Retiring the term "oldies"

[Shawn Mamros]

>Well, if Viacom retires the word "oldies," what becomes of the WODS calls?
>ODS stands for oldies. Will the calls change, or will Viacom drive a new
>meaning under the existing calls? [...]

Do the calls really matter much on that station?  Last time I listened
to it (admittedly, a while ago), the only time the calls were used OTA was
for the top-of-the-hour Drake-style jingle which serves as their legal ID.
The average regular listener might not even know the calls if you asked
them; they're likely to only know "Oldies 103.3".

Which brings up another point... Since they use "Oldies 103.3" as the
identifier for virtually *everything* they do, right down to their
website's domain name, it would be awfully odd for them to drop "oldies"
from their name, unless they're actually changing format.  Other Viacom
"oldies" stations that don't use "Oldies" in their identifier (e.g.,
WCBS-FM, which was going by "CBS-FM" last time I heard them) could
easily drop use of the word without much notice, but when it's such
a core part of the station's identity as it is here, it would seem like
an awfully risky move.  And if there's anything today's radio execs
can't stand, it's risk.

Then again, much stranger things have happened in this biz.  Guess
we'll have to wait and see...

-Shawn Mamros
E-mail to: mamros@mit.edu