The Creation Of Radio Formats

Tiffany Arvelo

AJ Matthews

RTV 101

1/29/16

The Creation of Radio Formats “I get to choose the radio station today!” Kristin declared defiantly as she hopped into her father’s car. Harry groaned loudly as his preteen daughter flipped the dial from his precious classic rock station to a pop station playing the torturous din of Justin Bieber music. Although Harry would disagree, one of the best aspects of radio is the variety of formats. From talk and sports radio to the numerous music formats, there is something that speaks to every listener. Radio formats made their first appearance in the 1950’s, expanded into countless subcategories, and evolved with the creation of internet and satellite radio.

The Creation of the Radio Format Radio was

According to The Radio Station, today there are “a host of…subformats – more than 100, in fact… [F]ormats morph as new trends in lifestyle and culture emerge. Radio formats are anything but static,” (Keith). Three main formats that are used in radio today are Rock and Alternative, Country, and Classic/Oldies/Notalgia.

Rock and Alternative stations first appeared in the 1960’s as a rebellion against Top 40 stations. The leader of this rebellion was WOR-FM, a radio station in New York that established a Progressive format in 1966. They wanted to be “an alternative to the super-hyped, ultra-commercial sound of the hit song station” and so, played “an unorthodox combination of nonchart rock, blues, folk, and jazz” (Keith). Inspired by this, other stations began playing nonchart music. Stations playing exclusively rock music became known as Album Oriented Rock (AOR). As the rock genre changed over the decades, subgenres such as Grunge, Punk Rock, and Heavy Metal allowed for different subformats to be used. Three main

Radio formats were first utilized by radio station owners Todd Storz and Gordon McLendon in the 1950’s, beginning with the Top 40 format. Some major formats used today include Rock and Alternative, Country, and Classic/Oldies/Nostalgia. The traditional radio format may be becoming obsolete with the advent of internet and satellite radio stations, which have mostly been rid of disc jockeys and even allow listeners to mix genres and create their own stations. Nevertheless, the radio format has endured for decades, bringing success to stations and joy to countless listeners, and may continue to help radio succeed for decades to