It’s been 25 years since a cow stuck its head in the window of the first WOAK studio. Today, the radio station and the church that started it - Oakside Baptist Church - will celebrate with a free gospel singing event at Pineland Georgia Sheriff’s youth home.

The church started the radio station in a 135-year-old farmhouse in the Rosemont community. The pastor, Ralph Taylor, wanted to offer an all-Christian radio station in a time when there was little options in that area. The temporary quarters were used for two months before the station moved into a renovated house next to the church.

Deena Brand, the office manager, has worked at WOAK since its first days. She remembers the farmhouse well.

“There was no paint on the outside, it had a leaky roof and in some parts there were no windows. That’s where the cow stuck his head through the window while we were transmitting,” she recalled. “We didn’t even have a bathroom, so we had to drive to the church if we needed to.”

In the early days the radio station had a paid station manager and volunteer disc jockeys who played music on two turntables, a cassette tape deck and a reel-to-reel tape player.

That technology has changed drastically, said Rick Varnum, the current station manager.

In the early days, the station had a morning, afternoon and night shift. When the station was automated in 1995, it was able to broadcast 24 hours a day, every day. It also was one of the first radio stations to start Web streaming.

“When Windows 95 came out, there was a radio icon,” Varnum said. “I found out that a few stations were streaming at that time.”

They decided that would give them an opportunity to reach missionaries in other countries, as well as anyone, anywhere, with Internet access.

“We liked the evangelistic side of it,” Varnum said. That’s served them well. They’ve heard from missionaries, military personnel and others who have been able to listen to WOAK programming.

“People have computers in the weirdest places,” Varnum said. “We have a guy in the Air Force who flies around the U.S. and listens to us.”

While the technology has changed drastically in the last 25 years, the mission has not. There are still volunteer disc jockeys from different churches and the music and programing is still all-Christian. Now it’s also “all the time.”

It’s also supported primarily through donations and volunteers, Varnum said.

“There is so much support from the community. They have paid our bills all these years,” he said.

n WOAK radio can be heard at 90.9 FM or at WOAK.com.

Sherri Brown can be reached at sbrown@ lagrangenews .com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 240.