Re: [IRCA] Radio Formats

["David Gleason" <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Format names are often self applied by stations to give advertisers out of
the market an idea of what they do. There is no standard for format labels. 

To get an idea of what stations that play current music (as opposed to only
hits of the past, like Jack, Oldies, Standards, classic rock, etc.) look at
www.rronline.com and inspect the charts for the various format types. That
will give you an idea of what each format might play.

But within a format, there are regional and station based differences as
every market has a different competitive array and that influences what is
played and what is not. 

Many differences are subtle. Adult contemporary has multiple divisions,
including rhythmic (more up tempo and even disco tunes), gold based (soft,
more 70-s and 80-s songs) hot (more currents, less gold, more borderline pop
and rock sounds and alternative ("lite" alternative rock sounds, less wimpy
stuff). To someone who does not like AC, they sound the same, but to the
listener they are highly differentiable. 

Many classify all Spanish language stations as "Spanish." Yet if a station
is not in Spain, it is not Spanish and can not be Spanish. There are at
least a dozen Spanish language formats that the listener can distinguish
differences in being done in the US! You won't find a directory of them,
either. 

Keep in mind that format labels are used, mostly, for ad sales. Very few
formats use the industry name on the air. Oldies does, classic rock does,
but no station calls itself "Adult Contemporary" on the air! So keep in mind
that the labels are pretty arbitrary and vary from station to station. 




-----Original Message-----
From: irca-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:irca-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Stephen Hawkins
Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2005 2:19 AM
To: IRCA Mailing list
Subject: [IRCA] Radio Formats

Gang,

Is there a web page with a list of all of the radio formats, and a
description 
of them?  There seem to be a zillion names, even though when you tune across

the dial, especially on FM, it seems as though there are only about a half a

dozen or so stations repeated over and over.

Thanks,
Steve
-- 
73 49 111 01001001
Stephen Hawkins NG0G
ng0g@xxxxxxxx

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