“It started with a song……………”

In the late 80s, a local musician, Peter Reynolds, decided that Wangaratta was in need of a community radio station. In conjunction with Wangaratta’s 150^th celebrations of 1988, “The Chronicle” newspaper launched a competition for a poem/verse to commemorate the occasion. Everton resident Mrs Margaret Glendenning penned the winning entry called “The Song of Wangaratta”. Peter Reynolds provided the tune and a cassette of the complete song was produced at Witchery Grub Studios.

The cassette was forwarded to local commercial radio station 3NE and it was hoped that the song would be played during the special week of celebrations. Unfortunately, it was decided that the song did not fit into the station’s music format and was played only once, in a very early timeslot. Understandably disappointed by the outcome, Peter had the brainwave of establishing a ‘community radio station’ where incidents such as this would not occur. A public or community radio station would accommodate this type of music, that of the community.

The Community Arts Officer at the time, Tony Barnett, who had also been involved at the beginning, providing help and support to Peter along the way, now started the arduous process of obtaining the necessary information to establish a community radio station.

Tony Barnett researched the option thoroughly, obtaining the necessary information from CBAA (Community Broadcasting Association of Australia). He also knew of other local people interested in such a project. A group of these interested people then met in Wangaratta for further discussion.

On Wednesday 10 May 1989 over 60 people attended a public meeting called by Peter Reynolds and a steering committee was formed.

In November 1989 WPR (Wangaratta Public Radio) became an incorporated association, and on Monday 2 April 1990 it’s first test broadcast was conducted in very humble conditions from one room in The Strand, Wangaratta.

Several moves later, in May 1998 3WPR-FM became a fully licensed Community Radio Station, and in July 1999 a microwave link was installed to transmit programs from the studio to its FM transmitter and antenna on Mt. Stanley.

Although our official callsign remains 3WPR, we changed our on-air identification to OAK-FM, to acknowledge our location near the junction of the Ovens and King Rivers in North East Victoria.

Our coverage area is:

Albury, Benalla, Beechworth, Barooga, Barnawatha, Berrigan, Corowa, Cobram, Chilten, Eldorado, Euroa, Katamatite, Myrtleford, Moyhu, Millawa, Rutherglen, Tungamah, Violet town, Wangaratta, Wodonga, Yarrawonga, and with a good aerial, Henty. Around 250,000 people.