WVUV not dead, just on low power

Recent reports that long running station WVUV in American Samoa may have finally disappeared
from the Pacific airwaves for ever, aren’t yet the end of the story.

The radioheritage group reports that the DX press has carried news that the application to move to AM 720 had
been dismissed and the call letters had been deleted. If true, this would be a
sad end to what was once one of the most popular radio stations in
the South Pacific.

However, according to WVUV’s owner, it’s all because the
FCC wrongly thought the station had been off-air for more than a year.
Not so according to the owner, who says WVUV has been broadcasting on AM 648 with a
very low power, and the FCC had lost their application for an STA
[Special Temporary Authority] to broadcast.

WVUV has since petitioned the FCC for reconsideration of the decision
to delete the call letters and dismiss the application for the move
to AM 720.

WVUV started out as a small 50w station operated by US Navy personnel
in Pago Pago in 1944, was later handed over to the American Samoan
government and with a 10kW transmitter, became a household name
around the South Pacific.

It was later sold to private business
interests, and is now owned by the South Seas Broadcasting Co.

The building and old records of WVUV were
destroyed by fire in about 1998. The future of WVUV-AM is now linked
to the company’s highly successful KHJ-FM which broadcasts from modern
studios in Pago Pago.

You can read ‘This is WVUV’ a personal recollection of broadcasting
by one of its former DJ’s at www.radioheritage.net where it’s indexed
as story #8 on the ‘More Stories’ index page.