
Retro Pop Radio
Pro Radio Demo Top Music Radio
Country radio stations come in a wide variety of formats. The most common is mainstream country, which follows the basic format of contemporary hit radio in that the current top 40 hits on the country record charts serve as the core playlist, with select recurrents from the past 15 years rounding out the format. Hot country stations focus almost exclusively on top 40 country hits, with occasional acoustic pop hits from outside the country genre. Adult country formats follow a pattern similar to the adult contemporary music format: a few hits, while mostly focused on songs in recurrent rotation from the past 30 years and maintaining a sound similar to that of mainstream country outlets. Classic country stations, increasingly rare in their original form, play only older music; much like other “classic” formats such as oldies/classic hits and classic rock, the eras from which classic country has drawn its music has slowly drifted in real time. Traditional country uses classic country as its base while maintaining some current or recurrent hits that fit the classic country sound. Americana is a loosely defined country radio format that is less focused on hits and thus more willing to play bluegrass, alt-country and regional acts whose commercial performance would not warrant being played on a mainstream country station; Americana stations do not always self-identify as country. In terms of driving the mainstream popularity of hit country songs within the music industry, “country radio” typically encompasses only mainstream country and hot country stations. As a side note, mainstream Country stations in the UK are a rare occurrence, however as for internet radio which is what we are concerned about here, there are plenty that would be interested in your show.
Active Rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across the United States and Canada. Active rock stations play a balance of new hard rock songs with valued classic rock favourites, normally with an emphasis on the harder edge of mainstream rock and album-oriented rock.
Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid-1990s, primarily focusing on commercially successful blues rock and hard rock popularised in the 1970s AOR format. The radio format became increasingly popular with the baby boomer demographic by the end of the 1990s
Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s with the likes of the grunge, shoegaze, and Britpop subgenres in the United States and United Kingdom, respectively. During this period, many record labels were looking for “alternatives”, as many corporate rock, hard rock, and glam metal acts from the 1980s were beginning to grow stale throughout the music industry.
Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularised by MTV in the early 1980s and the nostalgia behind it is a major driver to the format. It is considered the successor to the oldies format, a collection of top 40 songs from the late 1950s through the late 1970s that was once extremely popular in the United States and Canada. The term is sometimes incorrectly used as a synonym for the adult hits format, which uses a slightly newer music library stretching from all decades to the present with a major focus on 1990s and 2000s pop, rock and alternative songs. In addition, adult hits stations tend to have larger playlists, playing a given song only a few times per week, compared to the tighter libraries on classic hits stations.
Adult album alternative (also triple-A, AAA, or adult alternative) is a radio format. Its roots trace to both the “classic album stations of the ’70s as well as the alternative rock format that developed in the ’80s. The format has a broader, more diverse playlist than most other formats. Musical selection tends to be on the fringe of mainstream pop and rock. It also includes many other music genres such as indie rock, Americana, pop rock, classic rock, alternative rock, new wave, alternative country, jazz, folk, world music, jam band and blues. The musical selections tend to avoid hard rock and rap music. Music selection also includes tracks from albums that are not singles, which leads to the enhanced and larger playlist. Some AAA outlets focus more on classic rock artists, folk and blues while others focus on more contemporary artists and modern/indie rock.
Christian radio refers to Christian media radio formats that focus on Christian religious broadcasting or various forms of Christian music. Many such formats and programs include contemporary Christian music, gospel music, sermons, radio dramas, as well as news and talk shows covering popular culture, economics, and political topics from a Christian perspective
Predominantly plays jazz music and jazz standards in any of its forms, mainstream, traditional, fusion, acid, and smooth, among others.
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, interviews with guests, and/or listener participation which may be live conversations between the host and listeners who “call in ” (usually via telephone) or via voicemail. Listener contributions are usually screened by a show’s producers to maximise audience interest and, in the case of commercial talk radio, to attract advertisers.
Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely of Black genres such as R&B, pop-rap, quiet storm, urban adult contemporary, hip hop, Latin music such as Latin pop, Chicano R&B and Chicano rap, and Caribbean music such as reggae and soca. Urban contemporary was developed through the characteristics of genres such as R&B and soul.
Contemporary hit radio (also known as CHR, contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format that is common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts. There are several subcategories, dominantly focusing on rock, pop, or urban music. Used alone, CHR most often refers to the CHR-pop format. The term contemporary hit radio was coined in the early 1980s by Radio & Records magazine to designate Top 40 stations which continued to play hits from all musical genres as pop music splintered into Adult contemporary, Urban contemporary, Contemporary Christian and other formats.
The term “top 40” is also used to refer to the actual list of hit songs, and, by extension, to refer to pop music in general. The term has also been modified to describe top 50; top 30; top 20; top 10; hot 100 (each with its number of songs) and hot hits radio formats, but carrying more or less the same meaning. The format became especially popular in the mid-sixties as radio stations constrained disc jockeys to numbered playlists in the wake of the payola scandal.
These types of shows can be a change from the traditional music format and can include travel, technology, history, drama and showbiz news. It’s more likely that these topics and formats will be covered by Podcasts today and they are less likely to be heard on an internet radio station.
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet storm and rock influence. Adult contemporary is generally a continuation of the easy listening and soft rock style that became popular in the 1960s and 1970s with some adjustments that reflect the evolution of pop/rock music.
An AC radio station may play mainstream music, but it usually excludes hip hop, house/techno or electronic dance music and some forms of dance-pop and teen pop, as these are less popular among adults, the target demographic. AC radio often targets the 25–44 age group, the demographic that has received the most attention from advertisers since the 1960s. A common practice in recent years of adult contemporary stations is to play less newer music and more hits of the past, even some songs that never even charted the AC charts. This de-emphasis on new songs slows the progression of the AC chart
Those were the main types of traditional radio station formats and virtually any show can find a home in one of those categories. The popularity of internet radio has meant that these traditional formats are changing online. In reality you can do pretty much what you want online and you don’t have to follow any strict production rules. However there are further considerations to think about, and here I’m talking in particular about your show and if it’s a music based show, your choice of music.
In radio terms, popular music is split into two categories as follows:
Gold (Oldies/Retros/Classics/Throwbacks)
Currents (Today’s Hits)
There isn’t anything else, either it’s a Gold song, or it’s a Current hit song. That’s easy, but how you manage those two choices is very important particularly for a station as a whole. But let’s think about your show. For example, if it’s an 80s show that’s easy, it will be all Gold songs. But imagine if your show mixed the two categories and you played 14 songs an hour. The ratio of Gold to Current is critical to defining the sound of your show. Think how different these two shows would sound, one played 10 Gold records and 4 Currents, the other played 10 Currents and 4 Gold.
That was just a very brief overview of some considerations to think about particularly around the music choices for your show. The choice and ratio of music is critical to defining your show and ultimately where it fits into the many station formats. But fear not, whatever you do, if you do it well there are plenty of internet radio stations that will love to take your show, including Retro Pop Radio.
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