WOI-DT (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Ames, Iowa, United States, serving the Des Moines area as an affiliate of ABC.

The sales force was expanded and some of the news staff moved to Des Moines to improve the station's competitive standing, but ratings failed to meaningfully rise, and increased revenues came in below projections.

In spite of multiple rebrands and efforts to improve the news product, WOI continued to find itself a very distant third in the ratings and struggled to change viewers' perceptions of the station.

[17] The station also barred some categories of national advertisers, notably beer and wine;[16] dairy farmers protested when it aired margarine spots.

Instead, technicians battled unexpected setbacks in the installation of a new antenna, including a broken winch and damage as it was raised to its position atop the tower.

Citing the need for a steady income source for the station, the board removed the local advertising restriction but retained the bar on alcoholic beverage sponsors.

[46] The next year, it assumed a new off-air role as the hub of closed-circuit television instruction at Iowa State University for classes such as mathematics and veterinary anatomy.

[50][51] WOI-TV's existence as a commercial broadcaster owned by a state agency caused a long-running feud with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

[53] In 1974, the United States Court of Claims found that WOI-TV's income was taxable as an "unrelated business" from which ISU could not deduct expenses of the WOI radio stations.

[55] In 1975, an Iowa state representative introduced a bill proposing that WOI-TV be sold and the educational network move from Des Moines to Ames.

In addition to offering 25 percent more floor space than WOI had in its separate facilities, the TV station moved from one small studio to two larger ones.

[61] The station generated losses for tax purposes as a result of the university's adoption of unusual accounting methods—particularly the lack of normal depreciation of assets—and sharing of expenses with WOI radio.

[53] A 1973 audit of the station, the first conducted by the state, criticized a "lack of internal control ... and deficiencies", to which general manager Robert Mulhall responded by highlighting the incompatibility of accounting principles common to the television industry with those typically used for government agencies.

[53] By 1983, while it still employed no sales representatives, a national company sold local and regional advertising under contract for the station with two employees in Des Moines.

Researchers found that high turnover in on-air personnel—possibly bolstered by a national pension plan that gave lump-sum payments to employees who quit before their fifth year—and the perception of WOI-TV as an Ames station in the larger Des Moines metro area were factors in the poor ratings.

[66] In December 1985, Governor Terry Branstad announced he would ask the legislature to sell WOI-TV as part of sweeping privatization and consolidation efforts in state government.

[67] ISU president W. Robert Parks declared that such a sale would be a "huge and irreparable" mistake, representing the irretrievable loss of a university resource.

This entity wholly owned the Iowa State University Broadcasting Corporation, whose board of directors included ISU officials, private-sector individuals, and the general manager of WOI.

[77] In August 1989, it rolled out a $250,000 rebrand from "5TV" to "Channel 5" alongside the debut of morning and midday newscasts, a new set, and the hiring of six new full-time news staff.

In spite of a down market for television station valuations—said to be at lows not seen since the early 1980s[83]—the idea of investing sale proceeds in new technology was floated, and ISU had a new president, Martin C.

[90] Consultants found that the broker hired for ISU might have compromised the process by suggesting the station could go for less than $13.6 million and that the university should have simultaneously negotiated with the two highest bidders.

On May 11, Jischke said the station should not be sold, this time because the bids from Benedek and Citadel were financed by junk bonds that he believed put ISU at risk.

The House voted 53–33 and the Senate 33–41 to block the sale,[99] but Governor Branstad objected to the legislation, which he believed interfered with the business of the Iowa Board of Regents,[100] and vetoed it on June 3.

[101] As regents approved the purchase agreement with Citadel subsidiary Capital Communications Company, Harl led a group, Iowans for WOI-TV, which challenged the sale in court.

In his ruling for the court, justice James H. Carter called the sale "the type of long-term educational planning decision that the board was empowered to make".

[107] The board approved a post-closing agreement with Citadel in February 1994,[108] and though there was a last-ditch loophole in the deal allowing the Iowa Legislature one last shot at blocking it,[109] it failed to muster enough votes.

[122][124] WOI provided a natural fit for Citadel's other stations serving parts of Iowa—KCAU-TV and WHBF-TV in the two-state Quad Cities market—which, along with the independently owned KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids, formed a statewide news network.

[124] The Locust facility was not large enough to move master control from Ames to Des Moines, and Citadel could not find a site in the city that met its needs.

In 2002, operations director Randy Shelton opined that a call sign change in 1994 might have helped people think the station was no longer connected to the university.

[133] The deal followed Citadel founder and CEO Phil Lombardo's decision to "slow down" as well as a desire by Lynch Entertainment to divest its investments in WOI and WHBF.