WOI-DT

WOI-DT, channel 5, is the ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Ames, Iowa, and serving the Des Moines market. Its studios are on Westown Parkway in West Des Moines, while its transmission tower is located near Alleman.

History

WOI-TV signed on the air on February 21, 1950. It was Iowa's second television station, following WOC-TV (now KWQC-TV) in Davenport. Originally on channel 4, it moved to channel 5 in 1952. Programming came from ABC, CBS, NBC, and the DuMont network during the station's early years, but it was a primary CBS affiliate. NBC disappeared from the schedule when WHO-TV signed on in 1954, and CBS disappeared when KRNT-TV (now KCCI) signed on in 1955 owing to KRNT radio's long affiliation with CBS radio, leaving channel 5 as the ABC affiliate. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.

WOI-TV was originally owned by Iowa State University in Ames along with its noncommercial WOI radio stations (AM 640 and FM 90.1), making it the first commercial television station in the United States to be owned by a major college. As such, it carried some educational programming from sign-on until the Des Moines Public Schools signed on KDPS-TV (channel 11, now KDIN-TV) in 1959. The startup costs for WOI-TV were paid by the remaining monies from a federal grant awarded to the university for work on the Manhattan Project. WOI's facilities were used by the university to deliver lectures by satellite.

WOI

Woi or WOI may refer to:

WOI (AM)

WOI is a News/Talk radio station affiliated with National Public Radio serving the Des Moines, Iowa area. It is located at 640 on the AM dial. Due to its dial position, power and Iowa's flat landscape, it can be heard throughout most of the state of Iowa (as far west as Sioux City and as far east as Cedar Rapids). Its signal also reaches parts of Missouri, Minnesota and Nebraska. The station's studios are located on the second floor of the Communications Building at Iowa State University in Ames (where the station is licensed) along with WOI-FM. It is the flagship station of Iowa Public Radio's all-news network.

WOI is licensed by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to broadcast in the HD Radio (hybrid) format.

9YI: The experimental years

The history of WOI can be traced back to 1911 when Physics Professor "Dad" Hoffman set a transmission line between the Campus Water Tower and the Engineering Building and set up a wireless telegraph station. By 1913 this was known as experimental station 9YI and it was sending and receiving weather reports by morse code on a regular basis. The first sound broadcast was an hour of concert music on November 21, 1921. The Commerce Department issued a full radio license for station WOI in April 1922 and the first regular broadcast took place on April 28, 1922. It is the oldest fully licensed noncommercial station west of the Mississippi River. The original callsign 9YI is now W0YI and is retained by the ISU Campus Radio Club, with the amateur radio station in the Electrical Engineering building.