America's Best Music

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America's Best Music
Type Radio network
Country United States
Availability National
Owner Dial Global
(through Triton Media Group)
Launch date 1989
Former names AM Only
Official website America's Best Music website

America's Best Music is the on-air branding of an adult standards 24-hour radio network, known internally as Adult Standards and formerly known as AM Only, currently owned by Dial Global. It was one of the original Westwood One's Transtar networks. The format is no longer exclusive to AM stations and is carried on some FM stations too.

Its main competitor is Music of Your Life, currently offered by Planet Halo, Inc. Until 2010, Timeless from Citadel/ABC Radio was another similar format.

The target audience of the format is persons 35 to 64, with 40 percent of music from the 1960s, 30 percent from the 1970s, and 15 percent each from the 1950s and since 1980.[1] Artists include Neil Diamond, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, The Carpenters, Johnny Mathis, Barry Manilow, Celine Dion, James Taylor, Elton John, Anne Murray, Andy Williams, Engelbert Humperdinck, Linda Ronstadt, Nat King Cole, Captain and Tennille, and Simon and Garfunkel.[2] The format also incorporates "new standards" material by artists like Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Michael Bublé, Steve Tyrell, Rod Stewart, Bette Midler, Carly Simon, and Renee Olstead. Also, the network plays continuous Christmas music between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day each year.

The current lineup of DJs as of December 2008 includes Jeff Rollins, Chick Watkins (the format's program director), Carl Hampton (a former Music of Your Life and Jones Standards personality), and Don Reid on weekdays, as well as Ed Brand and Joe Daniels on weekends.[3][4] Bill A. Jones is also a DJ.[citation needed] Former DJs include Nick Gerard, Mark Haden,[5] Rick Wagstaff, Rick Garza, Lou Simon, and Peter Doeblin.[6]

Contents

[edit] History

AM Only was created by Transtar Radio Networks at a time when AM radio was no longer highly regarded as a place to listen to music. The format was promoted only to AM stations, though it was not long before some FM stations used it as well.

The format was (and still is in some stations' on-air imaging) promoted on-air as "Great Songs, Great Memories". One affiliate used an ad which stated the following:

Ray Charles lives here. So does Rosemary Clooney, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, The Lettermen, and The Nelson Riddle Orchestra. At WFEA we play the original hits of the 40's, 50's and 60's. All day, every day.[7]

In 2000, over 240 radio stations used the adult standards format which was being distributed by this time by Westwood One.[8]

In the first decade of the 21st Century, the format added more uptempo material from the oldies and adult contemporary formats and promoted "A New Variety of America's Best Music". In recent years, though, the commitment to older songs has been renewed, with titles by artists previously dropped from rotation such as Patti Page, Doris Day, the Ames Brothers, Gogi Grant, Joan Weber, Perry Como, and Ella Fitzgerald, being re-added to the playlist.

On October 1, 2008, America's Best Music absorbed Jones Standards, a short-lived format created by the now-dissolved Jones Radio Networks, as a result of Jones's purchase by Dial Global. Many, though not all, Jones Standards affiliates switched over to Dial Global's network. Dial Global's subsequent purchase of Waitt Radio Networks added a second adult standards/MOR-based format to the syndicator's portfolio in the form of "The Lounge", formerly distributed by Waitt and now distributed under the Dial Global Local brand.

On March 2, 2009, a new feature called "Big Bands Remembered" began during Jeff Rollins' show. The first day, this consisted of a brief biographical sketch of Artie Shaw, the featured bandleader, followed by information about the song played, which in this case was "Begin the Beguine".

[edit] Stations

A partial list of America's Best Music/Adult Standards-affiliated stations includes:

Stations which formerly programmed the Adult Standards network but have since switched to other networks or dropped the standards format altogether include: WSOM-AM, Salem/Youngstown, Ohio; WJBR-AM, Wilmington, Delaware; WMID, Atlantic City, New Jersey; WHLY, South Bend, Indiana; WXKS-AM, Boston, Massachusetts; KMRY, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (switched to ABC's Timeless); KMMZ, Midland, Texas; WOKY, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; WAIT, Crystal Lake, Illinois (Chicago market); WAAM, Ann Arbor, Michigan; WRIG, Wausau, Wisconsin; and WTUX, Madison, Wisconsin. KJWL in Fresno is still Adult Standards but no longer uses Dial Global's format, and AM competitor KGES "Legends 1680" (which is no more) affiliated with the America's Best Music network for a short time after KJWL dropped it.

[edit] Three sample hours of programming (1999)

Hour one:

Hour two:

Hour three:

[edit] Sample hour of programming (2010)

[edit] References

  1. ^ "DG total". http://www.dial-global.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=28. Retrieved 2010-06-29. 
  2. ^ http://www.dial-global.com/xr/dg_247_adultstandards.asp, Retrieved on 2007-11-06.
  3. ^ "97.1 Ocean". http://www.wosnfm.com. Retrieved 2009-02-26. 
  4. ^ "Sunny 1550 KKAD". http://www.1550kkad.com/personalities.shtml. Retrieved 2009-02-26. 
  5. ^ "Westwood One: Adult Standards". http://www.westwoodone.com/program?action=viewProgram&programID=448. Retrieved 2009-02-26. 
  6. ^ "WFEA History - 2000+". http://www.manfrommars.com/wfea2000+.html. Retrieved 2009-02-26. 
  7. ^ "WFEA History - 1990s". http://www.manfrommars.com/wfea90s.html. Retrieved 2007-11-06. 
  8. ^ Doreen Oken, "K-JWL flaunts title as number one station nationwide," Business Journal Serving Fresno & the Central San Joaquin Valley, May 8, 2000, p. 1.
  9. ^ Mike Conklin, "Music Your Parents Always Said You'd Listen To," Chicago Tribune, October 16, 1999.
  10. ^ http://yes.com/KHUI, Retrieved on 2010-03-11

[edit] External links
Programming
Music & Entertainment
Radio Networks
Radio ownership groups
(Townsquare Media)
  • Annual Revenue: Unknown at this time.
  • Stock Symbol: None, privately held.
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