“ONLY IN MAINE: WVOM AND THE ICE STORM OF 1998,” edited by Donna Gold, Charlene Coleman, Jerry Evans and Moon Song Communications, Bangor, 1998, paperback, 155 pages, $15.95.

The whole world may not have been watching, but virtually every person in northern Maine was listening. They listened on old transistor radios, battery-operated boom boxes, clock radios that never before had been turned upside down and had batteries inserted into their bellies.

Last January, when the ice storm of 1998 paralyzed a northeast corner of the United States and Canada, Mainers found information, comfort, compassion and companionship at 103.9 FM on their radio dials. The story of how “The Voice of Maine,” a Bangor-based talk radio station, scrapped its regular programming and stayed on the air nonstop during the crisis is chronicled in a new book, “Only in Maine: WVOM and the Ice Storm of 1998.”

Station owner Jerry Evans said that once the crisis was over and things were getting back to normal, several people approached him about compiling the letters, stories, news articles, photographs, as well as transcripts of on-air conversations into a book. One individual even talked about writing a screenplay, he said.

“A lot of people who experienced the ice storm expressed interest in seeing a book like this,” explained Evans. “It captures a good moment in Maine’s history. People have told us that what we did will stick with them a long time.”

Right after the ice storm, much of the material for the book was pulled together by a volunteer, Charlene Coleman, formerly of Southwest Harbor. Like many of the people who gave their time and energy during the ice storm, she has since lost contact with the station and could not be reached to talk about the project.

The 155-page volume opens with Gov. Angus King’s State of the State address on Feb. 2. “In coffee shops and shelters, in kitchens and neighbor’s spare rooms, on the radio and in churches … we rediscovered who we are — or most want to be — as a people. Ingenious, self-reliant, neighborly, creative, tough, funny, spontaneous, caring,” he said.

“For that glorious moment, that one glorious moment, we were truly one people — almost one person — in our shared experience of fear, frustration, compassion and triumph. And as the whole world now knows, Maine had truly passed the test.”

Nearly half the book is composed of transcripts of conversations between on-air staff and volunteers and callers. There are conversations with King, Rep. John Baldacci, Sen. Olympia Snowe, representatives from Central Maine Power and Bangor Hydro-Electric.

But the most moving conversations are the ones with the people identified simple as “caller.” On Saturday, Jan. 10, a Monroe woman reported that a dog was chained up outside and nearly frozen to the ground. A few minutes later, the dog had been rescued and found a new home.

Six days later, Kim Bennett was on the air when Edward called from Milbridge to vent his frustration about not having his power back on.

“Edward: … I’ve been going out to the car to get warm. It’s as good a place as any. I’ve been staying in the car, sometimes I come in the house, but trying to keep warm — it gets too cold in the house, so I go out to the car — and I have some health problems … ”

“Kim: We have plenty of people, Edward, who are offering warm places to stay that are more comfortable than a shelter. Would you be willing to do that?”

“Edward: I’m not looking for a handout. I want what I paid for … ”

Like a lot of other people, Edward got help from the Washington County Sheriff’s Department, dispatched to help him by a WVOM volunteer who answered the phone and used Caller ID to locate him.

Other sections of “Only in Maine” include the songs, poems and letters sent in by grateful listeners, as well as the recollections of the men and women who spent hours on and off the air dealing with the hundreds of calls for help and offers of a helping hand. The trip up Passadumkeag Mountain to get full propane tanks to the station’s generator is retold in treacherous detail by Dan “the scallop man” Placzek, who climbed WVOM’s tower to knock off the ice with a wrench and hammer as the temperature climbed to 10 degrees.

While “Only in Maine” may be a walk down memory lane for anyone who lived through the “storm of the century,” the way it is organized could be confusing for people who did not. Putting the news stories at the beginning of the book, instead of toward the end, would have made it less confusing for out-of-state readers who might receive it as a gift.

In his introduction, Evans wrote, “This book is not nearly complete. It’s just a brief glimpse of a once-in-a-lifetime event that brought out the best in people.” It also put Evans’ small station a year ahead of schedule in his business plan and gave WVOM a huge boost in the ratings. Yet, Evans said that he has never added up how much revenue he gained or lost due to the 10 days the station went commercial free.

“It wasn’t the slickest radio you ever heard, but we did what should have been done,” he wrote. “It was not only the right thing to do, it was necessary.”

“A Cherryfield woman identified as Mariam best captured what WVOM did last January and what “Only in Maine” pays tribute to.

“Throughout it all, we, as all the people of Maine, were woven together by the invisible air waves which came from radio station WVOM, received through our battery-operated radio. The tapestry which began to develop was one of human endeavor. … Wherever I went, store to store, people’s homes, or even the background music on telephone conversations, WVOM was there. It was a lone beacon in an icy storm, rescuing us all from despair.”

Proceeds from “Only in Maine: WVOM and the Ice Storm of 1998” will be donated to the station’s Storm Watch Fund.