WOLO-25 is moving its local newscast back to Columbia after three years of broadcasting from Charlotte.

The local ABC affiliate has leased space at 1200 Main St., across from the State House, and plans to start broadcasting from there on Oct. 1.

WOLO plans to take full advantage of its new location in the heart of downtown, with sidewalk-level shots of passersby and the State House. “We need to be in the middle of the community,” general manager Chris Bailey said.

The move to Charlotte in 2002 was done primarily to save money, Bailey said.

The Columbia station would have needed about $2 million to convert to a digital broadcast, a change mandated by federal law.

But WOLO owner Bahakel Communications, a family- owned company based in Charlotte, could not absorb the cost as readily as its larger competitors, Bailey said.

So WOLO news broadcasts were moved to another Bahakel-owned station, Charlotte’s WCCB, a Fox affiliate.

“Centralcasting” was touted as a pioneering effort at the time, but the gap in ratings between last-place finisher WOLO and front-runners WIS-10 and WLTX-19 widened.

WOLO had a slight uptick in the ratings this past season, which brought in more ad revenues — and that opened the door for a return. “I don’t think we could have moved back without that ratings improvement,” Bailey said.

Bahakel’s overall financial picture improved, too, which eased the pinch of digital conversions.

The cost-saving move to Charlotte also proved effective. It saved the patient’s life, and now the patient is ready to come home, Bailey said.

WOLO’s news gathering operation never left Columbia, but the anchors were in Charlotte. With the new downtown newsroom, anchors Shania Harris and Dave Stanley and meteorologist Reg Taylor will be in Columbia.

Bailey does not anticipate any changes in on-air personnel, but the station will be “re-branded as ABC Columbia,” Bailey said.

WIS marketing director Barry Ahrendt agreed that WOLO’s move back is an acknowledgment that a local newscast needs to be “seen and heard in the local community.” Ahrendt did not expect WOLO’s move or “street- level” approach to have an impact on how WIS covers the news, but he added, “We keep an eye on what is going on.”

Reach Berman at (803) 771-8417 or pberman@thestate.com.