The American Expeditionary Stations (AES) was a grouping of military radio stations providing entertainment programmes and news from home for American service personnel posted to the Pacific battlefronts. There were stations located on Guadalcanal, Munda, Bougainville, Espiritu Santo, Noumea and Auckland.
Known as the ‘Mosquito Network’, all stations were assigned standard US radio call-signs, with Guadalcanal becoming WVUQ, Munda WVTJ, Bougainville WVTI, Noumea WVUS and Espiritu Santo WVUR. Espiritu Santo began broadcasting on 4 August 1944 and broadcast on 1045 kilocycles.
Each AES radio station received a basic library of recorded music from the USA. The stations also relayed live news broadcasts from US-based shortwave stations and, for the rest of the daily schedule, produced their own local programming.
The studios weren’t just for US-based broadcasts, they were also made available to other military forces. The New Zealand Army presented a programme every Saturday at 12:00hrs for its Service Command Camp staff (“New Zealand Hour-The Mosquito Project”, 1944). Additionally, visiting USO shows, featuring famous Hollywood personalities such as Bob Hope, Francis Langford and Jack Benny, regularly visited and the stars were interviewed by the stations.
AES Guadalcanal was on-air from 05:30hrs to 08:05hrs, again from 11:00hrs to 13:00hrs and with evening sessions from 17:00hrs to close-down at 22:00hrs. WVUR Espiritu Santo was located up on the hill between the Garbage Pier on the Segond Channel and Bomber #2.
