Squire, Martha Dloughy.

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.

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-producing programming to other stations.

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