Adult hits

Adult hits (sometimes also called variety hits) is a radio format that draws from a wide variety of different musical genres. Most adult hits stations play a mix of rock (classic and alternative), pop, adult contemporary, and select oldies hits, predominantly drawing on music from the 1970s through the 2000s. Adult hits is akin to classic hits, although the classic hits format uses a slightly older and often narrower playlist (1960s to 1980s).

Companies associated with the format in Canada include NewCap, Rogers, Bell Media, Corus Entertainment, and other various companies. Companies in the United States include Clear Channel Communications, CBS Radio, Cumulus Broadcasting, Newsweb radio, and Entercom.

History

Forerunners of the adult hits format appeared on radio during the 1970s. At the time, enough of a backlog of popular music from the rock and roll era had developed to support a format based on them; oldies stations, however, were still very rare, and instead, stations that did not want to bind themselves to the current top 40 playlist would mix in current hits with the hits of the past two decades. This hybrid format began to fall out of favor in the 1980s as self-contained oldies stations rose to prominence.