WOI (AM)

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WOI
City of license	Ames, Iowa
Branding	640 WOI
First air date	April 28, 1922
Frequency	640 (kHz)
Format	NPR/Talk
ERP	5,000 watts (daytime) / 1,000 watts (nighttime)
Class	B
Callsign meaning	backward speeling of IOWA
Owner	Iowa State University
Website	www.woi.org

WOI, is an News/Talk radio station affiliated with NPR serving the Des Moines/Ames, Iowa area. Due to its dial position and power, it can be heard throughout most of the state of Iowa. It is located at 640 on the AM dial. The station's studios are located in room 2022 of the Communications Building at Iowa State University along with WOI-FM.

Contents 1 9YI:The Experimental Years 2 Programming in the Early Years 3 New Technology and NPR 4 WOI Today

[edit] 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 know 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 licese for station WOI in April of 1922 and the first regular broadcast took place on April 28, 1922.

[edit] Programming in the Early Years

The first regular programming on WOI was farm market reports gathered by ticker tape and morse code and broadcast throughout the state. Another early staple was sporting events by Iowa State's athletic teams. In 1925 the Music Shop was started. This program is one of the longest running shows in the history of radio and can still be heard on sister station WOI-FM. In 1927 another long time favorite, The Book Club was added.

[edit] New Technology and NPR

On December 1, 1949 WOI launched WOI-FM at 90.1 on the FM dial. It its early years it primarily simulcast the AM station. WOI-TV was launched in 1950 as the first TV station in the Des Moines market. It was also the first Commercial TV station owned by an educational institute. It originally was affiliated with all four networks of its time before it became solely an ABC affiliate. WOI-TV was sold by the Iowa Board of Regents on March 1, 1994.

[edit] WOI Today

Today WOI's programming consists of both NPR and localy produced talk shows along with local news and BBC news updates. The classical music of the early years migrated exclusively to WOI-FM in the 1960s.