Early history
A construction permit was granted to the Haynes Communications Company, owned by Carl Haynes, for a new commercial television station in Ottumwa in November 1984. Haynes managed radio stations in Mississippi but admitted to the Ottumwa Courier that his interest in other permits would put building the Ottumwa station, designated KOIA-TV, "'on the back burner'".[1] Before going on air, Haynes sold the permit for his expenses to Ottumwa Television Limited Partnership.[2] This firm was 51 percent owned by Impact Television of Vienna, Virginia, which owned low-power K42AM in Ottumwa.[3] K42AM was especially interested in channel 15 because, in converting to a full-power station on the KOIA-TV construction permit, it would have obtained must-carry status on the local cable system, which was not carrying channel 42.[4] The low-power station was off the air by January 1986, with KOIA-TV planned as its successor.[5][6]
KOIA-TV began broadcasting on June 2, 1986.[8] Even though this market only had one television station—KTVO in Kirksville—KOIA-TV was an independent station. However, the original ownership—a partnership consisting of various minority local investors and Impact Television—was badly undercapitalized. Impact owned KOIA and low-power stations in Jackson, Tennessee; Jonesboro, Arkansas; and Oglesby, Illinois. When Impact cut financial support and stated that it had run out of money, local management immediately moved to cease broadcasting, with KOIA-TV going off the air on August 19; that day, the general manager had turned the transmitter on at 11 a.m. only to be called at 11:05 a.m. and told to take it off the air pending a sale.[10][11]
Ottumwa Television Limited Partnership sold the station in the wake of the shutdown to Public Interest Broadcast Group Inc., an Orlando, Florida-based firm owned by Dean C. Engstrom and Les White, for $900.[12] Public Interest put KOIA-TV back on the air on June 29, 1987, though it had been testing for two weeks prior to the relaunch.[13] In addition to syndicated programs, movies, sports, and Independent Network News, the station initially offered a local news program covering the Ottumwa area, News Plus, and an interview program, Midday Magazine; studios were set up at the present site, a former McDonald's restaurant.[14] White sold his interest to Engstrom later in the year.[15] In February 1988, KOIA-TV began airing programming from the Fox network.[16]
On April 30, 1992, the station's call letters were changed to KYOU-TV.[17] In 1997, KYOU served as a secondary affiliate of UPN.[18] In January 1999, Public Interest Broadcast Group announced it would sell KYOU to Omaha-based Waitt Broadcasting for $3 million.[19]
For most of KOIA-TV/KYOU-TV's history since returning to the air in 1987, the station had been the local broadcaster of Iowa Hawkeyes sports events, even well into its Fox affiliation. Despite a new Fox affiliation agreement, KYOU-TV continued to preempt some Fox programming to show games. However, in January 2001, Fox ordered the station to stop carrying sports telecasts that conflicted with network prime time and sports programming, threatening disaffiliation if it did not comply. This led to angry callers frustrated that some Iowa football and basketball games were not shown, while the station also had to pay a fine to the ESPN Plus syndication service because it could not show games it had agreed to air.[20] KYOU then reached an agreement with Fox that allowed it 15 prime time preemptions.[21]
In August 2003, Raycom Media acquired three of Waitt Broadcasting's Fox affiliates in southeastern states for $25.7 million.[22] On September 6, Waitt announced it would spin off the station to Charlotte, North Carolina-based Ottumwa Media Holdings (co-founded by Thomas B. Henson and Macon Moye, and renamed American Spirit Media in August 2006), for $4 million. Ottumwa Media Holdings then entered into a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Raycom, owner of KTVO, to provide KYOU-TV with commercial scheduling, promotions, master control, and production services (including a planned local newscast), though programming and sales remained separate.[23] Although Raycom sold KTVO and other stations to Barrington Broadcasting in 2006,[24][25][26] Raycom continued to act as the service provider to KYOU.[27]
