Several people above say "Hit Parade" was a cross between AC, Top 40 and Easy Listening. Unless it was changed in its later days, the Hit Parade I remember had nothing to do with the Easy Listening format, as we commonly define it. Beautiful Music usually means mostly instrumental covers of pop hits, with Broadway and Hollywood show tunes, and maybe a few vocals per hour. Easy Listening steps up the vocals, maybe as high as 50%.
But Hit Parade was all vocals, unless an instrumental song was a legit Top 20 hit. I guess we could call it Soft AC. Yes, many more MOR artists made the Top 40 in those days, so there were plenty of Carpenters, Neil Diamond, Brazil 66, Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick and Anne Murray songs in the mix. But only songs that made the Top 20. I don't think Hit Parade played songs that had not reached the Top 20.
And there was also plenty of Soft Rock in the mix too. Carole King, James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, Cat Stevens, The Association, The Beatles, The Fifth Dimension, Carly Simon, Paul Simon, John Denver and Linda Ronstadt were also included.
I can name plenty of stations that carried it at one time or another. I remember in some places in New England, when my family would rent a cottage for a week or two, you could often pick up a couple of Hit Parade stations from one location. 102.3 in St. Albans VT and 107.1 in Barre VT. Or in Maine, 104.3 in Gardiner and 92.1 in Sanford. It also aired on 96.1 in Easton PA and in Asbury Park NJ on 94.3.
In those days, many FM stations that weren't simulcast with their AM sister station, and were outside the largest markets, ran an automated format. Or maybe a DJ would be heard during weekdays, with automation nights and weekends. That was true of Top 40, Easy Listening and AC stations that used Hit Parade. The live DJs were usually found on the AM station, while FM penetration was low. It didn't pay to put live DJs on the FM station if few people owned FM radios. If you did own an FM receiver, it was likely the big stereo in the living room, not your car radio or kitchen radio. So why bother to hire a DJ staff for a band that had only limited penetration?