WOSA (101.1 FM) is a

non-commercial educational A non-commercial educational station (NCE station) is a radio station or television station that does not accept on-air advertisements (TV ads or radio ads), as defined in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and was or ...

radio station licensed to

Grove City, Ohio Grove City is a city in Franklin County, Ohio, Franklin County, Ohio, United States which was founded in 1852. It is a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus. The population was 41,252 according to the 2020 Census. History Until the mid-19th century, ...

, featuring a

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

format known as "Classical 101fm". Owned by the Ohio State University, the station serves

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

and much of the surrounding Columbus metro area, extending its reach into

Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market tow ...

, Marion and Southern Ohio with four full-power repeaters. The WOSA studios are located at the Fawcett Center on the Ohio State University campus, while the station transmitter resides off of Borror Road in Lockbourne. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WOSA is available online. It is one of a few non-commercial stations in the United States to broadcast outside of its recommended frequency range (88-92 MHz).

History

WWCD (1990–2010)

WWCD began broadcasting on August 21, 1990. The first song played on the station was "Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, (Petrol)" by the

Dublin, Ireland Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 cen ...

band

Something Happens Something Happens are an Irish pop-rock band whose heyday was the late 1980s and early 1990s. The band's lineup consists of Tom Dunne (Vocals), Ray Harman (Guitar), Alan Byrne (Bass) and Eamonn Ryan (Drums). An earlier incarnation of the band ...

. The station was long owned by Fun With Radio, LLC., whose founder, Roger Vaughn, purchased the station from Video Services in 1992. WWCD and its successor station, WWCD (102.5 FM), has always been either owned or operated by interests in metro Columbus, and is one of the few remaining

independent radio Independent radio indicates a radio station that is run in a manner different from usual for the country it broadcasts in. In countries where there exist government-run radio stations that served as the primary or only the variety of licensed broa ...

stations in the U.S. playing alternative rock. WWCD also lays claim to being one of the first stations in the United States to be simulcast and on Internet radio. In a March 2006

Radio & Records ''Radio & Records'' (''R&R'') was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It started as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006 and became a relaunched sister ...

list of the top 20 alternative rock radio stations in the United States, WWCD was ranked #4 in the country and #1 east of the Mississippi River. WWCD's longtime program director throughout the late 1990s and 2000s was afternoon DJ Andy "Andyman" Davis. With the station almost since its inception, Davis previously served as the station's music director. Davis died of a suspected heart attack while on vacation in Michigan with his family on July 18, 2010. The annual "Andyman-a-Thon" also continues in his name.

2010 "frequency shift"

Ohio State University, under licensee WOSU Public Media, announced a $4.8 million purchase of WWCD from Fun With Radio, LLC. on June 30, 2010. At the same time, Fun With Radio entered into a

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...

with the WHIZ Media Group to take over programming on WCVZ (102.5 FM) in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...

immediately, with a future option for purchase. Although generally reported and regarded as a "frequency shift" for WWCD, Fun With Radio took over programming and operations of WCVZ; changed the station's format from country to alternative as a direct simulcast of WWCD; and rebranded the station as "CD101 @ 102.5". The purchase of the original WWCD was consummated that December 14. WOSU Public Media then changed WWCD's callsign to WOSA; changed the station's format to

; and rebranded the station as "Classical 101fm". Concurrently, WCVZ's callsign was changed to WWCD.

WOSA (2010–present)

WOSA's roots date back to WOSU-FM's long history as a classical outlet, airing the format on a full-time basis from 1980 until 2008 as a complement to WOSU, which would air more traditional public radio fare. Starting on January 14, 2008, WOSU-FM switched to a mixed news/classical format, introducing NPR news magazines during morning and evening drive-times along with assorted NPR and PRI weekend programs. Many of these programs were simulcast with its AM sister station WOSU, which still programmed a separate news/talk format. As a result, WOSU established a 24-hour all classical music service on its HD-2 HD Radio stream and on it
web site
Upon WOSA's establishment, it assumed WOSU-FM's 24-hour HD-2 and internet-only all

service on a full-time basis, operating as a non-commercial station. In addition, WOSU-FM's format changed to news/talk as a simulcast with WOSU (subsequently divested). WOSU also converted four repeater stations for WOSU-FM—WOSB in Marion, WOSE in Coshocton, WOSP in Portsmouth and WOSV in

—to repeaters of WOSA. In particular, WOSB and WOSV serve areas north of Columbus that are not served well by the new 101.1 frequency

Programming

Repeaters

WOSA also extends its signal via full-power satellites WOSE Coshocton (91.1 FM), WOSB Marion (91.1 FM), WOSP Portsmouth (91.5 FM), and WOSV

(91.7 FM).

References

External links

* ; Repeaters * * * * {{NPR Ohio Classical music radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 2010 Ohio State Buckeyes media Ohio State University

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NPR member stations