Talk:Classic hits

Lists of Artists
The consensus on the classic rock page was that lists of artists within a genre are marginally useful at best and subject to considerable POV criticism. Accordingly I've removed the list of artists added by the most recent anon for that reason -- since Classic Hits is essentially a hybrid format anyway one can get a pretty good idea of what kind of music the format plays from related genres (which is why I originally wrote it into Classic Rock to begin with). Haikupoet 22:03, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

Classic Hits vs. Adult Hits
I'm not sure why someone would think there's no meaningful difference. "Adult Hits" (I was under the impression that "Variety Hits" was the accepted term for the format) shares much of the same playlist, but also plays more contemporary material, and (this is most important) has no DJs. Classic Hits is limited in time to roughly the same period as Classic rock but with a wider selection of genres, and generally has DJs. I'd say there's a significant difference that boils down to the period of time covered by the playlist, if nothing else. Haikupoet 18:44, 2 January 2006 (UTC)


 * For what it's worth, the majority of the articles that link here are using the term "classic hits" as being synonymous with adult hits or Jack FM. And no, adult hits stations are not necessarily DJ-free; some are, true, but it's not a defining condition of the format. There are lots of adult hits stations that still have jocks. Bearcat 19:14, 2 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Also, the inappropriately-capitalized form Classic Hits exists as a redirect to adult hits, not as a redirect to here. Bearcat 04:39, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Not any more, I'm happy to say. Vchimpanzee ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 18:22, 20 August 2009 (UTC)


 * There's no similarity. Adult hits stations play a lot of classics but the ones I know about definitely lean more contemporary. I defy anyone to say heavy metal music and rap music can be found on a true classic hits station. Vchimpanzee ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 18:21, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

The whole premise of this article is wrong
The term "classic hits" is now simply the updated term for "oldies". It is not based on classic rock with some pop and R&B thrown in as stated in the article. The format is executed in as many ways as there are "classic hits" stations. While the oldies format has evolved over the years, so has every other format; A.C. stations don't focus so much on Diamond and Streisand any more, alternative stations hardly ever play The Smiths or Siouxsie & the Banshees these days, and oldies stations no longer play almost anything from the 1950's. The fact is "classic hits" is just a more demo-friendly way of saying "oldies" to potential advertisers. It's the same format. This article needs to be totally re-written. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.80.31.187 (talk) 05:44, 6 July 2007‎ (UTC)

Globalize/USA tag
The first result on a Google.com search for the phrase "Classic Hits" is a station in New Zealand. The top ten hits also include sites in the UK and Australia. As it stands, the article seems to completely ignore anywhere outside the USA, despite the fact that the classic hits format is now very popular in many countries. 86.132.138.205 16:41, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

It's really oldies
I should have brought it up here before such a major change, but a lot of oldies stations have started calling themselves classic hits. It's not really a format change. The music mix is the same, but some of the oldest songs are gone and newer songs have been added. One could argue many of the stations are still oldies, but people here (in articles) and on other sites have identified them as classic hits. I discussed this on another site; some stations that call themselves "classic hits" are really classic rock but more adult than the hard-rocking stations. I don't like the term and feel the stations should be categorized as oldies, but they don't want to use the term. My changes reflect the fact that the format can refer to either type. Vchimpanzee ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 18:26, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

This page needs a cleanup
I agree with the postings in the talk pages and have a few more thoughts:

1) The term "Classic Hits" have changed meanings over the past 20 years. Classic Hits could represent stations that are softer Classic Rock, or stations that have evolved from Oldies to playing mostly late 70's and 80's music.  The more common use of the term now is the latter, with major stations like WCBS-FM New York, or KRTH Los Angeles in this format. BDS monitors (Billboard) publishes a panel of stations in this format as a reference.  In addition it's accepted in the radio industry that the term "Oldies" generally means songs from the 50's, 60's and early 70's, whereas Classic Hits is mostly 80's with some late 70's and a few early 90's.  A good example of this is KONO in San Antonio.  KONO-FM plays "Classic Hits" where KONO-AM is programmed as an traditional Oldies station.

2) This is huge mainstream format. Nielsen called this the "format of the summer 2018."  The music from the 80's is still extremely strong and has even showed growth in the 25-54 demo.  Nielsen article.  So as far as the strength of this format in the United States, it performed better than Classic Rock as recently as the summer of 2018.  What's also surprising is that Millennials are listening to this format at levels that are actually increasing over the past several years.  Many factors can be attributed to the increase, but this is a new development for the format as this was not the case with oldies stations in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Millennials flip to Classic Hits  This format is big, I would argue that it should not be deleted, instead re-worked as it's own page.

3) Classic Hits and Adult Hits are different formats, with some overlap. The biggest difference is Classic Hits stations are spinning their powers are many as 28 times a week with much tighter rotations than Adult Hits.  In addition 80's music represents the majority of the most played songs on  Classic Hits stations, where Adult Hits stations are now playing more 90's, 2000's and 2010's rock, rock/alternative and pop acts mixed in.  The focus on Adult Hits is variety, where the focus on Classic Hits is 80's.  Adult Hits stations can have up to 2000 songs in their library which is common, where Classic Hits play a much tighter list.  For example KRTH plays under 250 songs in their regular playlist according to BDS and Mediabase.

4) This format has songs and artists that are unique to the format. Madonna, George Michael, Michael Jackson, Prince and other superstars are not generally no longer played on AC/Hot AC stations. AC has gone much more current intensive with new artists. These artists are now owned by the Classic Hits format and should be mentioned in this article. This should be a major portion of the article since this format owns these artists at this point in time.

I agree with the comment above at the whole article needs to be rewritten. Not sure how to go about doing that.

UPDATE: I incorporated these thoughts and did a rewrite of the page with many sources and citations. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.61.184.2 (talk) 12:11, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

POV
"I was the Program Director. (Jason Roberts)" This ought to be a red flag for POV and original research. Doug Ewell (talk) 18:04, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

70's artists not playing
I wonder if that portion of the article on the MOR artists from the 70's that this format is not being needs to be deleted. I don't think it makes sense to include what's NOT being played, you could make the list endless. I think it does not fit the tone and style of the rest of the article. I move to delete. Ncostides (talk) 17:53, 2 August 2021 (UTC)

Removing music definition additions on September 21, 2021
Removed this portion of the article. Reason: There are explanations that don't really make sense in content to the rest of the article. Many of the artists cited below were not core artists to either Oldies or Classic Hits formats. This is going into a pinpoint rabbit hole where the main article is meant be broad.

Among the artists most commonly excluded from classic hits stations are teen idols and singers (often women) whose music had an already-dated sound or were MOR staples in their time, including:


 * All members of the Osmond family (including the Osmond Brothers, Donny Osmond's 1970s and late 1980s solos and Donny and Marie duets)
 * Paul Anka and Odia Coates
 * Cher
 * Barbra Streisand
 * Helen Reddy
 * Dr. Hook
 * Alice Cooper's ballads that do not fit in the classic rock format

Despite most radio stations in the United States containing the more-popular artists in a repetition cycle, only a couple (both commercial and community) radio stations in the United States contain classic songs by either more rarer or former (not as popular than the list) artists that appeared on the charts from decades prior and never appeared on the more modern classic hits playlists.

During that reason, classic hits radio stations in Europe had a more expanded playlist due to its different charting in former decades. The songs on the stations in Europe play were very different rather than classic hits stations either in the United States, Canada, or Australia. Unlike them, European Classic Hits stations had a mix of various types of Classic Hits such as the normal and rhythmic formats.

Songs from the mid- to late 1970s which had an influence on the MTV generation from artists such as Queen, Foreigner, Elton John, and the Bee Gees are still featured on many of these stations as the oldest part of the library. Additionally, stations have started to play songs from the 1990s and 2000s that have appeal to this audience such as "Linger" by The Cranberries and Uncle Kracker's version of "Drift Away", along with later releases by artists that were successful in the 1980s, such as U2 and Michael Jackson.

In turn, a classic hits approach still centered in the 1970s and late 1960s is known as "gold" classic hits to distinguish it from the increasingly 1980s-influenced classic hits format, and from oldies stations still centered in the 1960s.

Removed out of context section.
The paragraph below is out of context. The format in question below is related to Urban Gold and part of the Urban formats. It belongs in the Urban page as a splinter. This article is about mainstream classic hits.

Rhythmic classic hits
In the late 2010s, a further modernization of the format focusing on pop, rhythmic, and dance hits from the 1990s and 2000s began to emerge, with examples such as Edmonton's CKPW-FM (which initially branded as Power 107 in reference to a heritage CHR station that once operated in the market, but was forced to rebrand as Play 107 after trademark disputes with said station's owner), which promoted acts such as the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, NSYNC, and Rihanna as core artists (while also featuring some CHR recurrents), and WKAF in Boston (which was more rhythmic-based, and included occasional songs from the 1980s, closer-resembling rhythmic oldies). Harvard Broadcasting and iHeartMedia both used the term "rhythmic classic hits" to refer to this format.