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.