broadcast of the WOAS radio station started at 8:00 AM on Friday, December 15, 1978. The station was managed by the Ontonagon Area High School librarian, Thomas Graham Lee. At the time, the station featured two reel-to-reel players and a vinyl record turntable as well as wiring for remote broadcasting in the cafeteria and gymnasium of the high school building. Margaret Muskatt succeeded Thomas Lee as manager in 1985 and, in the years that followed, the appeal of the station began to dwindle due to under-funding and aging equipment (which was donated to begin with); this led to a lull in staff morale. In 1987, the Community Schools program took over daily operations under the leadership of Community School Director Mike Bennett. What followed was a decade of growth and operating income for the station and school district as many grants for programs and new equipment were secured. Through the mid-1990s, the popularity of WOAS again bottomed out as the Community Schools budget took massive hits and their involvement in the radio station eventually folded. The Ontonagon Area School District continued to be the station's owner but operations continued with a skeleton crew of volunteers when the Community Schools program ceased to exist in 1994. In 1995, Bennett became the elementary school principal, which left the station without an acting manager. In 1997, the station hit its lowest point when a license renewal lapse was about to occur and the Ontonagon Area School District directors debated about whether or not to renew the station's FCC license. Also in 1997, science teachers Ken Raisanen and Chuck Zelinski made a pitch to the school district superintendent John Peterson to take over station operations and save the nearly dead project. They renewed the broadcasting license and began refurbishing the station's infrastructure and equipment. With generous grants from the Ontonagon Area School District (OASD), the Upper Peninsula Power Company (UPPCO), community members and volunteers, the station underwent a major remodeling and equipment replacement. The station has encountered some difficulty with a stable web platform, but has managed to keep the station's audio stream intact at www.woas-fm.org. Assistance from REMC 1 has put the WOAS web presence on a stable footing after the initial server was not able to handle the multiple feeds and was replaced by a more capable unit. Ken Raisanen assumed the Station Manager position in 1997 and he continues as the