Lying some ten miles off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean is the lonely and almost isolated island called Vieques. This island is 20 miles long and not quite 5 miles wide. A dozen or so smaller islets and rocklets may be seen nearby.
La Isla de Vieques has no permanent
rivers or streams; it is subject to tropical storms and hurricanes; it boasts
the world’s brightest
oceanic bioluminescence in a bright neon blue; and one of its tourist
attractions is a 300 year old Ceiba Tree, a silk cotton tree. According to the international tourist
authority, TripAdvisor, Island Vieques boasts several uncommercialized pristine
beaches that are listed among the top 25 in the world. One of these unique beaches is Black Sand
Beach, where the sand at the waterfront is very finely ground volcanic rock.
The very earliest settlers on Vieques were the Amerindians from the
mainland areas of the Americas. They
arrived by small boat via the many intervening islands throughout the
Caribbean. About a thousand years ago,
the combined inhabitants of Vieques with their various tribal backgrounds
developed what is known as the Taino culture.
It is said that the famous Iberian
explorer, Christopher Columbus must have at least seen the island called
Vieques during his visit to the Caribbean in 1493. This small island came under Spanish
influence at the same time as did nearby Puerto Rico. It was described as a lawless outpost way
back 500 years ago, and there were attempts by Spain, France, England and even
Denmark to colonize the island, though with very little success.
Interestingly, back during the early
colonial era, Scotland ventured into establishing their own outpost settlements
in the Americas, though with almost no success anywhere. Their initial attempt was in the year 1629
when they established a small colonial settlement in what is now Nova Scotia
(New Scotland) in Canada. This was the
first of a dozen Scottish settlements in North America, Central America and the
Caribbean.
During
the latter part of the 1600s, Scotland made numerous attempts to buy Vieques
Island which was identified at the time by the British as Crab Island. In a desperate attempt to obtain the island,
a Scottish fleet made landfall and took possession of it in the name of the
Company of Scotland in 1698.
A total of five ships were on their
way at the time to what is now Panama and a few of their colonial passengers
dropped off on Vieques to
found a small Scottish settlement.
However, because of European rivalries in the Caribbean, the Scottish
settlement on Vieques was no more successful than any of the other Scottish
settlements in the Americas.
In 1811, Vieques was colonized from
Puerto Rico; in 1854 the island was annexed by Puerto Rico; and in 1898 the
island, along with Puerto Rico itself, was ceded by Spain to the United
States. These days there are two small
towns on the island, Isabel and Esperanza; and the total population of the
entire island numbers nearly 10,000.
On
September 1, 1922 the Department of Commerce in Washington DC issued a license
for a new Commercial Land Station on Vieques under the sequential callsign
WGW. Station WGW was operated by the
Bureau of Insular Telegraphy for communication with the main RCA communication
station in the regional capital city San Juan on Puerto Rico.
An entry in Radio News for April 1925 lists
station WGW as a program broadcasting station on 600 metres, 500 kHz. Many other radio stations in the United
States with callsigns beginning with the two letters WG were also listed as
radio broadcasting stations, and this would lead us to believe that the Vieques
communication station WGW was also on the air at times with entertainment and
information programs. In 1933, this same
station WGW was listed with five different shortwave wavelengths, though 52
metres seems to have been their most used channel.
In 1942, the United States Navy
purchased or seized 2/3rds of the island for use in conjunction
with their base at Roosevelt Roads on nearby Puerto Rico. Their original intent was to construct a lengthy
stone breakwater connecting the two islands, Pueto Rico and Vieques; thus
forming a massive artificial harbor.
This artificial harbor was originally intended to be a refuge for the
Royal Navy if Hitler should conduct a successful invasion against England, but
it was never constructed.
In April 2001, the aircraft carrier
USS Enterprise (Vessel No CVN65) was in the waterways between Puerto Rico and
Vieques and its planes were on patrol conducting a practice drill with bombing
runs against vacant areas on Vieques. In
order to warn the local inhabitants, an American radio station was on the air
with information in English and Spanish regarding the air raids. We would presume that this station was on the
air from the USS Enterprise and that one of its many radio transmitters was
tuned to a mediumwave frequency in the AM mode.
In 2003, local citizens on Vieques
began the production of a one hour weekly radio broadcast under the title Radio
Vieques and this program was transmitted by two mediumwave stations in Puerto
Rico; one in San Juan and the other in Humacao.
This program was on the air for five years, though when it ended in
2008, plans were formulated for the development of a community operated local
FM station on the island.
After
five years of planning, preparation and fundraising, the new Radio Vieques was
finally airborne four years ago on June 23, 2013 with 4 kW on 90.1 MHz. Their very appropriate callsign is WVQR, with
the W as an American prefix, and the VQ indicating rather obviously Vieques,
and the R standing for Radio.
Here is a brief excerpt of the top
of the hour programming from Radio Vieques, the community FM radio station on
Vieques Island, station WVQR:-
(AWR/Wavescan-NWS 424)