THE HISTORY OF OAKFM

OAK is an acronym for Ovens and King. Wangaratta is where the Ovens and King rivers meet, and is the base for OAK-FM, the local community radio station.

It started with a song. In the late 80’s a local musician, Peter Reynolds, decided that Wangaratta was in need of a community radio station. In conjunction with Wangaratta’s 150th 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 Wichetty Grub studios.

The cassette was forwarded to a commercial radio station 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.

As a result we at OAK FM believe in promoting as many Local Bands and Artists as possible, and have found this to give us an edge no other radio stations can compete with. So listen to OAK FM more to hear what the local voices of the northeast sound like today. We also Love putting the spotlight on other talented artists from around Australia that wouldn’t normally make it to the air-waves.