Charles Z. Wick | Director of USIA, 90

Charles Z. Wick, 90, who as director of the U.S. Information Agency under President Ronald Reagan expanded American broadcasts to Cuba and the former Soviet Union but whose agency was accused of blacklisting liberals from a government program, has died.

Mr. Wick died Sunday of natural causes at his Los Angeles home, his family said.

He was the longest-running director of the USIA, which runs the Voice of America broadcasting service, serving in the post from 1981 to 1989.

Reagan credited Mr. Wick, who was part of his famed "kitchen cabinet," with modernizing and computerizing the USIA. He helped expand its budget through volunteers and private-sector donations. Under Mr. Wick, USIA launched a live global satellite television network, known as WorldNet, and Radio Marti, which broadcast to Cuba.

Mr. Wick took heat in 1984 when it was revealed that the USIA had a list of 84 people who were barred from agency-sponsored speaking engagements overseas. They included television anchorman Walter Cronkite and Coretta Scott King, the widow of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Mr. Wick denied any personal involvement in the list but he conceded that "political bias" might have had a small role in its compilation. - AP