WINC-FM in Winchester, Virginia, has long been one of my favorite stations. I listened to them in the early ’80s when I was still dreaming about a career in radio. My friend Paula worked there for many years and I would often tune in to hear her.
Nowadays, I look forward to picking up the signal when my wife and I drive north on I-81 to visit family in Northern Virginia, as we did this weekend. We also listened on Sunday as we left the area to drive home.
One of WINC’s slogans says they play music from “the ’90s and now.” Like a lot of stations, their definition of “now” is pretty loose. Today I heard them play “Hanging by a Moment,” which was a huge hit for Lifehouse in 2001. As I pointed out on Twitter, the year 2001 is neither in the ’90s or now.
They say @925WINCFM plays music from "the '90s and now," but I heard a @lifehouse song from 2001, which is neither.
— Frank Murphy (@FrankMurphyCom) August 3, 2014
The radio industry has struggled with what to call the years since 2000. Calling the century’s first decade “the aughts” makes you sound like you’re an old-timer. Calling it “the Two-Thousands” doesn’t seem specific enough as it sounds like you’re referring to the whole century. That’s why so many stations refer to the past 14 years as “today” or “now.” I think enough time has passed that those stations need to update their terminology.
