WOI Radio (written by Dr. Charles Black and Don Forsling):
The history of broadcasting at Iowa State University dates back to 1911. That is when physics professor "Dad" Hoffman rigged a transmission line from the campus water tower to Engineering Hall and asked for money to establish a wireless telegraph station. In 1914, the Electrical Engineering Department installed and began operation of a small transmitter under the call letters 9YI. Newspaper reports indicate station 9YI was regularly sending and receiving weather reports by Morse code.

On April 28, 1922, with new call letters assigned by the Radio Division of the U.S. Department of Commerce, WOI-AM went on the air with its first regular feature, market news. At that time, Iowa State was one of 21 colleges and universities holding broadcasting licenses. In the fall, the station broadcast its first Iowa State football game. Andy Woolfries introduced the Music Shop, one of the longest running programs in radio history, in 1925, but due to budget constraints the show was cancelled in 2009. Another long-running program, The Book Club, began in 1927 and aired until 2006.

In the 1930s and 1940s, the scope of the WOI program service broadened to encompass and extend to Iowans the entire range of the college's activities. Agricultural programs and programs for homemakers continued along with forums, lectures, and classical music. WOI-FM, one of the first FM stations in Iowa, aired on July 1, 1949, with stereo broadcasting coming in 1955. Fifty years ago, the WOI-FM schedule would run on the air from 4:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Programs offered would include Classical Concerts, Dinner Hour News, Articles of Interest with Norman Cleary, and Starlight Concerts. WOI-AM was on the air from 6:00 a.m. until 7:45 p.m. in July {7:15 p.m. in August, 6:30 p.m. in September, and so on} with such programs as Down on the Farm, Homemakers, Georgetown Forums, Sixty Plus...For Elder Citizens, German Today, and A Look at Australia. WOI AM also broadcast all the Iowa State University Cyclones football "thrillers" on Saturday afternoons in the fall of 1952.

Great local programs continue today with Talk of Iowa and Midday, although Saturday afternoon's play by play of Iowa State University sports have been replaced with The Metropolitan Opera and This American Life. National Public Radio (NPR), the news and information organization that brings Morning Edition, Car Talk, Fresh Air, and many more programs to the airwaves, was formed in 1970. On May 31, 1971, WOI was one 90 public radio stations to air NPR's first program, All Things Considered.

In 2004, the Board of Regents of the State of Iowa combined Iowa State's WOI Radio with the University of Iowa's WSUI-AM and KSUI-FM, and the University of Northern Iowa's KUNI-FM and KHKE-FM to create Iowa Public Radio.

WOI-TV: WOI-TV was the first television station owned and operated by an institution of higher learning in the U.S. , beginning in February 1950. At that time, the station was the only one to televise a regular schedule of programming into central Iowa, until 1954. The station was truly unique in that as an educationally owned television station, WOI-TV was also granted a commercial license by the FCC. The goal of WOI-TV:

"...is dedicated to bringing the best the (Iowa State) College has to offer to the schools, cities, and farms of Iowa, with programs of education, entertainment, and public service. "

WOI-TV's pioneering activities in applying television to education helped stimulate support for the institution of educational television across the United States. Iowa State University was one of the first educational institutions to broadcast college-level courses, using WOI-TV as its outlet. WOI-TV is also historically noteworthy for its early experiments in Kinescope recording techniques, which the station used to film and distribute its locally produced programming to other stations.

Also notable in the History of WOI-TV is the station's decades-long case with the IRS. The case, which many documents in this collection are dedicated to, centered around WOI-TV's status as an educational broadcasting organization (both educational for Iowa State students and for those viewing educational programs on the station) or as a commercial television station making revenue from advertisers. The IRS demanded years in back taxes from the station in their case.

Iowa State University sold WOI-TV to Capital Communications Company, Inc. (1994).

This collection (1921-1989, undated) contains photographs of WOI programming, sets, on-air personalities, technicians, facilities and equipment.

Additional WOI photographs are located in the University Photograph Collection, classified under RS 5/6.

This collection is arranged alphabetically.