103.3 WODS officially done with "Oldies?"

[WLYNWAZNgm]

"Oldies?"

Ask 10 people what they consider to be "oldies"
and you will get 10 different answers - depending
on their age group...

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Commercial radio is sponsor driven. The sponsors perception of who they believe their target audience is makes the marketing. They pay for spots on the radio stations that they believe will market their products the most profitably toward the audience demographic that they believe will be the most likely to spend the most money on them. Radio stations adjust their imaging, liners, slogans, etc... to accommodate the sponsors perceptions of who they believe their potential prime customers are. If they don't, the sponsors go to a competing station that will.

If many sponsors feel that the people they picture as being "oldies" fans have become older than the demographic that they believe will spend the most money impulsively on their products, the "oldies" station will drop the word to accommodate them, and become "greatest hits", etc...

The sponsors beliefs about the audience may not necessarily always be correct in reality, but what commercial radio station would argue with a sponsor about that?

 

[KarsonWithaK]

How about a rule that states you can only play music from a particular decade? Maybe Kiss would be currents, Mix would be 90's. Magic could rule the 80's. ZLX the 70's and ODS w/the 60's. I guess you could have four stations for each decade. One for pop, rock, urban and country.

That's already happening with the decades on the HD-2's. WBMX HD-2 is "The '80s Channel", WROR HD-2 is "Nothing But The '70s".

Satellite radio has channels for each decade '50s through '90s.

I think Sirius has/had Pop 2K, a channel for pop from the 2000's.

K~

 

[dhoule]

Actually, it's not true that WODS has wiped "Oldies" off of its web page. If you dig deeper into the site, there's lots of "Oldies" mentions. It will probably take awhile to weed everything out, including on-air slip-ups.

 

[beachguy3b]

Re: "Oldies?"

I have often heard the rule of thumb as follows:
"Oldies" are the stuff that you listened to while you were in
high school, heard 25 years later. The benchmark of what
then qualifies as "oldies" progresses along with the age of
your target audience...

Right, but the perception of the term "oldie" got hung up in association with the demographic that first used it, the '50s/'60s "oldies" generation.

Music will still always cycle back in nostalgia periodically as you mention, but people who want to hear '70s and '80s music don't want it to be called "oldies". That conjures up memories of their now gray-haired parents listening to Elvis, and the sponsors know this.

Nail. On. Head.

Fact is, those 70s oldies are older than the 50s oldies were then the "oldies movement" started. But "oldies" is a genre like country, or rap, or jazz, and it is identified with those 50s/60s tunes.

 

[MickeyD]

Music copyrights in the USA last 99 years. In most of Europe, it's 50 years. IF Great Britian is with the European model, then it would appear as though many Beatles/Stones songs will be up for grabs next decade. - In the USA, with being 99 years, songs are vitually worthless by the time the 99 years is up.

Yes all except the stuff done by the "1910 Fruitgum Company".

 

[DToTheJ]

How about a rule that states you can only play music from a particular decade?

That's already happening with the decades on the HD-2's. WBMX HD-2 is "The '80s Channel", WROR HD-2 is "Nothing But The '70s".

I should point out that "Reunion Radio" has year-by-year playlists. You can access them on the player of any CBS Radio station.

 

[lost45]

>Yes all except the stuff done by the "1910 Fruitgum Company".

I love that group! They had some "Lost 45s" for sure. I mean "Indian Giver" and "Simon Says" are great Top 5 garage/bubblegum rock hits!

Who's to edit what million sellers were in the 60s, 70s and 80s anyway, aside from programmers, lol? I bought "Indian Giver" (a million seller) at 6 years old in 1969 and I fondly remember it more than "Hey Jude."

Barry Scott
The Lost 45s
America's Largest Music & Interview Library, over 650 exclusive artists!
http://lost45.com

 

[beantownradio25]

This format is becoming a harder sell, so they must shift a tad more recent. The original term "Oldies" was used for 50's and 60's music, none of which they play, so this was an appropriate move on their part.

Most of this happened at the end of the summer, but it is official now with the new logo introduction.

Also the RDS display has been saying "103.3 WODS" instead of "OLDIES 103.3" for some time now.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Also the RDS display has been saying "103.3 WODS" instead of "OLDIES 103.3" for some time now.

So what are they calling themselves--Odious 103?

 

[Jimc]

They do in fact play 60s music.

Even later 60s music is old. Woodstock, for example, was 40 years ago.

 

[leegart]

Recently, I'm having trouble telling WODS and WROR apart. WROR is "Classic Hits" and when a text-ready radio receives WODS, the text they are sending is "#1 for the Hits." It seems like they have similar playlists now.

 

[raccoonradio]

Lots of 60s music, incl Beatles. Stuff from 64- early 80s; Men at Work's "Who Can it Be Now?" was on awhile back
followed by 1969's "Na Na Hey Hey" by Steam

 

[leegart]

>Yes all except the stuff done by the "1910 Fruitgum Company".

I love that group! They had some "Lost 45s" for sure. I mean "Indian Giver" and "Simon Says" are great Top 5 garage/bubblegum rock hits!

Don't forget "One Two Three Red Light!"

 

[lost45]

Plus the even better Ohio Express! Yummy Yummy Yummy I Got Love In My Tummy. A pure "Lost 45!"

In depth interview with Boston born Donna Summer on line at http://www.lost45.com right now!

Rare interview with David Gates of Bread Sunday, 7 to Midnight Eastern at 103.3 WODS.

Barry Scott
"The Lost 45s"

 

[kc1ih]

I've listened to "oldies" station WLS-FM in Chicago. I'm not sure if they use the "oldies" name, but they do an excellent presentation of the format. It's too bad Citadel doesn't own an FM in Boston.

 

[ssetta]

I wonder if one of these days, either WODS or WROR will change formats. Probably the least popular of the two. I don't know which one has better ratings.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

I wonder if one of these days, either WODS or WROR will change formats. Probably the least popular of the two. I don't know which one has better ratings.

They were essentially tied in the September 12+, ranked 6th and 7th in the market. Besides tweaking and updating, it doesn't look like there's any pressing need for either company to change the format of either station.

 

[raccoonradio]

Other than a tweak that will probably come soon...all Holiday music. For WODS, definitely.

 

[chitchatjf]

If they were to do a flip Dec 26 would be the day to do it.

I would say no all holiday music till Nov 27th -Watch it happen on nov 4th