Iowa State’s WOI-FM public radio group is looking to purchase a bankrupt commercial Osceola station in order to expand public radio service to residents of south-central Iowa.

The decision to purchase the station comes at a time when WOI is still recovering from $2.4 million in budget cuts last fall, but the ability to buy poses a “once in a lifetime opportunity,” said WOI General Manager Bill McGinley.

“If we don’t take advantage of it, it may never come around again,” he said.

WOI will request Board of Regents approval for the purchase of KIIC-FM Wednesday at the board’s meeting in Iowa City.

McGinley said southeast and south-central Iowa do not have efficient access to public radio.

“We were hearing from folks around the southern Missouri-Iowa border … there is not a reliable FM public radio signal, so this [station purchase] really fits into that scheme really well — it establishes service, gradually filling in all of Iowa,” McGinley said.

WOI does slightly overlap into KIIC’s broadcast area, but according to regent documents, the purchase would allow about 44,000 people to receive a high-quality FM signal for the first time. Ringgold, Decatur, Wayne, Lucas, Clarke, Union, Madison and Warren counties would be reached by the signal.

McGinley said KIIC-FM was originally one of three stations belonging to a group-owned company that went broke. The other two stations were sold almost immediately for more than $1 million to a Bible college in Minnesota, but KIIC, which owes an unspecified amount in debt, went unsold. One of the reasons McGinley said the other two stations sold quickly was their signals reached into the Des Moines metro area, while KIIC reached only a very rural area.

“[KIIC] was hanging around for two years with no one really willing to pay what the bank thought it had to get,” McGinley said.

“We’ve been keeping our eye on it, and finally put a number of things together to enable us to make an offer.”

McGinley said bidding on frequencies has become extremely competitive in past years, making the opportunity to purchase an existing station, even in the midst of massive budget cuts, one the station could not pass up.

KIIC was originally a commercial station with solid gold country programming. McGinley said commercial stations are allowed to convert to non-commercial ones, although the reverse isn’t allowed. According to regent documents, programming for the station will be determined after WOI consults with a local community advisory board.

Graceland University in Lamoni has expressed an interest in assisting WOI in providing facilities and coordination for the studio.

McGinley said the process of purchasing the station could take up to six months once WOI comes to a preliminary agreement with the bank KIIC is in debt to. A license for the station must also then be approved by the FCC.

WOI plans to take care of the station’s debt and KIIC’s projected annual operating budget of $20,000 through fund-raising.