After years of a being criticized as wasteful and ‘ineffective,’ a U.S.-funded anti-Cuba propaganda campaign consisting of a plane that flew around the island broadcasting TV signals aimed at destabilizing the Communist government has finally come to an end, the  U.S. State Department revealed (pdf) on Monday.

The program, started in 2006 and dubbed ‘AeroMarti‘ after the Cuban hero of independence Jose Marti, consisted of a single plane that would beam signals to the island––signals that the Cuban government promptly blocked, meaning fewer than one percent of Cubans could actually receive the broadcasts.

“If the intended audience is cows in the Cuban countryside, maybe there is some audience,” noted Penn State communications professor John Nichols last year. “The AeroMarti signal is effectively jammed in urban areas.” In 2009 Nichols testified at a Congressional hearing on the TV station beamed by the plane, stating that it violated international law.

While previous estimates of the taxpayer cost over the last seven years had put the amount at $24 million, the inspector general’s report put that amount at $35.6 million.

“AeroMarti has proven to be an ineffective program and an awful waste of U.S. tax dollars,” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) stated on Monday. “It would certainly be good news if taxpayers were able to wash their hands of it.”

“The BBG [Broadcasting Board of Governors] board voted for several years in a row to include grounding the plane in its budget,” BBG spokeswoman Lynne Weil said on Monday, according to Foreign Policy. “I don’t know how much harder one would have to push.”