Music radio

Music radio is a radio format where music is the primary source of broadcast content on both commercial and non-commercial stations. After the rise of television brought about the decline of old time radio and its dramatic content, music formats became one of the dominant forms of radio in many countries, though radio drama and comedy continues, often on public radio. Music has been one of the driving factors in the advancement of radio technology, from the adoption of wide-band FM to the current upswing in digital media.

Music formats

Some well-known music-radio formats are Top 40, Freeform Rock and AOR (Album Oriented Rock). It turns out that most other stations (such as Rhythm & Blues) use a variation of one of these formats with a different playlist.

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See List of music radio formats for further details, and note that there is a great deal of format evolution as music tastes and commercial conditions change. For example, the Beautiful music format that developed into today's Easy listening and Soft rock formats is nearly extinct due to a lack of interest from younger generations, whereas classic rock has become popular over the last 20 years or so and Jack FM has arisen only since 2000 or so.

Related Topics:
List of music radio formats - Beautiful music - Easy listening - Soft rock - Classic rock - Jack FM

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Top 40

The original formulaic music radio format was Top 40. In this format, disc-jockeys would select one of a set of the forty best-selling singles (usually in a rack) as rated by Billboard magazine or from the station's own chart of the local top selling songs. In general, the more aggressive "Top 40" stations could sometimes be better described as "Top 20" stations. They would aggressively skirt listener boredom to play only the most popular singles.

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Top 40 radio would punctuate the music with jingles, promotions, gags, call-ins, and requests, brief news, time and weather announcements and most importantly, advertising. The distinguishing mark of a traditional top-40 station was the use of a hyperexcited disc-jockey, and high tempo jingles. The format was invented in the US and today can be heard world wide. Todd Storz and Gordon McLendon invented Top 40 radio. Bill Drake and Rick Sklar have had a lasting modern influence. This is an excellent, brief history of the format..

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Variants and hybrids include the freeform-like Jack FM (mentioned below under Freeform Rock) and the "Mix" formats mentioned below under Oldies. Top 40 music is heavily criticized by some music fans as being repetitive and of low quality, and is almost exclusively dominated by large media conglomerates such as Clear Channel Communications and Viacom. Top 40 tends to be underrepresented on the Internet, being mostly the domain of commercial broadcasters such as Virgin Radio UK.

Related Topics:
Jack FM - Clear Channel Communications - Viacom - Virgin Radio UK

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Some of the most famous Top 40 stations of have been Musicradio 77 WABC/New York, Boss Radio 93 KHJ-AM/Los Angeles Musicradio 89 WLS/Chicago and

Related Topics:
WABC - New York - KHJ-AM - Los Angeles - WLS - Chicago

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The Big 68 WRKO/Boston.

Related Topics:
WRKO - Boston

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Freeform rock

A later development was "freeform" Rock, later commercially developed as AOR (Album-Oriented Rock), in which selections from an album would be played together, with an appropriate introduction.

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Traditional freeform rock stations prided themselves on offering their disc-jockeys freedom to play significant music and make significant social commentary and humor. This approach developed commercial problems because disc-jockeys attracted to this freedom often had tastes substantially different from the audience, and lost audience share. Also, freeform rock stations could lack predictability, and listeners' loyalty could then be put at risk.

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Responsible jocks would realize their responsibility to the audience to produce a pleasant show, and try to keep the station sound predictable by listening to other jocks, and repeating some of their music selections.

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At their best, freeform stations have never been equalled for their degree of social activism, programmatic freedom, and listener involvement. However, to succeed, the approach requires genius jocks, totally in-tune with their audience, who are also committed to the commercial success of the radio station. This is a rare combination of traits. Even if such people are available, they often command extremely high salaries. However, this may be an effective approach for a new station, if talented jocks can be recruited and motivated at low salaries.

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Freeform radio is particularly popular as a college radio format; offshoots include the recent (and somewhat controversial, due to its lack of on-air personalities) eclectic-pop format known as Jack FM from its first practitioner, which plays a wide assortment of mostly top-40 music from a span of several decades; and podcast radio, a mostly-talk format pioneered by Infinity Broadcasting's KYOU station in California and Adam Curry's Podcast show on Sirius satellite radio.

Related Topics:
Jack FM - Podcast - KYOU - Sirius satellite radio

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AOR (Album-Oriented Rock)

AOR (Album-Oriented Rock) developed as a commercial compromise between top-forties-style formulas and freeform rock. A program director or music consultant would select some set of music "standards" and require the playlist to be followed, perhaps in an order selected by the jock. The jock would still introduce each selection, but the jock would have available a scripted introduction to use if he was not personally familiar with a particular piece of music and its artist. Obviously a computer helps a lot in this process.

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A wonderful, relatively safe compromise with the artistic freedom of the jocks is that a few times each hour, usually in the least commecially valuable slots of the hour, the disc-jockey can highlight new tracks that he or she thinks might interest the audience. The audience is encouraged to comment on the new tracks, allowing the station to track audience tastes.

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Significant AOR offshoots include classic rock and adult album alternative.

Related Topics:
Classic rock - Adult album alternative

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Oldies, Standards, and Classic rock

Not playing new artists has been described as a weakness of classic rock or oldies formats. This is true in a creative but not a commercial sense. Stations will not get good ratings if they frequently play songs unfamiliar to their audience. This is why "Top 40" stations played only the biggest hits and why oldies and classic rock formats do the same for the eras they cover. Nevertheless, there seems to be a cottage industry of Internet stations specializing in specific forms of classic rock and oldies, particularly psychedelic rock and progressive rock.

Related Topics:
Classic rock - Oldies - Psychedelic rock - Progressive rock

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The oldies and classic rock formats have a strong niche market, but as the audience becomes older the station becomes less attractive to advertisers. Advertisers perceive older listeners as set in their brand choices and not as responsive to advertising as younger, more impulsive listeners. Oldies stations must occasionally change to more youthful music formats; as a result, the definition of what constitutes an "oldies" station has gradually changed over the years.

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This preference for younger listeners caused the decline of the "Big Band" or "Standards" music formats that covered music from the 1930s to the 1950s. As the audience grew too old for advertisers, the radio stations that carried these formats saw a sharp loss of ratings and revenue. This left them with no choice but to adopt more youthful formats, though the Standards format (also known as the Great American Songbook from the series of albums produced by rocker Rod Stewart) has undergone something of an off-air revival, with artists such as Stewart, Tony Bennett and Queen Latifah putting their own interpretation on the music.

Related Topics:
1930s - 1950s - Great American Songbook - Rod Stewart - Tony Bennett - Queen Latifah

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A variation on the classic rock radio format was "classic hits" -- a loosely-defined mixture of blues, reggae, folk-rock, pop music, rock 'n' roll between the mid-1950s and 1990, with hard rock/heavy metal music between the late-1960s and 1990 -- began to appear across the United States and Canada, which were both part of North America.

Related Topics:
Radio format - Blues - Reggae - Folk-rock - Pop music - Rock 'n' roll - 1950s - 1990 - Hard rock - Heavy metal - 1960s - United States - Canada - North America

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During the mid-to-late-90's, the "Mix" format -- a loosely-defined mixture of Top-40 and classic rock with something of an emphasis on adult contemporary music -- began to appear across the country. While the format has no particular standard identity, most "mix" stations have rotations consisting largely of pop and rock music from the 80's and 90's (and often the 70's), with some current material mixed in. In addition, stations devoted to the pop music of the 70's, 80's, and 90's on their own have developed as the audiences that grew up with that music grew older and nostalgic for the sounds of their youth.

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Classical, pop, easy-listening, jazz, dance

These formats all have small but very loyal audiences in the largest markets. Most follow formats similar to the above (Top 40s, Freeform, AOR and Oldies), except with a different playlist. Public service stations following these formats tend to be "freeform" stations.

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Classical music radio is just as it sounds -- radio designed to appeal to the listener of classical music. Most classical stations specialize primarily in instrumental classical music and chamber music, though there are more special interest classical stations (often found through media such as satellite radio or internet radio) that carry classical pop music or operatic music.

Related Topics:
Classical music - Satellite radio - Internet radio

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Easy listening and Adult Contemporary are related formats that play largely down-tempo pop music of various styles. The difference is mostly in the era and styles covered -- Easy Listening is mostly older music done in the style of standards from the early 20th century (typical artists include Johnny Mathis and Frank Sinatra) combined with Big Band music and more modern performers in the same style such as Celine Dion and Josh Groban, while Adult Contemporary focuses more on newer pop music from the 1970s on. An ancestor to the easy listening format is Beautiful Music, a now-rare format (though XM features one channel of it, called Sunny) focusing mostly on smooth jazz or classical arrangements of pop music and original compositions in a similar vein.

Related Topics:
Easy listening - Adult Contemporary - Johnny Mathis - Frank Sinatra - Big Band - Beautiful Music

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Jazz stations generally play either traditional jazz forms or smooth jazz. The jazz station, more than any other except the college station, is stereotyped as having a small listenership and a somewhat overly highbrow on-air personality, and many are college-run stations. California State University Long Beach sponsors KJAZZ 88.1, which has a fairly significant online listenership as well.

Related Topics:
Jazz - Smooth jazz

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Dance music is a niche, and so-called "rhythmic pop" stations have had a fierce but not always commercially sustainable following. There was a wide spectrum of disco-format radio stations during the late 70's, but virtually all of them died out during the disco backlash; WXKS in Boston is one of the few notable survivors, now a Clear Channel Communications-owned top-40 station of considerable influence. Nevertheless there are a large number of dance music stations available both on the internet and on satellite radio, mostly specializing in various forms of electronica. Both major US satellite radio services include disco stations.

Related Topics:
Disco backlash - WXKS - Clear Channel Communications - Electronica

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Alternative and Modern Rock

Rock music has a long and honorable radio tradition going back to DJs like Wolfman Jack and Alan Freed, and as a result variations on rock radio are fairly common. The classic rock and oldies formats are discussed above; in addition to those, however, there are several genres of music radio devoted to different aspects of modern rock music. Alternative rock grew out of the grunge scene of the late 80's and early 90's and is particularly favored by college radio and adult album alternative stations; there is a strong focus on songwriters and bands with an outsider sound or a more sophisticated sound than the "three chord wonder" cliche. Meanwhile, other stations focus on heavy metal, punk rock, or the various post-punk and pop-influenced sounds known collectively as "modern rock".

Related Topics:
Rock music - Wolfman Jack - Alan Freed - Classic rock - Adult album alternative - Heavy metal - Punk rock

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Narrow-interest rock stations are particularly common on the Internet and satellite radio scenes, broken down into genres such as punk, metal, classic rock, indie music, and the like. There is a general feeling among radio connoisseurs that rock radio is becoming badly watered down by big corporate ownership, leading to a considerable do-it-yourself spirit.

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Country Music

While stereotyped as rural music, the Country format is common and popular throughout the United States and in some other countries. Emphasis is generally on current pop country, though stations specializing in older country music have popped up here and there. Country has been a popular radio format since the early days of music radio.

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Urban (Hip-Hop/R&B)

The explosive rise in popularity during the 1980s of rap music has led to a large number of radio stations specializing in rap/hip-hop and R&B music (with the exception of classic R&B such as Motown, which is as often as not the province of Oldies stations). The genre is euphemistically referred to as "urban" due to the fact that the styles it represents are largely developed from the street and underground music of urban American blacks in the 1970s, though the music itself has considerable popularity (and controversy, due to its often nihilistic and hedonistic themes) among all ethnic groups and social classes.

Related Topics:
Rap music - Motown

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Public Radio formats

Some music radio is broadcast by public service organizations, such as NPR or the BBC. These usually resemble freeform stations, with particular programs for different types of music. More popular formats get more popular hours. The Avant-garde programs tend to be pushed to the late night and early morning slots.

Related Topics:
NPR - BBC

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There is a vast variety in the formats used in public broadcasting; while the American form (represented largely by National Public Radio and Public Radio International is generally thought of being dry and academic, public broadcasters in other countries have more variety in their programming; the BBC, for example, has eleven national or international radio stations in English alone (five of which are devoted primarily to music), with roughly another fifty regional and local stations. Public radio music formats tend to be grouped into broad genres, with most public broadcasters offering at least a pop station (such as Ireland's RTE 2fm) and a classical/jazz station.

Related Topics:
Public broadcasting - National Public Radio - Public Radio International - RTE

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In addition, college radio stations often operate as public broadcasters.

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Promotional usages

Music radio is also a means of promoting other enterprises, such as a record label or ad-hoc music events in which the broadcaster(s) have a commercial interest. The majority of music radio stations in the United States and Canada are commercial stations that sell advertising to pay for their facilities and transmitters; in addition, many of the larger stations run promotional events such as dance nights, concerts, and even (in the case of some larger stations) entire music festivals. On-air contests and giveaways are common features, as are philanthropic programs (usually charitable promotions run during holiday seasons).

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Song picking

Music radio has been helped by the development of semi-automated song-picker programs. Basically, these present the disc-jockey with a list of commercially-acceptable music selections, and other items for the current time slot. These give the disc-jockey some artistic freedom to select songs, promotions, jingles, etc., and yet still assure a cohesive station "sound" and good audience satisfaction. They also reduce a disc-jockey's workload, allowing him or her to develop news items, run the station, prepare gags, or take call-ins while a song is playing. The employer may as a result reduce staffing levels and thus trim overhead costs.

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