Summary

WOAS is a high school radio

High school radio

High school radio within the United States is almost as old as radio broadcasting itself. Simply defined as a radio station, with its studios located at a high school and usually operated by its students with faculty supervision, stations fitting this description existed in the mid-1920s...

 station broadcasting a variety

Variety (radio)

The term variety as a radio format is loosely defined as a format that plays music across numerous genera.Freeform variety is associated with a wide range of programming including talk, sports, and music from a wide spectrum. This format is usually found on smaller, non-commercial...

 style music format and serves the greater Ontonagon County (approximately 17 mile radius). The station is owned and licensed to the Ontonagon

Ontonagon, Michigan

Ontonagon is a village in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 1,769. It is the county seat of Ontonagon County....

 School Board of Education and is staffed voluntarily by the students of the High School and local community members.

Station Hours

The WOAS Radio Station broadcasts on weekdays (Monday - Friday) from 9:00AM (EST) to 10:00PM (EST) during the academic school year (September through June). The station also does selective broadcasting in August during the Porcupine Mountains Music Festival

Porcupine Mountains Music Festival

The Porcupine Mountains Music Festival is a three-day festival of folk, jazz, blues and other traditional music that has been held annually during the last weekend in August in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the vicinity of Ontonagon, Michigan by the non-profit Friends of the Porcupine...

.

Office hours are on weekdays (Monday - Friday) from 9:00AM (EST) to 3:00PM (EST) during the academic school year and the manager's office can be found by asking the school information office.

Media and Programming

In addition to the regular on-air Disc Jockey music, there are a number of syndicated shows that are commonly played including Planetary Radio, Cowpie Radio, Power-Line, and special release media from the Home Grown Music Network.

The variety

Variety (radio)

The term variety as a radio format is loosely defined as a format that plays music across numerous genera.Freeform variety is associated with a wide range of programming including talk, sports, and music from a wide spectrum. This format is usually found on smaller, non-commercial...

 format allows students and community staff to play a personal preference of genre during their respective on-air shows as long as it appends to the "terms-of-broadcast" concerning profanity

Profanity

Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...

 and other points. Some shows are also syndicated from school groups and organizations such as the "Spanish Club."

WOAS now features a complete digital media

Digital media

Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital form. It can refer to the technical aspect of storage and transmission Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. It can refer to the technical aspect of...

 system including three Compact Disc

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 (CD) players, a Computerized Media Processor (CMP) and input jacks for MP3

MP3

MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...

 or headphone based media devices. The only exception to this is a single cassette tape player that is used for syndicate

Syndicate

A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies or entities formed to transact some specific business, or to promote a common interest or in the case of criminals, to engage in organized crime...

 programming.

The station features over 1,500 CDs in the live studio as well as over 1,000 CDs in the recording studio

Recording studio

A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...

, which range in release dates from 2010 all the way back to the 1940s (format converted). The studio also bears all the historical medias including reel-to-reel tapes, countless cassette tapes, vinyl records and even a few eight-track tapes.

The station is currently in the process of implementing a live feed for broadcast audio as well as live studio web-cam video. The feeds are not yet available for access.

Staff

WOAS is operated by voluntary staff members from the local community and students from the High School under the direction of the Station Manager Ken Raisanen. There are typically seven student Disc Jockeys

Disc jockey

A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...

 that are on-air during periodic times of the school day and there are also seven local community member Disc Jockeys

Disc jockey

A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...

 who are on-air during after school hours.

History

The first official 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

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 librarian

Librarian

A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...

 Thomas Graham Lee. At the time, the station featured two reel-to-reel players and a vinyl record turntable

Turntablism

Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using phonograph turntables and a DJ mixer.The word 'turntablist' was coined in 1995 by DJ Babu to describe the difference between a DJ who just plays records, and one who performs by touching and moving the records, stylus and mixer...

 as well as wiring for remote broadcasting in the cafeteria

Cafeteria

A cafeteria is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school; a school dining location is also referred to as a dining hall or canteen...

 and gymnasium

Gym

The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...

 of the high school building.

Margaret Muskatt succeeded Thomas Lee as manager during the mid-1980s and the appeal of the station began to dwindle due to under-funding and aging equipment (which was donated to begin with), which led to a lull in staff morale

Morale

Morale, also known as esprit de corps when discussing the morale of a group, is an intangible term used to describe the capacity of people to maintain belief in an institution or a goal, or even in oneself and others...

. In the mid-1980s, the Community Schools program took over the 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.

From 1990 to 1995, WOAS' popularity again bottomed out as the Community Schools budget took massive hits and the radio station program eventually folded. Bennett became the elementary school

Elementary school

An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...

 principal, which left the station nearly dead. In 1997, the station hit its lowest point when a license renewal lapse was about to occur and the station was in serious jeopardy by considerations to not renew the broadcasting license.

It was in the same year (1997) that 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 dying project. They renewed the broadcasting license and began refurbishing the station's infrastructure. With generous grants from the Ontonagon

Ontonagon, Michigan

Ontonagon is a village in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 1,769. It is the county seat of Ontonagon County....

 Area School District (OASD), the Upper Peninsula Power Company

Upper peninsula Power Company

Upper Peninsula Power Company , a subsidiary of Integrys Energy Group, is a utility company serving most of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. UPPCO provides electric power to consumers....

(UPPCO), community members and volunteers, the station underwent a major remodeling and equipment replacement.

Ken Raisanen officially assumed the Station Manager position in 1997 and he continues as the Station Manager today (updated January 2010).