True Oldies 98.9 will become Good Time Oldies June 28.
Will there be much of a difference? On the surface, no. The Good Time Oldies format has a heavy emphasis on the 1960s and 1970s (85%) with a cut or two an hour from the 1950s and 1980s. That isn't markedly different from True Oldies.
Core artists include the Beatles, the Temptations, Three Dog Night, Fleetwood Mac, Chicago and the Supremes.
But you won't have legendary radio broadcaster Scott Shannon at the helm, both on air and behind the scenes picking the music.
Atlanta-based Cumulus Media, which now owns syndicated service Westwood One, created Good Time Oldies in late April and announced it was dropping True Oldies, owned and hosted by Shannon.
Shannon, who was on the old top 40 station Quixie in Dixie 790/WQXI-AM in the 1970s, started True Oldies in 2004 and is heard on 100 stations nationwide. Locally, it aired in 2008-2009 on 106.7 (now NewsRadio 106.7) and returned on Atlanta airwaves last year at 98.9.
Shannon in the spring was cut from adult pop station WPLJ-FM in New York, owned by Cumulus, and moved to New York's most popular station, oldies station WCBS-FM at 101.1 as morning host. Ratings for that station, which plays mostly 1970s and 1980s music now, are up since Shannon arrived.
WCBS used to focus much of its time on music from the 1960s but it now plays maybe one cut an hour from that era and it's frequently a Beatles song.
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