WOI (AM)
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| City | Ames, Iowa |
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| Broadcast area | Des Moines, Iowa |
| Branding | Iowa Public Radio (also on HD Radio) |
| Frequency | 640 (kHz) |
| First air date | April 28, 1922 (experimental 1911-22) |
| Format | NPR/Talk |
| Power | 5,000 watts (daytime) 1,000 watts (nighttime) |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 29119 |
| Callsign meaning | Possibly "Iowa" backwards or the "oi" in "Des Moines" |
| Owner | Iowa State University |
| Website | www |
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.
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.
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