I’d like to thank the artist Prince (btw—his real first name) for making the decision to forsake that name and go by a symbol between 1993 and 2000. The symbol was unique and of course did not have a sound associated with it although there was a spelling of it: O(+> which was really an emoticon that falls way south in popularity behind 😉
Any singer has to promote albums and such but no one could pronounce the symbol, this left media hosts needing to say something before introducing him. I remember David Letterman holding up the symbol to announce his musical guest that night—he made fun of it but you could tell it was awkward. I guess it was someone in the media who first coined “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.” It was accurate, fulfilled his wish to not be called Prince yet identified the viewer as to who they were about to see.
[asset|aid=410|format=image|formatter=asset|title=CSS01.jpg|width=300|height=252|resizable=true|align=right]Departments in large companies do not just go around changing their names on a whim. But when the duties of a department change over time, then a name change might be necessary. Introducing our newest department: Customer Support & Services! Can you guess their old name? Reservations. Can you guess what many Employees have been calling the group? Yep, “The Department Formerly Known as Reservations.” Partly as a tribute to “The Artist” as he was sometimes called, and partly because we are not used to saying Customer Support & Services or even CS&S. We will get there, just as people got used to calling Prince something different.
On this episode of Red Belly Radio, I speak with Tammy Shafer about the change and how the Employees’ jobs have changed. One thing will stay the same, the phone number to contact Southwest Airlines 800 435 9792 which spells 800 I Fly SWA. Program it in your phone now so you will have it when you need it.
Photo: T-shirt showing the dates of all of the Reservations centers' opening dates.
