The search is almost over for the new manager of WOI AM/FM Radio.

Three finalists, who will visit Iowa State during the next two weeks, were named on Thursday.

William L. Combs, general manager for Dayton Public Radio in Ohio; William A. McGinley, station manager at KASU Radio at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro; and Donald T. Wirth, business manager and interim general manager for WOI, will meet with members of the ISU community during one-hour forums. The forums will take place at 1:30 p.m. on different days for each finalist in the Alumni Suite of the Memorial Union.

John Dobson, associate vice provost, is a member of the committee that will make a recommendation to Murray Blackwelder, vice president for external affairs. Blackwelder will make the final decision.

Dobson said there was a national search for the position. The committee contacted all the public radio stations in the United States and asked them for nominations.

Dobson said there was a large pool from which to choose.

“All three of them [finalists] have good, solid experience in public radio at university stations,” Dobson said. “They all had the proper credentials.”

McGinley will visit ISU on May 5. He has served as station manager at KASU Radio at Arkansas State for the past two years. McGinley has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in radio/television.

Wirth will visit campus on May 6. He has served as business manager for the past three years at WOI and interim manager during the past year. Wirth is an ISU alumnus, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in industrial administration in 1972.

Combs will make his appearance at ISU on May 16. After graduating from The Union Institute of Cincinnati with a bachelor’s in business/marketing, he has served as general manger of Dayton Public Radio for 10 years.

Rick Lewis, the former manager of WOI, left ISU last summer to take the director of programming position for Audible Words, Inc. near New York City.

Dobson said he hopes the position will be filled by the beginning of the new fiscal year.