It was made famous in the film “Rain Man” and owned by Doug and Linda Balough, who sold the Class A FM heard in Cincinnati and Dayton in 2004 for $5.6 million. It then passed through several owners before landing with Roland Medrano‘s Lazo Media in a deal announced in November 2018.
Now, nearly six years later, Medrano is selling the station to none other than the iconic radio industry figure known professionally as Randy Michaels.
In a transaction that sees Aaron Shainis of Shainis & Peltzman serve as the seller’s legal counsel, Lazo Media is selling WOXY-FM 97.7, today licensed to Mason, Ohio and with a transmitter in Middletown, halfway between the Cincinnati and Dayton listening areas.
Michaels is acquiring what is today regional Mexican as “La Mega 97.7” through his Radioactive LLC enterprise, with Melissa G. Repp of Repp Law Firm has his legal counsel.
Paperwork filed on Wednesday with the FCC reflects Michaels’ legal name, Benjamin Homel.
He’s paying $1.8 million for the FM.
A $90,000 escrow deposit is being held by Shainis & Peltzman on behalf of Medrano.
What will happen to the principal voice en español for Spanish-language audiences in the Miami Valley and south to Cincinnati? That’s not yet known.
RBR+TVBR reached out to Michaels just before Wednesday’s editorial deadline for details on what his plans may be for WOXY. Radioactive LLC’s other stations are comprised of WBLH-FM in Black River, N.Y.; WKFC-FM in North Corbin, Ky.; and WPBK-FM in Crab Orchard, Ky. The stations are operated by other entities via lease management agreements.
Lazo acquired WOXY in a transaction that also included WVKO-AM 1580 in Columbus, Ohio for $2.5 million.
From 1981 through May 2004, WOXY was “97X,” run by Doug and Linda Balough. They purchased the station for $375,000 and adopted a New Rock format in September 1983. became famous after its incorporation into the 1988 Barry Levinson-lensed “Rain Man,” featuring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise.
In 2009, WOXY formally relocated from Oxford to Mason, as part of an effort to improve its reception in greater Cincinnati.
“La Mega” has been on WOXY since November 2011.
For Michaels, owning a radio station serving the Cincinnati market brings him full circle, as he was hired in 1975 to serve as Program Director of WKRQ; he adopted the “Q102” moniker that continues today under Hubbard Radio ownership. By October 1976, Michaels was a rising talent within Taft Broadcasting. But, he’d soon end up across town at WLW-AM 700, the Crosley (later AVCO) giant that would serve as the first station in Michaels-led Jacor Broadcasting — today a segment of iHeartMedia.
