Radio format focused on traditional pop and easy listening music
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Adult standards" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR(February 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Adult standards (also sometimes known as the nostalgia or Big Band format[1]) is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations.
Adult standards started in the 1950s and is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly those people over 50 years of age,[2] but it is mostly targeted for senior citizens. 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 or MOR stations. A typical adult standards playlist includes traditional pop music by artists such as Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, some easy listening numbers from Roger Whittaker and others, and softer tunes from the oldies and adult contemporary music formats.
As originally conceived, the format features big band music, particularly from the 1940s and 1950s,[1] though most modern stations eschew that genre. Younger artists who record in the big-band era style, such as Harry Connick Jr., or Diana Krall, may be played as well. The term "standards" in the format's title is a reference to the standard, a song that is covered extensively by many artists over a prolonged period of time; adult standards may play true standards but are not limited to them.
According to Nielsen Audio, there were 129 stations with adult standards/MOR as format in 2016.[3]: 95 Because the adult standards audience has increased in age to the point where many of its listeners have either died or are no longer attractive to advertisers, the format as it is known today (much like the contemporary decline of oldies and smooth jazz formats, along with the earlier demise of easy listening) is likely to die out. Most independently programmed former adult standards stations have transitioned to other formats such as oldies, classic hits, or adult contemporary music that have similar music but skew toward more modern songs.
^ ab"Radio Station Format Guide". New York Radio Guide. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
^Smith, F. Leslie; Ostroff, David H.; Wright, John W. (31 May 2023). Perspectives on Radio and Television: Telecommunication in the United States. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-000-93880-7. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
^Hendricks, John Allen; Mims, Bruce (2018). The radio station: broadcasting, podcasting, and streaming (10 ed.). New York/London: Routledge. ISBN 9781351816335.
Adultstandards (also sometimes known as the nostalgia or Big Band format) is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations...
also frequently included older, pre-rock-era adultstandards and big band titles to further appeal to adult listeners who had grown up with those songs...
An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. The biological definition of the word means an animal reaching sexual maturity and thus...
songs from a particular genre or style Adultstandards, a radio format that includes pop standards Jazz standards, musical compositions which are an important...
Adult Swim (stylized as [adult swim] since 2003, and also abbreviated as [as]) is an American adult-oriented television programming block aired by the...
Council Bluffs, Iowa. The station was originally KOTD-FM and had an adultstandards format from 1992 until November 1999. In 1999, the station was sold...
AdultStandards/Big Band format to an Oldies format as Oldies 630. Magic 63's listeners were quickly in an uproar over the loss of the only Standards...
and enduring songs from this era of music are known as pop standards or American standards. The works of these songwriters and composers are usually considered...
launched the cable network Mind Extension University, which mainly featured adult education programs, and later shifted to a technology focus as Knowledge...
Broadcasting Corporation, then switched to an automated adultstandards format, becoming the first adultstandards station in the market since WECK dropped the format...
market for older listeners and it was decided to change the format to AdultStandards, but retain the "Sunny 100" nickname. Gene McKay was joined by station...
Young adult literature (YA) is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such as friendship...
iHeartMedia launched the iHeartSports Network. Most of iHeartMedia's adultstandards stations are turnkey operations, running a direct feed of a satellite...
WTZQ (1600 AM) is a radio station broadcasting an oldies/adultstandards format. Licensed to Hendersonville, North Carolina, United States, the station...
Sentimental ballad Lounge music Adultstandards Middle of the road (music) Soft rock Adult contemporary Contemporary Hit Radio Adult Top 40 Smooth jazz Elevator...
an AdultStandards format in 1981 and then went through a string of format and call letter changes for the next 15 years. WINW evolved into an adult contemporary...
signed on the air in March 1990. It was known as "K-Jewel", airing an adultstandards and soft oldies format. Artists played on the station included Frank...
all-comedy format, which remained for nearly two years. KPHX flipped to an adultstandards format in 2006, featuring the "Music of Your Life" radio network. After...
Tulsa radio market by dropping Top 40 programming after 21 years for adultstandards, with rapidly declining ratings as the result. A year later the station...
Life via satellite in January 2008 in favor of its own standards format, called "Jones Standards" (which has since been discontinued and absorbed into...
care - liable for slight negligence" National Care Standards (Scotland) Care Standards Act 2000 Standard of care in English law General Social Care Council...
Global Information