The station first signed on the air on May 14, 1985 as KOIA-TV (for its city of license, Ottumwa, Iowa). It was the second commercial television station — after KTVO (channel 3), which signed on the air on November 21, 1955 — and the first commercial UHF outlet to sign on in the Ottumwa–Kirksville market. The station was founded and originally owned by the Haynes Communications Company (owned by television and radio station operator Carl Haynes). Logically, it should have signed on as either a CBS or NBC affiliate (those networks did not have an affiliate in the Ottumwa–Kirksville market at the time). However, channel 15 initially maintained a programming inventory typical of an independent station, consisting of first-run and off-network sitcoms and drama series, classic off-network westerns, feature films, and cartoons. Shortly before the station's sign-on, on April 18, 1985, Haynes Communications sold the station to Ottumwa Television Ltd. Partnership (a consortium of 48 limited and general partners, headed by company president and majority stockholder Richard G. Hutchenson) in an expenses-only deal.