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Hot AC is kind of a dumb format If you think about it

landtuna said:
Not to be picking an argument here but since when is the T-40 'adult'?

It's always been teens and even pre-teens as far back as I can remember.
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CHR is a female leaning format, usually 12-34. But the music is very palatable with adults now, which has happened as other times. Guy Zapoleon has shown the peaks & valleys of the format over the past 40 years. With Michael Buble and lady Antebellum scoring CHR hits, the feeling is its in a "doldrum" period, which makes it more adult friendly.

That leaves Hot A/C very vulnerable.
 
This can't compare to doldrum periods for CHR because despite Buble and Lady A there are tons of young sounding songs on CHR. In true doldrum periods, such as 1980-81 the AC crossovers become the majority of the format. Because Hot AC exists I don't think CHR will ever go through another real doldrum period again.
 
Hot AC/Adult Top 40 isn't going away under any circumstances, even as CHR/Pop powerhouses (KIIS & WHTZ come to mind) are enjoying their best ratings since 20-year old Taylor Swift was in diapers, and WXKS/Boston is racking up nine-plus shares.

Hot ACs play a ton of rock songs from the eighties and nineties that most CHR/Pop stations can't touch, and epecially those which are owned by Clear Channel, most of which are patterned after WKFS/Cincinnati, as Sean Ross has pointed out for almost decade both in his columns at Billboard & on this website via his RossOnRadio and 25Plus newsletters.

Hot ACKBIG/LA routinely plays Joan Jett, Def Leppard, Springsteen, Mellencamp, U2, Genesis, Guns N Roses, Bon Jovi, Duran Duran, Foreigner, New Order & tons of other rock stuff alongside BEP, Lady Gaga, Keisha, Beyonce, Alicia Keys & other artists that 99.9% of the CHR/Pop stations out there won't touch given their hyper-addiction to super serving the 12-17 & 18-34 demos.

KIIS hit a 10.0 share in the fall of 1984, back when top 40 radio was truly a mass-appeal format encompassing the best of all genres; even when you add the unconventional CHRs out there that play alternative music yet still enjoy killer ratings (KBKS/Seattle & WXXL/Orlando among them), CHR/Pop stations these days play very little rock music, excluding Rob Thomas, Nickelback, Green Day, John Mayer, Daughtry & a few other rock acts
 
Can this thread just die please? It is not a lesbian format and is very enjoyable to listen to. Only problem is that over 200 of these stations DO NOT STREAM online!
 
Hot AC is a really high-billing format for people to call "dumb" - there are tons of markets nationwide where the Hot AC station has higher ratings than the CHR
 
In Grand Rapids, WLHT 95.7 officially became Hot AC a little over a month ago: Channel 957. It describes itself as a station for people who are too old for the "thug music and kid stuff" but "not quite ready for the slow and sappy stuff on [mainstream AC station WOOD 105.7]". That's exactly what Hot AC is: somewhere between teen pop and the "soft rock" that a lot of adults typically like to listen to while they're at work.

The funny thing about that description is that it makes it sound like WOOD 105.7 is "slow and sappy" when it's really not. For a mainstream AC station, it sounds quite fresh.

The other thing I have to say about 95.7 WLHT is that it focuses a LOT on current music. It doesn't play too much from the '90s and has a select few late '80s songs on its playlist. It does play a fair amount of music from the early '00s, but I wish it would expand that list a bit and also play more '90s stuff.
 
There's something I've been meaning to mention for awhile and it fits this thread better than most. Hot AC is really AC. What we call AC, chose to age with its audience years ago. It really isn't Adult Contemporary at all.
 
semoochie said:
There's something I've been meaning to mention for awhile and it fits this thread better than most. Hot AC is really AC. What we call AC, chose to age with its audience years ago. It really isn't Adult Contemporary at all.
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Good point. There are some Hot A/C's that are on the more softer side anyway. What separates the two? One plays more 90s tunes...the other is heavier on 80s tunes that fit the sound for today and hang on to some 70s titles. One is quicker on current music and the other is very deliberate in what it adds. Although, that could be in flux right now with what is going on with some A/C's.
 
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