Thirty thousand people in west-central Iowa were connected to the rest of the state Tuesday night when WOI signed on its fourth station, KWOI 90.7, in Carroll.

Kevin Klose, president and chief executive officer for National Public Radio, traveled from Washington, D.C., to commemorate the event. He opened the station by pushing a button on a cell phone at 5:29 p.m.

A group of WOI supporters gathered in Ames and Carroll to view the station’s opening and toast the event with wine and refreshments.

Klose said he is proud of WOI’s history of dialogue and reflecting the values of Iowans.

“WOI has set a standard for commitment, focus and never stopping,” he said. “It reflects the issues, challenges, perspectives and real life of American communities.”

Don Wirth, WOI employee, said the addition of KWOI will benefit residents in the city of Carroll and greater Carroll County.

“KWOI will give [Carroll County residents] a full, 24-hour, reliable signal of public radio that they didn’t have before,” he said.

Wirth said WOI is 80 years old, making it one of the oldest public radio stations in the United States.

“We were one of the first stations to give market reports,” he said. “We’re one of the few areas for people to get up-to-date information.”

WOI’s founding mission was to spread the vision of Iowa State’s land-grant heritage, Wirth said.

KWOI will provide a mixture of programming from the other WOI stations, including programs like “Talk of Iowa” and “Fresh Air.” Surveys have been distributed to Carroll residents to determine what services they want the station to provide, he said.

“We will fine-tune our programs to give the appropriate mix to what the local population wants,” Wirth said.

The station hopes to insert local programming from Carroll into its broadcasts by next year, he said.

Grant Olsen, senior in journalism and mass communication, said public radio is a “window to the world” that should be utilized by all people.

“The reason I pay attention as a listener to public radio is that it’s serious journalism without being dull,” he said.

“It doesn’t waste your time with commercials telling you about products you do or don’t want.”

Olsen said public radio keeps people connected to current events.

“Radio is an amazingly portable medium. People wake up listening to it, listen in their car and on their headphones while going for their daily jog,” he said. “It’s so accessible that it’s pretty easy to make it part of your daily routine.”

Klose said radio is a “medium of the imagination.”

“No other medium can touch us the way radio does,” he said. “The future of public radio makes it the primary medium of the future for this country.”