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The healing continues.
Ten months after Capital Communications Co. bought WOI-TV (Channel 15) from the state of Iowa for $14 million, the station still is recovering from the ownership fight.
We've had to, in many respects, rebuild a television station," said Ray Cole, WOI's general manager. It's fair to say we've just begun that process."
The two-year ownership struggle between the Iowa Board of Regents and Iowa State University gave WOI, already well-beaten in the local ratings, a black eye it's been treating ever since.
Capital, a private company based in Bronxville, N.Y., took control of WOI on March 1, 1994.
Ratings for the station's local programming have traditionally fallen far behind those of central Iowa's top contenders, KCCI (Channel 8) and WHO (Channel 13), for one reason: image.
WOI has suffered an identity crisis since its birth on the ISU cams in 1950. For years, programming vacillated between the commercial and education without any real focus, Cole said. Funding was limited. And many viewers considered the station little more than a training ground for broadcast journalists.
Philip Lombardo, Capital's president, doesn't expect to change the ABC affiliate's 45-year-old reputation overnight. But he does expect to change Lombardo bought WOI to add to two other network affiliates he owns: KCAU (ABC) in Sioux City and WHBF (CBS) in the Quad Cities.
His chain of affiliates with WOI at the center, creates the largest coverage area in Iowa, reaching about 80 percent of the state's households.
In addition to carrying ISU sports, the new network gives Lombardo an edge in the most competitive arena for a affiliates: newscasts.
Through WOI, viewers in the Sioux City and Quad Cities markets now have access to breaking stories at the State Capitol for example.
Although Lombardo does not own KCRG, the ABC affiliate in Cedar Rapids, he has an "affiliation arrangement" with the station so that it, too, can participate in the network
With our uplink facilities, we already have done statewide coverage he said. WOI, KCAU. WHBF and KCRG worked together during last year's Iowa primary.
Lombardo's network could prove to be a financial windfall as well. Since affiliates set their advertising prices according to ratings, an increase in viewers means an increase in potential profits.
But...