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America's Best Music

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America's Best Music
TypeRadio network
Country
United States
AvailabilityNational
OwnerWestwood One
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[when?] owned by Westwood One. It was one of the original 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 beginning in mid-December through Christmas Day each year.

In July 2015 it was announced the employment of original morning show host Jeff Rollins and afternoon host and production director Carl Hampton was being terminated as Westwood One downsized its air staff.[3] Other DJs at the time other than Rollins and Hampton on weekdays were John Gleason, as well as Pat McNulty, Wayne Yafee and Paul Worden on weekends.[4]Rollins is back on the air, Mornings, at Ocean-FM, Vero Beach, Fla.

Former DJs also include Dick Heatherton,[5] Nick Gerard, Ed Brand, Joe Daniels,[6][7] Mark Haden,[8] Rick Wagstaff, Rick Garza, Lou Simon, and Peter Doeblin.[9] Chick Watkins, the format's former program director, was also a DJ for many years.


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.[10]

After a February 1987 debut with Chick Watkins as program director, AM Only had 157 affiliates by the end of 1993. Growth of the format was helped by new material from Frank Sinatra and Johnny Mathis, and artists such as Harry Connick Jr., along with movies such as Sleepless in Seattle. KJUL jumped to number 3 in the Las Vegas market, and KOY became the number 5 station in Phoenix, Arizona.[11]

In 2000, over 240 radio stations used the adult standards format which was being distributed by this time by Westwood One.[12]

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 Westwood One. Many, though not all, Jones Standards affiliates switched over to America's Best Music. Westwood One'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 discontinued.

Stations

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

Sample hour of music (1993)

Three sample hours of programming (1999)

Hour one:

Hour two:

Hour three:

Sample hour of programming (2015)

References

  1. ^ "Westwood One Radio Networks - Westwood One Radio Networks". Dial-global.com. Retrieved 2014-05-23.
  2. ^ [1] Archived 2007-10-11 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "List Of Those Affected By Westwood One Downsizing Grows". allaccess.com. 2015-07-25. Retrieved 2015-10-18.
  4. ^ https://web.archive.org/20141219194105/http://www.gold99fm.com/. Archived from the original on December 19, 2014. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "Newsline". Billboard. 107 (17): 92. April 29, 1995.
  6. ^ "97.1 Ocean". Archived from the original on 15 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-26. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "Sunny 1550 KKAD". Retrieved 2009-02-26.
  8. ^ "Westwood One: Adult Standards". Retrieved 2009-02-26.
  9. ^ "WFEA History - 2000+". Retrieved 2009-02-26.
  10. ^ "WFEA History - 1990s". Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-06. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ a b Borzillo, Carrie (Dec 25, 1993). "PD of the week: Chick Watkins". Billboard. 105 (52): 99.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ Mike Conklin, "Music Your Parents Always Said You'd Listen To," Chicago Tribune, October 16, 1999.
  14. ^ "Adult Standards". Westwood One. Archived from the original on 2015-10-13.
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