that most Americans knew about VOA. There never have been massive numbers of SW listeners in the US, when compared to the greater population. With the BBC it's probably a bit different, being that it's a national network, with the World Service being a part of that, technically. And the BBC has so many FM's at night carrying their programming that people in the US and Canada are aware of its existence, but with VOA it's different.Serious question. How many folks in the US even know, or care that VOA is a thing anymore? Or will listen to that programming? Seems like this is a huge non issue.
VOA is still important, but the average American probably doesn't know it exists, much less has concerns as to how it is used, or could be used, to promote the US, or any pro-US information / propaganda to the rest of the world.