Episode 101.1/102.5/92.9: Randy Malloy of Ohio’s last indie radio station

In 1991, Randy Malloy started as an unpaid college intern at WWCD-FM in Columbus, an independent, alternative rock radio station cut from the same cloth as 97X. He held a variety of positions at the station, including promotions director, marketing director, and operations director. In 2011, Randy purchased the station. Together with a dedicated band of staffers, they kept the independent/alternative flame alive for 33 years as the station moved around the radio dial from 101.1 (“CD101”) to 102.5 to 92.9 before eventually signing off on February 1st of this year.

We talked to Randy about his “Ran-sanity” career, how they looked up to 97X, how they programmed the music to let the listeners “pass through them” and why being part of the community was so important to them.

“No one told us that we couldn’t.”

Randy’s passion for the station and the community is patently obvious. Unfortunately, the station went off the air earlier this year when Randy couldn’t reach a workable financial agreement with the station’s corporate owners.

Headline above is from this article in the Columbus Navigator.

Much like 97X, WWCD-FM has a fond place in the hearts of music lovers who craved something more satisfying than mainstream music.

“And yet you could tune in to this radio station where they were playing The Cure and T. Rex and Adrian Belew and Marshall Crenshaw and Siouxsie and the Banshees, and all this other stuff that you couldn’t hear unless you owned the records.” 

— Columbus poet/author Maggie Smith, from the March 2024 Columbus Monthly article by Dan Williamson

Like 97X/woxy.com, the station had several brushes with going off the air, somehow surviving… until earlier this year.

Ultimately, what killed WWCD is what made its existence so unlikely back in 1990: Independent radio is more of a labor of love than a business strategy.  

— from the March 2024 Columbus Monthly article by Dan Williamson

[Photo credit: Tim Johnson/Columbus Monthly]