Mobile radio listeners with a taste for the country legends now have a dial position of their own. The locally owned Sound of Mobile group has flipped 92.5 FM to a classic country format branded as “92.5 The Bandit,” trading the soul and R&B programming that occupied the frequency for years in favor of the genre’s most familiar voices.
Matt McCoy, a longtime DJ and radio personality with the Sound of Mobile, said the idea came together when the team realized older country music was not getting the attention it deserved in a market like the Gulf Coast.
“We asked ourselves, ‘What’s missing?’” McCoy said. “Legendary country!”
A week of stunting, then a flip
The change did not happen quietly. For about a week before the new format debuted, the station cycled through a series of loops and stunts that left regular listeners guessing — a stretch that included a day of Mardi Gras music and another devoted to musical theater tracks before the station finally revealed its new identity on Aug. 10.
The Bandit broadcasts on 92.5 FM, a signal licensed to Saraland, and is also carried on the HD3 subchannel of 92.1 WZEW, extending its reach across the Mobile and Baldwin County listening area. Listeners who prefer to stream can download the free Sound of Mobile app, which carries the group’s full lineup of stations on a phone.
Strictly the classics
McCoy said The Bandit is not a typical country station, and the distinction is the point. Where many contemporary country outlets lean heavily on current chart music, The Bandit will strictly feature the classics — distancing itself from the more modern country sound that McCoy said dominates the radio dial.
The playlist leans on legends such as Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire and Hank Williams, alongside the wider canon of country music’s golden era. Station materials promise the same broad mix, from Dolly Parton and George Strait to Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Brooks & Dunn, Alan Jackson, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn and Randy Travis.
“Generations of people still listen to this music, so there’s a need for it,” McCoy said.
Why the format changed
The Soul, the station’s previous identity, had spent years playing rhythm and blues in a market where the format was already well served. McCoy noted that local stations such as 107.3 The Beat and 93 BLX have long played similar music, and the broadcasting group wanted to give local listeners something different rather than a third voice in a crowded lane.
The country flip answers that math. Classic country has performed well in small and mid-sized Southern markets in recent years, drawing an audience of longtime listeners who grew up with the format as well as younger listeners discovering the genre’s catalog through streaming. By staking out the classic side of the format exclusively, Sound of Mobile positions 92.5 to serve listeners other stations in the market do not target.
Honoring a founder’s legacy
There is a personal note behind the change as well. McCoy said the team wanted to honor the late Tim Camp, a founder of the Sound of Mobile who passed away in 2025, by continuing to evolve and give the Gulf Coast the music it needs. Camp was a fixture of Mobile radio for decades, and his fingerprints remain on the group’s identity more than a year after his death.
Fulfilling that wish, McCoy said, is part of what The Bandit is meant to do: keep the locally owned group’s stations evolving rather than standing still.
How to listen
The Bandit is on the air now at 92.5 FM. Listeners can also access the station, along with the rest of the Sound of Mobile lineup, through the group’s free smartphone app, which streams every station in the group over a data connection.
For a market that already supports a deep bench of locally programmed stations, the arrival of a dedicated classic country outlet adds one more homegrown option — and brings a sound that many listeners on the Gulf Coast grew up with back to daily radio.