Adult standards

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Adult Standards is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations.

Adult Standards is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly those 50 and older, often considerably older. It is primarily on AM because market research reveals that only persons in that age group listen to music on AM in sizable numbers. Adult Standards first became a popular format in the late 1970s and early 1980s as a way to reach mature adults who came of age before the rock era but were perhaps too mature for adult contemporary radio or too young for beautiful music. A typical Adult Standards playlist typically includes big band music, particularly from the 1940s and 1950s, popular music standards by artists such as Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, and some "easy listening" numbers from Roger Whittaker and others. Younger artists who record in a similar style, such as Harry Connick, Jr., may be played as well; some stations will occasionally include former old-time radio series programs such as Fibber McGee & Molly or I Love a Mystery as a change of pace. Many Adult Standards stations air "When Radio Was," a daily old-time radio retrospective currently hosted by Chuck Schaden.

At one time there were several hundred such stations; today, due to changing demographics and the death of many long-time loyal listeners, there are probably only about 200. Many of those stations that do remain have attempted to update their sound to appeal to younger listeners by moving away from big-band music and other pre-1960 material and into soft adult contemporary territory. Only about a handful of Adult Standards stations today are live and locally programmed around-the-clock; many have affiliated with nationally distributed satellite formats to cut costs, as due to advertiser perceptions about the audiences these stations primarily target, a large number of Adult Standards stations have trouble selling airtime to advertisers and are therefore unprofitable. For example, KIXI 880 AM, serving the Seattle market, terminated its local airstaff to affiliate with the Music of Your Life network. Many others have simply dumped the format altogether. Among the stations which once played Adult Standards but dropped the format for talk, sports, or something else seemingly more profitable include WQEW New York, XETRA-AM in Tijuana, KLAC Los Angeles, WXKS Boston, KABL San Francisco, WSAI Cincinnati, KCTC Sacramento, KKJY Albuquerque and KPOP San Diego.

Music Of Your Life is an Adult Standards satellite-delivered format that probably more than any other source currently defines the format. Music of Your Life is distributed by Jones Radio Networks. Westwood One and ABC Radio also have Adult Standards formats distributed via satellite; Westwood One's is called "Adult Standards" (known on-air as "America's Best Music"), and ABC's is known as "Stardust" (known on-air as "Timeless Classics", which was consolidated with another adult standards network owned by ABC, "Memories"/"Unforgettable Favorites", in 2006). (Westwood One originally called its format "AM Only" and for a time, as the name suggests, offered the format only to AM stations; today, a handful of FM stations also air Westwood One's format.) While Music of Your Life has not yet eliminated all of the big-band and traditional pop music from its playlist, Westwood One and ABC have dropped much of the older music in favor of softer pop and rock oldies from the 1960s and 1970s Top 40 era and a good deal of soft AC material as well.

Artists typically heard on Adult Standards radio stations may include the following:


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