Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as
BM,
B/EZ or
BM/EZ for
beautiful music/easy listening) is a mostly instrumental
music formatA radio format or programming format describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. Radio formats are frequently employed as a marketing tool, and constantly evolve...
that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s. "
Mood musicMood music may refer to:*Beautiful Music*Easy listening*Exotica*Light music...
", "
easy listeningEasy listening music is a style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the mid-20th century, evolving out of swing and big band music, and related to Beautiful music and Light music. Easy listening music features simple, catchy melodies, soft, laid-back songs and occasionally rhythms...
", and the often derogatory "
MuzakMuzak Holdings LLC is a company based in metro Fort Mill, South Carolina, United States, just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, founded in 1934, that is best known for distribution of background music to retail stores and other companies....
" and "
elevator musicElevator music refers to the gentle instrumental arrangements of popular music designed for playing in shopping malls, grocery stores, department stores, telephone systems , cruise ships, airports, doctors' and dentists' offices, and elevators...
" are other common terms for the format and the style of music that it featured. Beautiful music can also be regarded as a subset of the middle of the road radio format.
History
Beautiful music initially offered soft and unobtrusive instrumental selections on a very structured schedule with limited
commercialAdvertising is a form of communication used to influence individuals to purchase products or services or support political candidates or ideas. Frequently it communicates a message that includes the name of the product or service and how that product or service could potentially benefit the consumer...
interruptions. It often functioned as a free background music service for stores, with commercial breaks consisting only of announcements aimed at shoppers already in the stores. This practice was known as "storecasting" and was very common on the
FMIn telecommunications, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its frequency . In analog applications, the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is directly proportional to the instantaneous value of the input signal...
dial in the 1940s and 1950s.
Many of these FM stations usually simulcast their
AMAmplitude modulation is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave. AM works by varying the strength of the transmitted signal in relation to the information being sent...
station and used a subcarrier (
SCASubsidiary Communications Authority in the United States, and Subsidiary Communications Multiplex Operation in Canada, is a subcarrier on a broadcasting station, allowing the radio station to broadcast additional services as part of its signal."Subsidiary Communications Authority" is the United...
), to transmit a hitch-hiker signal to a store receiver by subscription. The signal was usually a slow-moving audio tape of 'background music' or Muzak-type service, which was independent of the simulcast AM signal.
Some FM stations made more income from these music subscriptions than from their main programming. WITH-FM, in
Baltimore, MarylandBaltimore is an independent city and the largest city in the state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore City in order to distinguish it from surrounding...
(1950s & 1960s), had to keep its FM carrier on the air until 2 a.m. for restaurant subscribers, and could not sign-off the main FM carrier until that time and thus had to run a repeat of its previous day's evening concert on its main FM program line.
Growth as a radio format
In the early 1960s, the
Federal Communications CommissionThe Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, directed, and empowered by Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President...
adopted a standard for transmitting and receiving
stereoStereophonic sound, commonly called stereo, is the reproduction of sound using two or more independent audio channels through a symmetrical configuration of loudspeakers in such a way as to create the impression of sound heard from various directions, as in natural hearing...
signals on a single channel of the FM band. In addition to delivering stereo sound, FM broadcasting provided a clearer sound quality and better resistance to interference than AM, thus being the ideal vehicle for broadcasting the beautiful music format.
In 1963, Marlin Taylor created a custom-designed beautiful music format at Philadelphia's
WDVRWBEB is a radio station broadcasting a Soft Rock/Adult Contemporary format. Licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it serves the Greater Philadelphia metropolitan area. It first began broadcasting in 1963 under the call sign WDVR. The station is currently owned by Jerry Lee...
-FM, and within four months, WDVR became the #1 rated FM station in the Philadelphia market, becoming not only one of the first big successes in FM broadcasting but instrumental in establishing the viability of the FM band. WDVR was a resource for mature listeners who were driven away from AM radio at the time when WFIL and WIBG (and others) were going to rock and roll programming. WDVR's many large roadside billboards made the adult audience aware of the new station.
Other pioneers of the format
Another pioneer of the Beautiful Music format was KIXL-FM in
Dallas, TexasDallas , with a population of 1,279,910, is the third-largest city in Texas and the 8th-largest in the United States. The city is the main economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area that according to the March 2009 U.S. Census Bureau release, had a population of...
, which operated at "104 on both dials" (1040 AM and 104.5 FM) during the 1950s and 1960s. Pronounced "Kixil" on the air, KIXL was well-known for seamlessly blending one song into another with the help of specially designed instrumental bridges. They were also known for a popular feature called "Think It Over", in which the smooth-voiced announcer softly intoned a proverb or a word of wisdom, followed by a short pause and the admonition, "Think it over."¹
Inspired by the success of KIXL,
Gordon McLendonGordon Barton McLendon born June 8, 1921; died September 14, 1986). His place of birth was a hospital in Paris, Texas, but his parents then took him to their home in Oklahoma where he spent his early childhood before moving yet again across the state line to Atlanta, Texas where he attended high...
- best known for programming Top 40-formatted
KLIFKLIF is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Dallas, Texas, USA. The station is owned by Cumulus Media. KLIF broadcasts a conservative-leaning news/talk radio format to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.-Call sign history:...
, the top-rated station in Dallas throughout the 1950s and 1960s - decided to start up a beautiful music station of his own in the San Francisco market. He took over KROW-AM, licensed to nearby
OaklandOakland is the eighth-largest city in the U.S. state of California and a major West Coast port city, located on San Francisco Bay about eight miles east of the City of San Francisco. Oakland is a major hub city for the Bay Area subregion collectively called the East Bay, and it is the county seat...
, and revamped it with a Beautiful Music format as KABL (pronouned "cable")¹.
Other pioneers of the format included
WPAT-AMWPAT is the callsign of a radio station licensed to Paterson, New Jersey. Located at 930 kHz in the medium-wave AM band, the station runs paid ethnic programming....
/
FMWPAT-FM, known on-air as "93.1 Amor", is a radio station with a Spanish-language adult contemporary format. Located on 93.1 FM, the station, which is licensed to Paterson, New Jersey, serves the New York City Metropolitan area....
in
Paterson, New JerseyPaterson is a city in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the city population was 149,222. Census population projections indicate a population of 146,545 as of 2007, making it New Jersey's third largest city. It is the county seat of Passaic County...
, which served the
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
market;
WJBR-FMWJBR-FM is a Wilmington, Delaware-based Adult Contemporary music formatted radio station. Although the station is broadcast from Wilmington, the signal is strong enough to be a competitive station in the Philadelphia radio market....
in
Wilmington, DelawareWilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...
, whose signal reached Philadelphia (home of WDVR); and WQMR-AM/
WGAYWIHT is a radio station that serves the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area. The station broadcasts 24 hours a day. WIHT is licensed to and owned by Clear Channel Communications...
-FM, which served the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area;
WLDMWKQI, known as "Channel 9-5-5," is a rhythmic-leaning Top 40 radio station in Detroit, Michigan, owned by Clear Channel Communications. WKQI transmits its signal with an effective radiated power of 100,000 watts from an antenna 430 feet in height located at the intersection of Greenfield Road and...
and
WOMCWOMC is a Classic Hits radio station broadcasting in the Detroit, Michigan, USA area. WOMC's transmitter and studios are located on Woodward Heights . near Interstate 75 in Ferndale, Michigan. WOMC broadcasts with an effective radiated power of 190,000 watts from an antenna height of 361 feet...
in
Detroit, MichiganDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
;
WLRWWLRW is a radio station broadcasting a Hot Adult Contemporary format. Licensed to Champaign, Illinois, USA, the station serves the Champaign, Decatur area. The station is currently owned by Saga Communications of Illinois, LLC and features programing from CNN Radio. The station is also broadcast...
in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, the first stereo FM station in Champaign County and a storecaster for
EisnerThe surname Eisner could mean any of the following people:* Breck Eisner - son of Michael Eisner and film director.* Clara Eissner, see Clara Zetkin* Elliot W...
grocery stores ; KBMI-AM "The Beautiful Music Island" in
Las VegasLas Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada, the seat of Clark County, and an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, fine dining, and entertainment. Las Vegas, which bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, is famous for the number of...
; and
KUMUKUMU is a radio station located in Honolulu, Hawaii. The station is owned by Visionary Related Entertainment. It broadcasts sporting news and local sports talk shows.-History:...
AM-FM in
HonoluluHonolulu is the capital of and the most populous census-designated place in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Although Honolulu refers to the urban area on the southeastern shore of the island of Oahu, the city and the county are consolidated, known as the City and County of Honolulu, and the city and...
.
Reel-to-reel tape
Others, such as Jim Schulke, devised a method of buying air time on FM
stationsRadio broadcasting is an audio broadcasting service, broadcast through the air as radio waves from a transmitter to an antenna and a thus to a receiving device. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast common programming, either in syndication or simulcast or both...
in bulk and reselling the blocks to interested advertisers. Schulke formed Stereo Radio Productions (SRP) to help his stations get better ratings and pull in more agency advertising dollars. His stations used 600 ten-and-a-half-inch diameter reels of
stereoSTEREO is a solar observation mission. Two nearly identical spacecraft were launched into orbits that cause them to pull respectively further ahead of and fall gradually behind the earth...
reel-to-reel tape set on multiple machines so that 15 minute segments would play at a time, alternating from one player to another, allowing a varied programming format in which no half-hour was repeated within a two-week period. One of Schulke's stations using this "matched flow" concept was WDVR's chief competitor in the beautiful music format in Philadelphia,
WWSH-FMWISX is a [[Rhythmic AC]] radio station licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are owned by Clear Channel Communications and its slogan is "Move to the Music" which is used to describe their upbeat mix of mostly Rhythmic hits of the 80's, '90s and today.-Beautiful Music Era:...
.
Some group station owners created their own "in-house" format distribution system. Bonneville Broadcasting Systems serviced mostly
BonnevilleBonneville International Corporation, managed by Deseret Management Corporation, is a broadcasting company wholly owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
-owned stations, with easy listening music distributed first on reel-to-reel tape and
compact discA Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store sound recordings exclusively, but later it also allowed the preservation of other types of data. Audio CDs have been commercially available since October 1982...
, and later adopted satellite distribution, often under the slogan "Satellite Stereo" (as was used by Malrite Communications'. WEZO-FM in
Rochester, New YorkRochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. The Rochester metropolitan area is the second largest economy in New York State, behind the New York City metropolitan area. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and...
, was one of the independent radio stations signed with Bonneville.)
Peters Productions in San Diego, California was active throughout the late 1960s through the early 1980s. At one time Peters Productions offered 7 different syndicated radio formats plus radio/television "station image" packages (custom jingle and integrated promotional graphics packages.) The most popular syndicated radio format was a beautiful music format on a library of 100 reel-to-reel tapes, with 6 new reels provided per month. It originated when founder Ed Peters was station manager of San Diego radio station
KFMB-FMKFMB-FM is a commercial radio station located in San Diego, California, broadcasting on 100.7 FM. KFMB-FM airs an adult hits music format branded as "Jack FM".-History:...
. The format aired on over 120 stations during its peak, and was known originally as "Music Only For A Woman." Later the name was changed to "Music Just For The Two of Us."
Several other tape syndicators offered easy listening music formats on reel-to-reel tape and other formats until the 1980s, when industry consolidation and a decline in listener appeal reduced the audience for the format.
Instrumental-vocal mix
Many beautiful music programmers constructed their own style of sets, incorporating some vocal songs, usually one to each 15-minute set. Most stations adopted a 70-80% instrumental - 20-30% vocal mix, a few offered 90% instrumentals, and a handful were entirely instrumental. Initially, the vocalists consisted of artists such as
Frank SinatraFrancis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers." His professional career had stalled by the...
,
Nat King ColeNathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat "King" Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz...
,
Peggy LeePeggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer and actress. She first came to prominence in the 1940s with her #1 hits Somebody Is Taking Your Place and Mañana, having a string of successful albums and top 10 hits in three consecutive decades...
,
Tony BennettTony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....
,
Patti PageClara Ann Fowler , known by her professional name Patti Page, is an American singer, one of the best-known female artists in traditional pop music...
,
Johnny MathisJohnny Mathis is an American singer of popular music.One of the last in a long line of traditional male vocalists who emerged before the 1960s, Mathis concentrated on romantic jazz and pop standards for the adult contemporary audience through to the 1980s...
,
Perry ComoPierino "Perry" Como was an Italian-American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with it in 1943. "Mr...
,
Doris DayDoris Mary Anne von Kappelhoff , known by her stage name Doris Day, is an American singer and actress.With the versatility to sing, dance, and play comedy and dramatic roles, she became one of America's biggest box-office stars. Day has 39 movies to her credit, even though she retired from films in...
, and others. By the 1970s, softer songs by artists like
The CarpentersThe Carpenters were a vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter. Carpenters was the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and press materials is...
,
Anne MurrayMorna Anne Murray, CC, ONS is a Grammy Award-winning Canadian singer. Murray has performed in Pop, Country and Adult Contemporary styles. So far, her albums have sold over 54 million copies....
,
John DenverJohn Denver was an American country music/folk singer-songwriter and folk rock musician. He was one of the most popular acoustic artists of the 1970s in terms of record sales, recording and releasing around 300 songs, of which about 200 were composed by him. He was named Poet Laureate of Colorado...
,
Barry ManilowBarry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, entertainer, and performer, best known for such recordings as "I Write the Songs", "Mandy", "Weekend in New England" and "Copacabana"....
,
Barbra Streisand Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, film and theatre actress. She has also achieved note as a composer, liberal political activist, film producer, and film director. She has won two Academy Awards, ten Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, and a Peabody all by the age of...
,
Dionne WarwickDionne Warwick is an American singer, actress, activist, United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, former United States Ambassador of Health, and humanitarian. She is best known for her partnership with songwriters and producers Burt Bacharach and Hal David...
,
Neil DiamondNeil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter. Diamond is one of pop music's most enduring and successful singer-songwriters. As a successful pop music performer, Diamond scored a number of hits worldwide in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s...
, and others were added to the mix on many stations. Also, some of these stations even played soft songs by artists like
Elvis PresleyElvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. A cultural icon, he is commonly known simply as Elvis and is also sometimes referred to as The King of Rock 'n' Roll or The King....
, Beatles,
Billy JoelBilly Joel is an American rock musician, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist in the United States, according to the RIAA....
, and other rock-based artists. The main test for the vocals played was not the background of the artist but whether or not the song is extremely soft. All vocals on such stations had to be extremely soft. Therefore, on one hand a song like "
She's Out Of My Life"She's Out of My Life" is a song written by musical artist Tom Bahler. He wrote the song about Karen Carpenter, who broke up with Bahler after discovering he had fathered a child with another woman...
" by a non-core artist like
Michael JacksonMichael Joseph Jackson , known as the "King of Pop", was an American musician and one of the most commercially successful and influential entertainers of all time...
would be heard on some of these stations; similarly, "
Crazy for You"Crazy for You" is a single by American singer-songwriter Madonna for the 1985 film Vision Quest. It also appears remixed on the 1990 compilation album The Immaculate Collection and was re-released on February 24, 1991 by Sire Records to promote the album...
" by
MadonnaMadonna is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, and raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977, for a career in modern dance...
. On the other hand, even uptempo jazzier songs by standards artists, such as "
Detour"Detour " is a Western swing ballad written by Paul Westmoreland in 1945.The title comes from the repetition of detour in the chorus:"Trav'lin down life's crooked roadLots of things I never knowed,...
" by
Patti PageClara Ann Fowler , known by her professional name Patti Page, is an American singer, one of the best-known female artists in traditional pop music...
, would not be heard on beautiful music stations except during specialty shows.
Also, during weekday morning drive times, most beautiful music stations increased the vocals to as much as 50 percent in order to accommodate a broader audience.
While these stations were mostly playing instrumentals, some had a couple of specialty programs that were vocal based such as a Big Band program on Saturday nights, a Frank Sinatra show sometime on the weekends, and maybe a program featuring Broadway showtunes.
Generally, the recordings heard on beautiful music stations were newly orchestrated arrangements of the songs of the day. These were available from the major record labels and performed by such artists as
Andre KostelanetzAndré Kostelanetz was a popular orchestral music conductor and arranger, one of the pioneers of easy listening music.-Biography:...
,
Percy FaithPercy Faith was a Canadian-born bandleader, orchestrator and composer, known for his lush arrangements of pop and Christmas standards. He is often credited with creating the "easy listening" or "mood music" format which became staples of American popular music in the 1950s and continued well into...
,
MantovaniAnnunzio Paolo Mantovani , known by the mononym Mantovani, was a popular conductor and light orchestra-style entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature...
, the
101 Strings101 Strings was an umbrella term for a highly successful easy listening symphonic music organization, with a discography exceeding a hundred albums and a creative lifetime of roughly thirty years. Their LPs were individualized by the slogan "The Sound of Magnificence", a puffy cloud logo and...
,
Billy VaughnRichard "Billy" Vaughn was a singer, multi-instrumentalist, and orchestra leader.He was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, where his father was a barber who loved music and inspired Billy to teach himself to play the mandolin at age 3, while suffering a case of the measles...
, The Living Strings,
Frank ChacksfieldFrank Chacksfield was a popular English conductor in the easy listening style. From the 1950s onwards, Chacksfield was one of Britain's most famous orchestra leaders, and his fame spread around the world. Early in his career he was fortunate to have several big sellers in the United States, which...
, and many, many others. When the record companies cut back on releasing this material, syndicators of the format had custom recordings produced for them, performed by many different orchestras from around the world. These new custom recordings were usually instrumental versions of current or recent
rock and rollRock and roll is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States after World War II in the late 1940s, from a combination of the rhythms of the blues, from the African American culture, and from America's country music and gospel music scenes...
or
popPop music is a music genre that developed from the mid-1950s as a softer alternative to rock 'n' roll and later to rock music. It has a focus on commercial recording, often orientated towards a youth market, usually through the medium of relatively short and simple love songs...
hit songs, a move that was thought would give the stations more mass appeal without
selling out"Selling out" refers to the compromising of one's integrity, morality and principles in exchange for money, 'success' or other personal gain. It is commonly associated with attempts to increase mass appeal or acceptability to mainstream society...
, but also disgusted some longtime listeners of the format. Some stations would also occasionally play earlier
big bandA big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from the early 1930s until the late 1940s. Big bands evolved with the times and continue to today. A big band typically consists of approximately 12 to 25 musicians and...
-era recordings from the 1940s and early 1950s.
Many beautiful music stations would air a few
Christmas songsChristmas Songs is a 2005 album by Diana Krall performed with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. This is Krall's first full-length album of Christmas songs , and her first studio album with a big band...
per hour beginning shortly before
ThanksgivingThanksgiving Day, or Thanksgiving, presently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, has been an annual tradition in the United States since 1863. It did not become a federal holiday until 1941...
. Then sometimes as early as the first of December, they would switch to wall to wall Christmas music and continue on until New Years Day. The vocal content would increase to about 40 to 60 percent at that point. There would then be a special marathon of seasonal music on December 24 and December 25. After the 25th, most continued to play wall to wall Christmas music until the first of the year. This concept was later borrowed (and expanded upon) by Soft AC,
OldiesOldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on a period 15 to 55 years before the present day.In the 1980s and 1990s, "oldies" meant the 15 years from the birth of rock n roll to the beginning of the singer-songwriter era of the early 1970s, or about 1955 to 1972.In...
, and even some
country musicCountry music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains...
and Hot AC stations. Today, the average wall to wall Christmas format ends at around midnight on the 26th of December.
The predominantly instrumental-vocal mix is still in use today, mainly by
smooth jazzSmooth jazz is a sub-genre of jazz which is influenced stylistically by R&B, funk and pop.Beginning in the early 1970s, it was an evolution into jazz with a modern, electronic sensibility...
stations.
List of stations
Some of the most notable and highest-rated beautiful music stations, in addition to those already mentioned, included:
- WPCH in Atlanta
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the state of Georgia, as well as the urban core of one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States....
- WVTL
WVTL is a radio station broadcasting a Beautiful Music format. Located near Amsterdam, New York, in the town of Florida, the station serves the Albany area...
in Amsterdam, New York
- WLIF
WLIF is a radio station located in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States. It is currently owned and operated by CBS Radio. Its new studios are located in the Mount Washington section of Baltimore, while its transmitter is located two miles northeast in Hampton, Maryland.The station's origins...
and Art Wander-programmed WBALWBAL is a news-talk radio station located in Baltimore, Maryland. It broadcasts on 1090 kHz and is a clear channel station on the AM band with 50 kW of power. It has the highest signal strength of any radio station in Maryland and its directional nighttime signal reaches as far as Nova Scotia...
-AM in BaltimoreBaltimore is an independent city and the largest city in the state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore City in order to distinguish it from surrounding...
- WHDH-FM
WJMN is a successful Rhythmic Top 40 station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Its current slogan is "Hip Hop and Today's Hit Music!". The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications. Its broadcasts can be heard as far north as the White Mountains under good conditions, as well as in...
, WHUEWZLX is a prominent classic rock radio station in the Boston market. WZLX was one of the first classic rock FM stations in America...
-AM/FM, and WJIB-FMWTKK is a New England commercial talk radio station, first broadcast out of Boston on 96.9 FM beginning in 1999. It can be heard in eastern Massachusetts, the northernmost area of Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire and southern Maine...
in Boston
- WLKW-FM
WWBB is a radio station in Providence, Rhode Island. The station mainly plays classic hits and oldies from the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. The station is also carried as background music on several local access channels in southeastern Massachusetts...
and WHJYWHJY is a commercial radio station in Providence, Rhode Island owned by Clear Channel that broadcasts at 94.1 MHz. .WHJY plays classic and mainstream rock, and has been doing so since September 4, 1981. Previously, it was a Beautiful Music format station known as "WHJY - Joy"...
in ProvidenceProvidence is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island, and one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the estimated second or third largest city in the New England region...
- WEZN in Bridgeport, CT
- WHBC-FM
WHBC-FM is a commercial FM radio station in Canton, Ohio, USA, broadcasting at 94.1 MHz with a Hot AC format. The station was established in 1948 as the sister station to WHBC , and it has been commonly owned with the AM station ever since....
in Canton, OhioCanton is the county seat of Stark County in northeastern Ohio, approximately south of Akron and south of Cleveland.Founded in 1805 on the West and Middle Branches of the Nimishillen Creek, Canton became a manufacturing center because of its numerous railroad lines...
- WEZC
WKQC is K-104.7, an adult contemporary radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina. It features the hits of yesterday and today, similar to Charlotte's other AC radio station, main competitor Lite 102.9...
, WBT-FMWLNK, known on the air as 107.9 The Link, is a 100,000 watt radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina. It broadcasts at 107.9 MHz, primarily serving the Charlotte metropolitan area. On air programming consists of female-oriented talk radio, combined with Hot Adult Contemporary music.The station...
and WRLX in CharlotteCharlotte is the largest city in the state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. Charlotte's population was estimated to be 687,456 in 2008, making it the 18th largest city in the United States. Residents of Charlotte are referred to as "Charlotteans"...
- WCLR
WTMX is an adult top 40 radio station licensed to Skokie, IL in the Chicagoland market. It is owned by Bonneville International....
, WLAKWLIT-FM is a radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, USA, the station serves the Chicago area. The station is currently owned by Clear Channel Communications.In February 2006, WLIT began broadcasting in High Definition...
, and WLOOWILV is a radio station broadcasting an Adult Contemporary format. Licensed to Chicago, Illinois, USA, the station serves the Chicago area. The station is currently owned by Bonneville International. The station is also broadcast on HD radio....
in Chicago
- WDOK
WDOK is a commercial FM radio station in Cleveland, Ohio broadcasting at 102.1 MHz with an adult contemporary format. Studios are located at One Radio Lane along with CBS Radio sister station WQAL, and its transmitter is located in Parma on a tower that it shares with WQHS-TV channel 61...
, WKSWWKSW is a Country radio station in Urbana, Ohio, serving the area to the northeast of Dayton. The station is owned by Main Line Broadcasting.-Early history:...
, WDBNWDBN is a radio station broadcasting a classic rock format. Licensed to Wrightsville, Georgia, USA. The station is currently owned by Dowdy Partners.-History:...
, WBEAWBEA is a Top 40 Mainstream radio station licenced to Southold, New York and serving the east end of Long Island plus southern Connecticut...
, WNOB, and WQALWQAL is a commercial FM radio station in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, broadcasting at 104.1 MHz with a Hot AC format. Studios are located at One Radio Lane along with CBS Radio sister station WDOK....
in ClevelandCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border...
- KRDO-FM
KATC-FM is a radio station in Colorado Springs, Colorado USA broadcasting at 95.1 FM. The station has been broadcasting a Country music format since July 2006...
in Colorado SpringsColorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is located just east of the geographic center of the state and south of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. At 6,035 feet the city sits over one mile above...
- KMEZ-FM and KOAX in Dallas/Fort Worth
- WDAQ
WDAQ , "98Q") is a Adult Top 40 station licenced to Danbury, Connecticut and serving the immediate Danbury area. The station is owned by Berkshire Broadcasting Corp, along with sister stations WLAD and WREF)...
in Danbury, CT
- WHIO
WHKO is a country music radio station licensed to Dayton, Ohio. The station is owned by Cox Radio, Inc. With its 50,000 watt signal, WHKO is one of the strongest FM stations in the Southwestern Ohio area, and frequently makes mention of this during on-air promos...
in DaytonDayton is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. The population was 166,179 at the 2000 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 848,153 in the 2000 census. Dayton is the fourth largest...
- KLIR
KIMN is a Hot Adult Contemporary radio station in Denver, Colorado. This station broadcasts at 100.3 MHz with an effective radiated power of 97 kW and is under ownership of Wilks Broadcasting, which has bought the entire Denver area cluster from CBS Radio.-History:The station signed on the air on...
and KOSIKOSI is a commercial radio station located in Denver, Colorado, broadcasting on 101.1 FM. KOSI airs a soft adult contemporary music format branded as "KOSI 101".-History:...
in DenverThe City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the state of Colorado, in the United States. Denver is a consolidated city-county located in the South Platte River Valley on the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
- WLDM
WKQI, known as "Channel 9-5-5," is a rhythmic-leaning Top 40 radio station in Detroit, Michigan, owned by Clear Channel Communications. WKQI transmits its signal with an effective radiated power of 100,000 watts from an antenna 430 feet in height located at the intersection of Greenfield Road and...
(later WCZY-FM), WCZY-AM (FORMERLY WDEE-AM)WJR-FMWDVD is a hot adult contemporary radio station in Detroit, Michigan, broadcasting at 96.3 MHz on the FM dial. WDVD's studios and offices are located in the Fisher Building near downtown Detroit. WDVD's transmitter is located in Oakland County in Royal Oak Township at 8 Mile Road and Wyoming Avenue...
, WWJ-FM (later WJOI) and WOMCWOMC is a Classic Hits radio station broadcasting in the Detroit, Michigan, USA area. WOMC's transmitter and studios are located on Woodward Heights . near Interstate 75 in Ferndale, Michigan. WOMC broadcasts with an effective radiated power of 190,000 watts from an antenna height of 361 feet...
in DetroitDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
- WFRE
WFRE is a radio station located in Frederick, Maryland, in the United States. It plays country music and is owned by Clear Channel Communications along with its sister station 930 WFMD...
in Frederick, MDFrederick is a city in west-central Maryland, United States. It is the county seat of Frederick County, the largest county by area in the state of Maryland. Frederick is an outlying community of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of a...
- WOOD-FM
WOOD-FM , Grand Rapids, Michigan, is an adult contemporary music formatted radio station on the frequency of 105.7 FM. The station signed on for the first time in 1962. WOOD-FM aired a Beautiful Music format for decades, which in the early 1990s evolved into the current AC format.WOOD-FM is...
in Grand Rapids, MichiganGrand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River and is approximately 30 miles from Lake Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 197,800, making it the 114th largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Kent County,...
- WGLD
WVBZ , known as "The Buzz", is a Active Rock radio station licensed to High Point, North Carolina, that serves the Piedmont Triad region, including Greensboro and Winston Salem. The Clear Channel Communications outlet broadcasts at 100.3 MHz with an ERP of 100 kW.-History:The station was WGLD, a...
in Greensboro, NCGreensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city, by population, in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. As of the 2000 census, Greensboro was home to 223,891 residents...
- WRCH
WRCH is a radio station in the Hartford, Connecticut, U.S. area and broadcasts at 100.5 FM. Its transmitter is located on Rattlesnake Mountain with antenna on the WTIC-TV tower, with a backup transmitter in "Radio Park" behind the Connecticut School of Broadcasting , with studios and offices...
and WKSSWKSS is a Top 40 Mainstream station based in Hartford, Connecticut.The city of license is Hartford-Meriden, Connecticut, a unique two-city legal identifier....
in HartfordHartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located in Hartford County on the Connecticut River, north of the center of the state, south of Springfield, Massachusetts. Its 2006 population of 124,512 ranks Hartford as the state's second-largest city, after Bridgeport. New...
- KYND-FM
KKBQ-FM, "The New 93Q", is a Houston-based Radio station with a country music format. Its transmitter is located in Missouri City, Texas. The station is owned by Cox Radio and is part of the Houston Radio cluster including KGLK, KHPT & KTHT. KKBQ has been nominated twice for Country Music...
, KODA-AMKLAT , branded as "La Tremenda 1010"), is a Spanish language news-talk radio station in the Houston, Texas, metropolitan area. It is currently owned by Univision. The station's name, La Tremenda 1010 was a slogan invented by the station's founder Marcos Rodriguez, Sr...
/FMKODA, known as "Sunny 99.1", is an FM radio station licensed to Houston, Texas. The station's transmitters are in Missouri City, Texas. It is a mainstream adult contemporary station, marketed to the at-work listener...
, KXYZ in HoustonHouston is the fourth-largest city in the United States and the largest city within the state of Texas. As of the 2008 U.S. Census estimate, the city has a population of 2.2 million within an area of 600 square miles . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of...
- WRSA-FM
WRSA-FM is an adult contemporary music-formatted radio station serving the Huntsville, Alabama, area.The broadcast transmitter and tower for WRSA-FM is located on Brindlee Mountain.-Personalities:...
in Huntsville, AlabamaHuntsville is a city, centrally located in the northern most part of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is located in Madison county and extends west into neighboring Limestone county. Huntsville is the county seat of Madison county, and the fourth largest city in Alabama. The 2000 census estimated...
- WXTZ-FM in Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. The United States Census estimated the city's population, excluding the included towns, at 798,382 in 2008...
- WKTZ in Jacksonville
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida, and is the county seat of Duval County. Since 1968, as a result of the consolidation of the city and county government, and a corresponding expansion of the city limits to include almost the entire county, Jacksonville became the...
- KBIG, KJOI, KOST
KOST is a radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California with an adult contemporary musical format. It is one of two adult contemporary formatted radio station in the Los Angeles/Orange County area, the other being sister KBIG, although KOST is softer and plays hits from the mid 1960s to today,...
, and KWST-FM in Los AngelesLos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
- WDBN
WQMX is an FM radio station broadcasting to the Akron, Ohio area. It is licensed to nearby Medina, Ohio, and operates on 94.9 MHz with a country music format. It is owned by the Rubber City Radio Group, Inc. which also owns Akron's WAKR and WONE-FM....
in Medina, OhioMedina Medina Medina ( is a city in Medina County, Ohio, United States. In 2009, CNNMoney named Medina the 40th best American city to live in. The population was 25,139 at the 2000 census. The 2009 projected population was estimated at 26,200...
(served Akron, Canton, and Cleveland markets)
- WLYF
WLYF is an adult contemporary music formatted radio station that broadcasts in Miami Gardens, Florida. The station targets women aged 25-54...
in MiamiMiami is a major coastal city in southeastern Florida, in the United States. Miami is the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida. With an estimated population of 424,662 in 2007, Miami is the largest city within the Miami metropolitan area, which is the...
- WEZW
WXSS is a mainstream Top 40 radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is licensed to Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. They are known as "103.7 Kiss FM" and are owned by Entercom, along with WMYX-FM and WSSP. Its main competitor is WKKV. Kiss FM has taken 3rd place for the past 4 quarters in the Arbitron...
in MilwaukeeMilwaukee is the largest city in Wisconsin and 23rd largest in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. Its estimated 2008 population was 604,477. Milwaukee is the main cultural and economic center of the...
- WAYL
KXXR is an active rock radio station broadcasting to the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. It is owned by Citadel Broadcasting, which also owns KQRS-FM and the three station trimulcast known as "Love 105"...
and KEEYK102 is a country music station serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul market of Minnesota. It is the most popular country station in the area, and often comes in just below area powerhouses KQRS-FM and WCCO in overall ratings. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications...
in Minneapolis-Saint Paul
- WRFM
WWPR-FM, also known as "Power 105.1", is a Mainstream Urban radio station that features hip-hop and R&B licensed to New York City that serves the Greater New York area....
and WTFMWKTU is a radio station based in New York City. The station's broadcast transmitter is located on the top of the Empire State Building and its city of license is Lake Success, New York, with offices formerly in the "Newport" section of Jersey City, New Jersey...
in New York City
- WVNJ
WHTZ, also known as Z100, is a radio station that serves New York City metropolitan area, broadcasting on the FM band at a frequency of 100.3 MHz. Licensed to Newark, New Jersey, the station is currently owned by Clear Channel Communications...
in NewarkBrick City redirects here. For the township in Ocean County, see Brick Township, New Jersey.Newark is the largest city in New Jersey, and the county seat of Essex County. Newark has a population of 281,402, making it the largest municipality in New Jersey and the 65th largest city in the U.S...
- WKCI-FM in New Haven, CT
- WDBO-FM
WWKA is the callsign of K92FM, a Country radio station in Orlando, Florida. The station is owned by Cox Radio, and has had a country format since 1982. Previous owners include The Outlet Company and New City Communications....
and WSSPWTKS-FM 104.1 is a FM radio station airing a talk radio format. The station is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to broadcast from Cocoa Beach, Florida , and serves mainly the Orlando and Central Florida areas.Most of the programs are designed to appeal to young adults...
in Orlando, FloridaOrlando is a major city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan region...
- KDOT and KRFM (later KQYT) in Phoenix
Phoenix is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the fifth most populous city in the United States...
- WKJF (later WKOI and WJOI) and WSHH
WSHH is an adult contemporary radio station based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The station, which is owned by Renda Broadcasting, operates at 99.7 MHz with an ERP of 15.5 kW...
in PittsburghPittsburgh is a city in and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and the second largest city in the state. Its population was 334,563 at the 2000 census; by 2006, it was estimated to have fallen to 312,819. The population of the seven-county metropolitan area is...
- KQFM
KKRZ is a commercial broadcast radio station in Portland, Oregon, also known as Z-100, broadcasts popular rhythmic-leaning Top 40 Mainstream music.-History:...
and KXL-FM in PortlandPortland is a city located in the Northwestern United States, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the state of Oregon. As of July 2008, it has an estimated population of 575,930, making it the 29th most populous in the United States. It has been referred to as the most...
- WPVR
WSLC-FM is a Country formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Roanoke, Virginia, serving the New River Valley. WSLC-FM is owned and operated by Mel Wheeler, Inc.-History:...
(now WSLCWSLC-FM is a Country formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Roanoke, Virginia, serving the New River Valley. WSLC-FM is owned and operated by Mel Wheeler, Inc.-History:...
) in Roanoke, VAFor the metropolitan area, see Roanoke Metropolitan Area.Roanoke is an independent city located in the Roanoke Metropolitan Area and the tenth-largest city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Roanoke is also part of the Roanoke Region of Virginia, and is the largest city in the Roanoke Valley...
- WEZO
WRMM-FM is a radio station licensed to Rochester, New York, USA, the station serves the Rochester area. The station is currently owned by Stephens Media Group - Rochester, LLC....
in RochesterRochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. The Rochester metropolitan area is the second largest economy in New York State, behind the New York City metropolitan area. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and...
- KAER
KGBY is a Hot AC-formatted radio station serving the Sacramento, California area and broadcasts at 92.5 FM. They are owned by Clear Channel Communications. My925 is one of two Hot AC stations in the market, the other being KZZO. But unlike the latter, KGBY offers a more upbeat approach featuring...
, KCTCKCTC AM 1320 is a radio station in Sacramento, California that has been affiliated with ESPN Radio since February 2007.KCTC's history dates back to 1947, although in its glory years when it was an FM stereo radio station at 96.1 MHz, it broadcast a variant of the Beautiful Music format which...
and KEWTKNCI is a commercial radio station in Sacramento, California. The station airs a country music format.The last three letters of the call sign - "NCI" - comes from Nationwide Communications, a division of Nationwide Insurance that once owned the station...
and in SacramentoSacramento is the capital of the U.S. state of California, and the county seat of Sacramento County. Located along the Sacramento River and just south of the American River's confluence in California's expansive Central Valley. With a 2007 estimated population of 460,242, it is the seventh-largest...
- WGER
WGER is a radio station licensed to Saginaw, Michigan broadcasting a hot adult contemporary format.WGER began broadcasting at 102.5 MHz under the WNEM-FM call and featured a Beautiful Music format for the first several decades of its existence...
in Saginaw, MichiganSaginaw is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. Once two independent cities, the consolidated City of Saginaw was once a thriving lumber town and manufacturing center. Saginaw and Saginaw County lie in the Flint/Tri-Cities region of Michigan...
- K-JOY
There have been three different stations in San Diego called KJQY or K-Joy. The original was an easy listening music radio station based in San Diego...
and XTRA in San DiegoSan Diego , named after Saint Didacus , is the second-largest city in California and the ninth largest city in the United States, located along the Pacific Ocean on the west coast of the United States. The US Census Bureau estimates the city's population at 1,279,329 as of 2008...
- KFOG
KFOG is an FM radio station in San Francisco, California, broadcasting simultaneously on 104.5 and sister station KFFG 97.7 FM MHz. The 97.7 transmitter is located near Cupertino, California, and serves listeners in the South Bay, San Jose, California, and Silicon Valley who are unable to get a...
in San FranciscoSan Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,976. It is the eighth most densely populated city in the U.S. and is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the larger San...
- KEUT
KMPS-FM is a country music station based in Seattle, Washington. The CBS Radio outlet broadcasts at 94.1 MHz with its main transmitter operating at 69 kW effective radiated power and its three auxiliary transmitters operating at 57 kW, 55 kW and 53 kW ERP. All four of its transmitters are located...
, KIXIKIXI is an AM radio station licensed to Mercer Island-Seattle, Washington on the frequency of 880 kHz. It operates 24 hours a day with a daytime power of 50,000 Watts and a nighttime power of 10,000 Watts.-Format:...
-AM/FM and KSEAKKWF , known as "100.7 The Wolf", is a Country music radio station based in Seattle, Washington. The Entercom outlet broadcasts at 100.7 MHz with an effective radiated power of 57 kW...
in Seattle
- KEZK
KEZK-FM is a radio station broadcasting a Adult Contemporary format. Licensed to St. Louis, Missouri, USA, the station serves the St. Louis and southwestern Illinois areas. The station is currently owned by CBS Radio Holdings Inc. and features programing from Westwood One. The station is also...
in St. LouisSt. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. With an estimated population of 354,361 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of Greater St. Louis, population 2,866,517, the largest urban area in Missouri and sixteenth largest in the United States...
- WJYW
WSFM is a radio station broadcasting a modern rock format. Licensed to Oak Island, North Carolina, USA, the station serves the Wilmington area. The station is currently owned by Capitol Broadcasting Company.-History:...
in Southport, North CarolinaSouthport is a city in Brunswick County, North Carolina, near the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Its population was listed as 2,351 for the 2000 census. It is part of the Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area...
- WDUV
WDUV, "The Dove," is a radio station serving the Tampa Bay media market in Florida.Broadcasting on 105.5 FM, the station specializes in playing the "easy listening" format, which announcers for the station describe as "continuous relaxing easy favorites." The format is actually a very gold-leaning...
,WFLA-FM and WWBA-FMWXGL, known as "The New 107.3 The Eagle - Tampa Bay's Classic Hits Station", is a Cox-owned radio station located on the FM dial at 107.3 in Tampa, Florida. The station plays classic hits, primarily from the 1970s and 1980s, but also the 1990's...
in Tampa/St. PetersburgThe Tampa Bay Area, or Tampa Bay, after the body of water it surrounds, is the second most populated metropolitan region in the state of Florida, the 19th-largest metro area in the United States, the fourth largest in the Southeast behind only Miami, Atlanta and Washington, and second largest on...
- WLQR
WRVF is an American adult contemporary music formatted radio station in Toledo, Ohio, owned by Clear Channel Communications. The station boasts a signal that covers most of northwestern Ohio and southeastern Michigan and can be heard well in parts of the Detroit area...
in Toledo, OhioToledo is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio within the Great Lakes Region and the county seat of Lucas County. Named after Toledo, Spain, it is located on the western end of Lake Erie, on the Michigan border. It is the principal city in the Toledo Metropolitan Statistical Area. In the 2000 census,...
- WWYZ
WWYZ is a Country Station licensed to Waterbury, Connecticut, broadcasting at 92.5 FM. It is currently owned by Clear Channel Communications, but was formerly locally owned by the Gilmore family as a sister to WATR and WATR-TV...
in Western Connecticut
- WEAT
WEAT-FM, on-air known as Sunny 104.3, is a radio station licensed to the West Palm Beach, Florida market. It is owned by CBS Radio, and broadcasts at 104.3 FM....
in West Palm BeachWest Palm Beach, also known as West Palm, is the most populous city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The city is also the oldest incorporated municipality in South Florida. West Palm's economy is currently ranked #4 in the Milken Institute Best Performing 296 U.S. Cities index...
- WFYN
WEOW, is a commercial radio station broadcasting at 92.7 FM with a CHR/Top 40 format is owned and operated by Clear Channel Communications. WEOW is the current home to DJs such as the infamous Rude Girl, Molly Blue, and Bill Bravo. Run out of Key West, Florida, WEOW is considered the southern-most...
in Key West Key West is a city in Monroe County, Florida, United States.The city encompasses the island of Key West, the part of Stock Island north of U.S. 1 , Sigsbee Park , Fleming Key , and Sunset Key...
- CHQM in Vancouver
- CHFI-FM
CHFI-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts an adult contemporary format at 98.1 on the FM dial in Toronto, Ontario. It is the most-listened to radio station in Canada....
and CKFM in TorontoToronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. With over 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populous municipality in North America...
- CJFM in Montreal
- WWMD in Hagerstown, Maryland
Hagerstown is a city in northwestern Maryland, United States. It is the county seat of Washington County, and, by many definitions, the largest city in a region known as Western Maryland...
Many of the aforementioned stations were owned or programmed by Schulke or competing syndicators such as Bonneville and Century (Bonneville purchased Schulke in 1984). Ed Winton, a protege of Gordon McLendon, brought the format to Connie B. Gay's WGAY 1050 AM in
Silver Spring, MarylandSilver Spring is an urbanized, unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. After Baltimore and Columbia, the Silver Spring CDP is the third most populous place in Maryland....
changing AM to WQMR. Simulcasting on WGAY-FM (now
WIHTWIHT is a radio station that serves the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area. The station broadcasts 24 hours a day. WIHT is licensed to and owned by Clear Channel Communications...
) and WQMR-AM (
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
, and
Silver Spring, MarylandSilver Spring is an urbanized, unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. After Baltimore and Columbia, the Silver Spring CDP is the third most populous place in Maryland....
) Ed Winton, Bill Doty and Alan Campbell programmed a very successful independent beautiful music format beginning in the early 1960s and ending in the early 1990s. Early on, WQMR/WGAY described its format as "the music 'twixt pop and classical." Later,
Bob ChandlerRobert Donald Chandler was an American football wide receiver in the National Football League.-Professional career:...
, tutored by Winton, a leading exponent of the genre, was Operations Director. He organized repeated trips to Europe to make instrumental cover recordings of popular vocal music, which were then made available to beautiful music stations in other markets. Chandler's continued work to keep the format salient paid off, as WGAY reached number one 12+ in the Washington Arbitron ratings for the first time in 1984, at a time when the format as a whole was beginning to die off.
Declining years
As the format continued into the 1980s, more vocals were incorporated into each set, and the vocals played on beautiful music stations were more likely to be from
softer-styledSoft rock is a style of music which uses the techniques of rock and roll to compose a softer, more toned-down sound for listening. Soft rock songs generally tend to focus on themes like love, everyday life and relationships...
"top 40" artists such as
Barbra Streisand Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, film and theatre actress. She has also achieved note as a composer, liberal political activist, film producer, and film director. She has won two Academy Awards, ten Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, and a Peabody all by the age of...
,
The CarpentersThe Carpenters were a vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter. Carpenters was the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and press materials is...
,
Billy JoelBilly Joel is an American rock musician, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist in the United States, according to the RIAA....
,
Neil DiamondNeil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter. Diamond is one of pop music's most enduring and successful singer-songwriters. As a successful pop music performer, Diamond scored a number of hits worldwide in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s...
,
Whitney HoustonWhitney Elizabeth Houston is an American recording artist, actress, and former fashion model. A relative to several prominent soul singers, including her mother Cissy Houston, cousins Dee Dee and Dionne Warwick, and godmother Aretha Franklin, Houston began singing at her New Jersey church as a...
, Beatles,
Elton JohnSir Elton Hercules John, CBE is an English singer-songwriter, composer and pianist.In his four-decade career, John has sold more than 200 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. His single, Candle in the Wind 1997, has sold over 37 million copies, becoming the...
, and even by a few then-Hot AC-type artists, such as
MadonnaMadonna is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, and raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977, for a career in modern dance...
, than from "
adult standardsAdult standards is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations.Adult standards is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly those persons over 50 years of age, but it is mostly targeted for senior citizens...
" artists like
Dean MartinDean Martin was an American singer, film actor and comedian. He was one of the best known musical artists of the 1950s and 1960s. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "Mambo Italiano", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That A Kick In The...
,
Andy WilliamsHoward Andrew "Andy" or "Paul" Williams is an American pop singer. Andy Williams has recorded 18 gold and three platinum certified albums. When Ronald Reagan was president, he declared Andy's voice to be "a national treasure". He had his own popular TV variety show from 1962–71...
and
Doris DayDoris Mary Anne von Kappelhoff , known by her stage name Doris Day, is an American singer and actress.With the versatility to sing, dance, and play comedy and dramatic roles, she became one of America's biggest box-office stars. Day has 39 movies to her credit, even though she retired from films in...
. Over time, on many stations, the instrumentals were cut back to about half and then eliminated completely, making way for the "light adult contemporary" format.
By the end of the decade, the popularity of other formats, such as Top 40, album oriented rock, and
classic rockClassic rock was originally conceived as a radio station programming format which evolved from the album oriented rock format in the early-1980s...
began to dominate the FM dial. Other beautiful music stations kept playing instrumentals but dropping the
Percy FaithPercy Faith was a Canadian-born bandleader, orchestrator and composer, known for his lush arrangements of pop and Christmas standards. He is often credited with creating the "easy listening" or "mood music" format which became staples of American popular music in the 1950s and continued well into...
- and
Henry ManciniHenry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger. He is remembered particularly for being a composer of film and television scores. Mancini also won a record number of Grammy awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995...
-type artists in favor of
Smooth JazzSmooth jazz is a sub-genre of jazz which is influenced stylistically by R&B, funk and pop.Beginning in the early 1970s, it was an evolution into jazz with a modern, electronic sensibility...
instrumentalists like
Kenny GKenneth Bruce Gorelick , better known by his stage name Kenny G, is a Grammy winning American saxophonist. His fourth album, Duotones, brought him breakthrough success in 1986. Kenny's main instrument is the soprano saxophone, but he also on occasion plays alto and tenor saxophone and flute. He...
,
Grover Washington, Jr.Grover Washington Jr. was an American jazz-funk / soul-jazz saxophonist. Along with John Klemmer, George Benson, David Sanborn, Bob James, Chuck Mangione, Herb Alpert, and Spyro Gyra, he is considered by many to be one of the founders of the smooth jazz genre.Throughout the 1970s and 1980s,...
,
Chuck MangioneCharles Frank "Chuck" Mangione is an American flugelhorn player and composer who achieved international success in 1977 with his jazz-pop single, "Feels So Good"...
, and others, usually meeting with a large negative outcry from "traditional" beautiful music fans as a result and often resulting in decreased ratings (which would result in the station evolving to adult-contemporary or all-out smooth jazz, or dropping the format altogether). Advertisers were going after a younger audience, and some stations totally dropped the easy listening-based format and switched to whatever seemed more appropriate for the audiences that the advertisers were going after ranging from Top 40 to rock to country to even talk.
Peters Productions was the first beautiful music syndicator to sell out its library in the late 1980s to Broadcast Programming -- known in the industry as BPI—who snapped up several other syndicators within the next few years. (BPI is now part of
Jones Radio NetworksJones Radio Networks & Jones Media Group were branches of Jones International before being sold to Triton Media Group. JRN and JMN provide local radio stations with satellite-delivered formats. They also offer other services to local radio such as news and talk programs, syndicated radio shows,...
.) Bonneville sold its beautiful music related assets to Broadcast Programming in November 1993.
Some beautiful music stations did make a successful transition into adult contemporary formats, although often not without call letter changes to drop the identity of being a so-described "
elevator musicElevator music refers to the gentle instrumental arrangements of popular music designed for playing in shopping malls, grocery stores, department stores, telephone systems , cruise ships, airports, doctors' and dentists' offices, and elevators...
" station. The aforementioned WDVR in Philadelphia, which later changed its calls to WEAZ, became AC-formatted
WBEBWBEB is a radio station broadcasting a Soft Rock/Adult Contemporary format. Licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it serves the Greater Philadelphia metropolitan area. It first began broadcasting in 1963 under the call sign WDVR. The station is currently owned by Jerry Lee...
-FM in the early 1990s and continues to this day as a highly rated station. Other examples include Chicago's WLAK-FM, which became
WLITWLIT-FM is a radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, USA, the station serves the Chicago area. The station is currently owned by Clear Channel Communications.In February 2006, WLIT began broadcasting in High Definition...
,
Charlotte'sCharlotte is the largest city in the state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. Charlotte's population was estimated to be 687,456 in 2008, making it the 18th largest city in the United States. Residents of Charlotte are referred to as "Charlotteans"...
WEZC and WRLX, which today are now, respectively,
WKQCWKQC is K-104.7, an adult contemporary radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina. It features the hits of yesterday and today, similar to Charlotte's other AC radio station, main competitor Lite 102.9...
and WLYT, and Atlanta's WPCH which became WLTM (now WUBL-FM). Other stations continue with AC formats bearing the same calls as their beautiful music predecessors, including:
KOSTKOST is a radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California with an adult contemporary musical format. It is one of two adult contemporary formatted radio station in the Los Angeles/Orange County area, the other being sister KBIG, although KOST is softer and plays hits from the mid 1960s to today,...
and KBIG in Los Angeles,
WSB-FMWSB-FM is an Atlanta radio station, and the only Atlanta radio station that plays adult contemporary music. Along with several other Atlanta radio stations, WSB-FM is owned by Cox Enterprises' publicly-traded subsidiary Cox Radio, and is the group's flagship FM station...
in Atlanta, WTVR in
Richmond, VARichmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. Like all Virginia municipalities incorporated as cities, it is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
,
WSHHWSHH is an adult contemporary radio station based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The station, which is owned by Renda Broadcasting, operates at 99.7 MHz with an ERP of 15.5 kW...
in
PittsburghPittsburgh is a city in and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and the second largest city in the state. Its population was 334,563 at the 2000 census; by 2006, it was estimated to have fallen to 312,819. The population of the seven-county metropolitan area is...
,
WOOD-FMWOOD-FM , Grand Rapids, Michigan, is an adult contemporary music formatted radio station on the frequency of 105.7 FM. The station signed on for the first time in 1962. WOOD-FM aired a Beautiful Music format for decades, which in the early 1990s evolved into the current AC format.WOOD-FM is...
in Grand Rapids, Michigan,
WDOKWDOK is a commercial FM radio station in Cleveland, Ohio broadcasting at 102.1 MHz with an adult contemporary format. Studios are located at One Radio Lane along with CBS Radio sister station WQAL, and its transmitter is located in Parma on a tower that it shares with WQHS-TV channel 61...
in Cleveland,
WLIFWLIF is a radio station located in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States. It is currently owned and operated by CBS Radio. Its new studios are located in the Mount Washington section of Baltimore, while its transmitter is located two miles northeast in Hampton, Maryland.The station's origins...
in Baltimore, KMEZ in Dallas,
KOSIKOSI is a commercial radio station located in Denver, Colorado, broadcasting on 101.1 FM. KOSI airs a soft adult contemporary music format branded as "KOSI 101".-History:...
in
Denver, COThe City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the state of Colorado, in the United States. Denver is a consolidated city-county located in the South Platte River Valley on the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
,
WNICWNIC is an American adult contemporary radio station based in Detroit, Michigan broadcasting at 100.3 MHz FM. WNIC's studios and offices are located in Farmington Hills, MI. WNIC's transmitter is located near Schoolcraft and Livernois Avenue in the City of Detroit on the near west side. WNIC...
in Detroit, and
WJBRWJBR can refer to:* WJBR , an AM radio station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan* WJBR-FM, an FM radio station licensed to Wilmington, Delaware...
in Wilmington, DE, as well as, in Canada,
CHFICHFI-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts an adult contemporary format at 98.1 on the FM dial in Toronto, Ontario. It is the most-listened to radio station in Canada....
in
TorontoToronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. With over 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populous municipality in North America...
and CHQM(FM) in Vancouver, B.C..
One of the format's pioneering stations,
WPATWPAT is the callsign of a radio station licensed to Paterson, New Jersey. Located at 930 kHz in the medium-wave AM band, the station runs paid ethnic programming....
and
WPAT-FMWPAT-FM, known on-air as "93.1 Amor", is a radio station with a Spanish-language adult contemporary format. Located on 93.1 FM, the station, which is licensed to Paterson, New Jersey, serves the New York City Metropolitan area....
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
, even evolved into an adult contemporary format at the end of 1992. Unfortunately, they continued to be perceived as easy listening, though they were more uptempo and played more current music product than cross-town
WLTWWLTW is a radio station with an adult contemporary format in New York City.The station is often number one or close to it in Arbitron ratings for New York City. From 2002 to 2004, the station generated more revenue than any other radio station in the New York market...
. They even had a Top 30 AC countdown beginning in 1993. They became evem more of an uptempo AC station resembling then crosstown
WMXVWMXV is a radio station licensed to St. Joseph, Tennessee. WMXV broadcasts as part of the Florence/Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Arbitron radio market...
(Now Urban
WWPR-FMWWPR-FM, also known as "Power 105.1", is a Mainstream Urban radio station that features hip-hop and R&B licensed to New York City that serves the Greater New York area....
) in 1994, but were eventually sold in 1996. WPAT-FM became a Spanish language soft hits station while WPAT 930 became a brokered station.
In
Tampa, FLTampa is a Gulf Coast city in Hillsborough County, on the west coast of the state of Florida in the United States. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. The population of Tampa in 2000 was 303,447...
,
WDUVWDUV, "The Dove," is a radio station serving the Tampa Bay media market in Florida.Broadcasting on 105.5 FM, the station specializes in playing the "easy listening" format, which announcers for the station describe as "continuous relaxing easy favorites." The format is actually a very gold-leaning...
also lives on with a mixture of soft AC hits and oldies and with one or two instrumentals per hour (though the instrumentals are now more likely to be of the "smooth jazz" variety). WDUV ("The Dove") is also consistently the top-rated station overall in the Tampa Arbitron ratings, despite its move in 1999 from 103.5 to the weaker 105.5 frequency. WDUV now promotes itself as "easy favorites," as opposed to "easy listening" or "beautiful music"; sister station
KRTR-AMKRTR is a radio station located in Honolulu, Hawaii. The station is owned by Cox Radio and offers a soft adult contemporary/easy listening format , broadcasting at 650 kHz with ERP of 10 Kw-U.-History:...
in
Honolulu, HawaiiHonolulu is the capital of and the most populous census-designated place in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Although Honolulu refers to the urban area on the southeastern shore of the island of Oahu, the city and the county are consolidated, known as the City and County of Honolulu, and the city and...
has a similar presentation, billing itself as "continuous relaxing easy favorites."
WTRVWTRV is a radio station broadcasting a soft adult contemporary format. The station is licensed to Walker, Michigan, and serves the Grand Rapids, Michigan market....
in Grand Rapids, MI, and
WSOS-FMWSOS-FM is a commercial radio station located in St. Augustine, Florida, broadcasting to the Jacksonville, Florida area on 94.1 FM. WSOS-FM airs a soft adult contemporary music format branded as "Sunny 94.1", positioned between beautiful music WKTZ and mainstream AC sister station WEJZ...
in Jacksonville, FL are two more examples of stations utilizing the "easy favorites" approach.
WOEZ (88.3 FM) in Knoxville, TN, which had been known as "EZ 88", featured a mix of beautiful music, standards and smooth jazz unique to its market. The station now plays a
Contemporary Christian musicContemporary Christian music is a genre of popular music which is lyrically focused on matters concerned with the Christian faith...
format as "Life 88.3".
Beautiful music today
The beautiful music format did not die completely. Today's
smooth jazzSmooth jazz is a sub-genre of jazz which is influenced stylistically by R&B, funk and pop.Beginning in the early 1970s, it was an evolution into jazz with a modern, electronic sensibility...
radio stations maintain the structure and style of the beautiful music format. And although today there are only a handful of true beautiful music stations still on the air, the format still lives on a few non-commercial radio stations, including WKTZ (90.9 FM) in Jacksonville, Florida, which is owned by
Jones CollegeJones College is a private college founded in 1918 in Jacksonville, Florida. The college is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools . The college has a total of three campus locations with the main “Arlington Campus” located in Jacksonville, Florida on the east...
and also streams its programming online. WKTZ plays many pop-standard selections and some big band material, as was common on many beautiful music stations during the 1960s and 1970s. Other non-commercial stations offering the beautiful music format include
KLUXKLUX is a radio station serving the Corpus Christi area of Texas with a Catholic format. It broadcasts on FM frequency 89.5 MHz and is under ownership of Diocesan Telecommunications....
(89.5 FM) in Corpus Christi, TX,
KHOYKhoy , , is a city in West Azarbaijan Province, Iran. It is located north of the province's capital and largest city Urmia, and 807 km north-west to Tehran. The region's economy is based around agriculture, particularly the production of fruit, grain, and timber. Khoy is nicknamed as the...
(88.1 FM) in Laredo, TX,
KNCT-FMKNCT-FM is a radio station broadcasting a Easy Listening format. Licensed to Killeen, Texas, USA, the station serves the Waco and Austin, Texas area. The station is currently owned by Central Texas College and features programing from AP Radio, American Public Media and Public Radio International....
(91.3 FM) in Killeen, TX and
WJMJWJMJ is a non-commercial radio station licensed to St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield, Connecticut, broadcasting on 88.9 FM. WJMJ started broadcasting in 1976 and operates out of the Seminary building. The tower is located on top of Johnnycake Mountain in Burlington, Connecticut. The programming...
(88.9 FM) in Hartford, CT.
WREKWREK is the radio station staffed by the students of the Georgia Institute of Technology. It is located at 91.1 MHz and on channel 17 on the Georgia Tech cable TV network, GTCN...
(91.1 FM, Atlanta) plays big band and cocktail jazz on Saturday evenings (6PM - 10PM), as a homage to the format and its roots.
Some commercial beautiful music stations do still exist as well, often in areas with large retiree populations, and are often very popular in the markets they serve, especially with older listeners. An annual influx of vacationers from colder climates has helped such stations as "Wave 101"
WAVVWAVV is a commercial radio station located in Naples, Florida, broadcasting to the southwestern Florida area on 101.1 FM. WAVV airs an easy listening music format.WAVV 101.1 FM is Southwest Florida's most listened to radio station...
(101.1 FM) Marco Island (Naples), FL.
WJIBWJIB is a radio station based in Cambridge, Massachusetts that specializes in Adult-Standards & also '50s & '60s Pop Music. It is owned by Bob Bittner Broadcasting, with a sister station: WJTO at Bath, Maine...
(AM 740) in
Cambridge, MassachusettsCambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, a nexus of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Notably, Cambridge is home to two internationally prominent...
, owned by Bob Bittner, is notable as one of the few remaining beautiful music stations serving a major metropolitan area; in fact, it features the same calls and format as a former beautiful music FM in
BostonBoston is the capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is considered the economic and cultural center of the region and is sometimes regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England"...
(now
WTKKWTKK is a New England commercial talk radio station, first broadcast out of Boston on 96.9 FM beginning in 1999. It can be heard in eastern Massachusetts, the northernmost area of Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire and southern Maine...
-FM, 96.9). WJIB also includes a large amount of
adult standardsAdult standards is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations.Adult standards is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly those persons over 50 years of age, but it is mostly targeted for senior citizens...
,
traditional pop musicTraditional pop or Classic pop or Standards music denotes, in general, Western popular music that either wholly predates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s, or to any popular music which exists concurrently to rock and roll but originated in a time before the appearance of rock and roll,...
and
oldiesOldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on a period 15 to 55 years before the present day.In the 1980s and 1990s, "oldies" meant the 15 years from the birth of rock n roll to the beginning of the singer-songwriter era of the early 1970s, or about 1955 to 1972.In...
material in its playlist. Bob Bittner also owns
WJTOWJTO 730 AM is an Adult Standards/Oldies station licensed to Bath, Maine. Formerly a news/talk station, WJTO is owned by Bob Bittner Broadcasting and is a sister station to Cambridge, Massachusetts' WJIB. Bittner bought WJTO in March 1997, as the 4th station under his ownership. WJTO 730 AM is an...
(730 AM) in Bath, ME, serving the Portland market, which features a format similar to that of WJIB.
Other examples of commercial radio stations continuing to feature the beautiful music format include
KAHMKAHM is a radio station broadcasting a Beautiful music format. The station is licensed to Prescott, Arizona and serves the Prescott/Flagstaff/Phoenix area. It first began broadcasting on September 9, 1981...
(102.1 FM) in Prescott, AZ;
WGCYWGCY is an American FM radio station broadcasting at 106.3 MHz, licensed to Gibson City, Illinois. The station is locally owned and operated by Gary McCullough and his wife Debra and began broadcasting in 1983....
(106.3 FM) in Gibson City, IL; WMUU-FM (94.5 FM) in Greenville, SC; WHLC (104.5 FM) in Highlands, NC;
KNXRKNXR is an easy-listening FM radio station in Rochester, Minnesota. It was founded by president and general manager Thomas H. Jones, and was first heard Christmas Eve 1965...
(97.5 FM) in Rochester, MN; and
CKOT-FMCKOT-FM is a Canadian radio station, airing at 101.3 FM in Tillsonburg, Ontario. The transmitter is located near the interchange of Highway 19 and Highway 401 , close to Ingersoll, with an Effective Radiated Power of 50,000 watts, on a 454 foot-/163 metre-high transmitter...
(101.3 FM, Easy 101) in Tillsonburg, ON,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. In
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...
, the national Radio Enciclopedia network features a mixture of beautiful music, classical and jazz, all of Cuban origin or recorded by Cuban performers; Radio Enciclopedia's signal at 530 kHz on the AM dial can be heard across much of the United States at night and is reportedly becoming a cult favorite among American listeners.
Jones Radio NetworksJones Radio Networks & Jones Media Group were branches of Jones International before being sold to Triton Media Group. JRN and JMN provide local radio stations with satellite-delivered formats. They also offer other services to local radio such as news and talk programs, syndicated radio shows,...
supplies beautiful music to a few commercial stations while the
Music of Your LifeMusic of Your Life has been in continuous operation since 1978 and is a satellite-delivered Radio network featuring the Adult Standards radio format...
format also features much "beautiful music" in its playlist, and
Dial GlobalDial Global is a radio syndication company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Triton Media Group.Dial Global was founded as X Radio Networks as a division of Excelsior Radio Networks. It merged with Dial Communications and Global Media in 2006, from which it derived the Dial Global name...
's
America's Best MusicAmerica'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...
satellite format also plays some "beautiful music" artists. Jones does provide the traditional Easy Listening format from the libraries of the companies it bought out decades ago. The format Jones calls "Ultra Easy Listening" is described this way: "This is the classic, cover instrumental based beautiful music format that made FM radio stations famous in the 1960’s and ‘70s. The environmental sound created by this format produces unparalleled time-spent-listening for mature audiences. It features custom instrumental recordings that stations can only get from Jones Radio Networks."
Beautiful instrumental music can also be found on
Internet radioInternet radio is an audio broadcasting service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted broadly through wireless means...
feeds such as Live365's (BEAUTIFUL instrumentals). Using Bonneville and SRP veterans, Sirius XM Radio programs a dedicated beautiful music channel (Escape) for its
satellite radioA satellite radio or subscription radio is a digital radio signal that is broadcast by a communications satellite, which covers a much wider geographical range than terrestrial radio signals....
subscribers, and the
Music ChoiceMusic Choice is a U.S. company that programs music and produces music-related content for digital cable, cell phones, and cable modem subscribers in the US. Music Choice programs dozens of audio music channels for digital cable subscribers, as well as programs and produces music-related content...
digital satellite service now has a permanent music channel devoted to the format.
MuzakMuzak Holdings LLC is a company based in metro Fort Mill, South Carolina, United States, just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, founded in 1934, that is best known for distribution of background music to retail stores and other companies....
also provides several beautiful music channels which are described as "environmental" background music channels.
Contemporary beautiful music stations
- Escape (Sirius/XM Satellite Radio)
- CJWL Ottawa, ON - 98.5 FM "The Jewel"; features a nightly Beautiful Music program as part of its Adult Standards format
- CKOT
CKOT-FM is a Canadian radio station, airing at 101.3 FM in Tillsonburg, Ontario. The transmitter is located near the interchange of Highway 19 and Highway 401 , close to Ingersoll, with an Effective Radiated Power of 50,000 watts, on a 454 foot-/163 metre-high transmitter...
Tillsonburg, ON - 101.3 FM "Easy 101"
- KHOY
Khoy , , is a city in West Azarbaijan Province, Iran. It is located north of the province's capital and largest city Urmia, and 807 km north-west to Tehran. The region's economy is based around agriculture, particularly the production of fruit, grain, and timber. Khoy is nicknamed as the...
Laredo, TX - 88.1 FM
- KLUX
KLUX is a radio station serving the Corpus Christi area of Texas with a Catholic format. It broadcasts on FM frequency 89.5 MHz and is under ownership of Diocesan Telecommunications....
Corpus Christi, TX - 89.5 FM - "Good Company"
- KNXR
KNXR is an easy-listening FM radio station in Rochester, Minnesota. It was founded by president and general manager Thomas H. Jones, and was first heard Christmas Eve 1965...
Rochester, MN - 97.5 FM
- WAVV
WAVV is a commercial radio station located in Naples, Florida, broadcasting to the southwestern Florida area on 101.1 FM. WAVV airs an easy listening music format.WAVV 101.1 FM is Southwest Florida's most listened to radio station...
Marco Island, FL - 101.1 FM "Wave 101"
- WCVU
WCVU is a radio station broadcasting a Easy Listening format. Licensed to Solana, Florida, USA. The station is currently owned by Citicasters Licenses, L.P. and features programing from Westwood One and CNN Radio.-History:...
Solana, FL - 104.9 FM "Seaview 104.9"
- WGCY
WGCY is an American FM radio station broadcasting at 106.3 MHz, licensed to Gibson City, Illinois. The station is locally owned and operated by Gary McCullough and his wife Debra and began broadcasting in 1983....
Gibson City, IL - 106.3 FM
- WHLC Highlands, NC - 104.5 FM
- WJEJ
WJEJ is a Full Service formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Hagerstown, Maryland, serving the Four-State Area. WJEJ is owned and operated by Hagerstown Broadcasting Co., Inc.-Programming:...
Hagerstown, MD - 1240 AM
- WJIB
WJIB is a radio station based in Cambridge, Massachusetts that specializes in Adult-Standards & also '50s & '60s Pop Music. It is owned by Bob Bittner Broadcasting, with a sister station: WJTO at Bath, Maine...
Cambridge, MA - 740 AM
- WJKQ
WJKQ is a radio station licensed to serve Jackson, Michigan. The station is owned by Great Lakes Community Broadcasting and is in the process of being donated to the Society for Accurate Information and Distribution Foundation pending FCC approval...
Jackson, MI - 88.5 FM "Foundation Radio"
- WJMJ
WJMJ is a non-commercial radio station licensed to St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield, Connecticut, broadcasting on 88.9 FM. WJMJ started broadcasting in 1976 and operates out of the Seminary building. The tower is located on top of Johnnycake Mountain in Burlington, Connecticut. The programming...
Hartford, CT - 88.9 FM (calls: Jesus, Mary, Joseph; operated by the local Catholic archdiocese)
- WJTO
WJTO 730 AM is an Adult Standards/Oldies station licensed to Bath, Maine. Formerly a news/talk station, WJTO is owned by Bob Bittner Broadcasting and is a sister station to Cambridge, Massachusetts' WJIB. Bittner bought WJTO in March 1997, as the 4th station under his ownership. WJTO 730 AM is an...
Bath, ME - 730 AM
- WKEZ-FM
WKEZ-FM is a radio station broadcasting a Easy Listening format. Licensed to Tavernier, Florida, USA, the station serves the Florida Keys area. The station is currently owned by Clear Channel Broadcasting Licenses, Inc..-History:...
Tavernier, FL - 96.9 FM "Easy 96.9"
- WKTZ Jacksonville, FL - 90.9 FM
- WMUU-FM Greenville, SC - 94.5 FM
- WRDV
WRDV is a U.S. public radio station serving some northern suburbs of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area. The radio station studio is located in Hatboro and the broadcast tower in Warminster. WRDV jockeys are volunteers and frequently play their own album collections on the air.-Programming:Music...
Warminster, PA - 89.3 FM / WLBS Bristol, PA - 91.7 FM (weekend show: "Bill Hower's Music Box")
- KAHM
KAHM is a radio station broadcasting a Beautiful music format. The station is licensed to Prescott, Arizona and serves the Prescott/Flagstaff/Phoenix area. It first began broadcasting on September 9, 1981...
Prescott, AZ - 102.1 "We're calm - KAHM"
- WCAM
WCAM is a radio station broadcasting an Adult Standards format.Licensed to Camden, South Carolina, USA. The station is currently owned by Kershaw Radio Corp. and features programing from CNN Radio....
Camden, SC 1580 AM
- KGUD
KGUD is a non-commercial, non-profit radio station broadcasting an Easy Listening format. Licensed to Longmont, Colorado, USA. The station is currently owned by Longmont Community Radio.-History:...
Longmont, CO - 90.7 FM "K-Good"
- Beautiful Instrumentals
Artists and music
- Some instrumental artists associated with beautiful music have included:
- 101 Strings Orchestra
- Ronnie Aldrich
Born Ronald Frank Aldrich , the only son af a store manager, was a British easy listening pianist, arranger, conductor and composer. He was just three years old when he started playing the piano being his musical education classical...
- Leroy Anderson
Leroy Anderson was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler...
- Burt Bacharach
Burt F. Bacharach is an American pianist and composer. He is known for his pop hits from the early 1960s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David, many of which were produced for and recorded by Dionne Warwick....
- John Barry
John Barry may refer to:*John Barry , commodore in the Continental Navy*John Barry , composer, leader of John Barry Seven and John Barry Orchestra...
- Les Baxter
Les Baxter was an American musician and composer.Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer...
- Ronald Binge
Ronald Binge was a British composer and arranger of light music.-Life:Ronald Binge was born in a working-class neighbourhood in Derby in the English Midlands...
- Stanley Black
Stanley Black OBE was an English light music conductor, arranger and pianist. He wrote and arranged many film scores and recorded prolifically for the Decca label...
- Caravelli
Caravelli, real name Claude Vasori is French orchestra leader, composer and arranger.-Biography:This easy listening conductor and arranger was born September 12 of 1930 in Paris, France, from Italian father and French mother....
- Frank Chacksfield
Frank Chacksfield was a popular English conductor in the easy listening style. From the 1950s onwards, Chacksfield was one of Britain's most famous orchestra leaders, and his fame spread around the world. Early in his career he was fortunate to have several big sellers in the United States, which...
- Richard Clayderman
Richard Clayderman is a French pianist who has released numerous albums including the original compositions by Paul de Senneville and Olivier Toussaint, instrumental renditions of popular music, rearrangements of movie sound tracks, ethnic music, and easy-listening arrangements of most popular...
- Eric Coates
Eric Coates was an English composer of light music and a viola player.-Life:Eric Coates was born in Hucknall in Nottinghamshire, the son of a doctor, and studied music at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1906, receiving viola lessons from Lionel Tertis...
- Frank Cordell
- Floyd Cramer
Floyd Cramer was an American Hall of Fame pianist who was one of the architects of the "Nashville Sound." He popularized the 'slip note' piano style where one note slides effortlessly into the next...
- Syd Dale
Syd Dale was born in York, England. He was a self taught composer and arranger of funk, easy listening and library music. His music played an important role on TV, radio and advertising media of the 1960s and 1970s...
- Frank De Vol
Frank Denny De Vol, also known simply as De Vol was an American arranger, composer and actor.-Early Life and Career:...
- Johnny Douglas
Johnny Douglas composed the music to the 1971 hit film The Railway Children, plus 37 other feature films. He was also known as a Musical Director, and string Arranger. He recorded over 500 tracks for DECCA and over 80 albums for RCA...
- Carl Doy
Carl William Doy, ONZM is a pianist, composer and arranger. One of New Zealand's most successful musicians, Carl is probably best known for his multi-platinum selling Piano By Candlelight albums....
- Percy Faith
Percy Faith was a Canadian-born bandleader, orchestrator and composer, known for his lush arrangements of pop and Christmas standards. He is often credited with creating the "easy listening" or "mood music" format which became staples of American popular music in the 1950s and continued well into...
- Robert Farnon
Robert Joseph Farnon was a Canadian-born composer, conductor, musical arranger and trumpet player.-Life:Born in Toronto, Ontario, he was commissioned as a captain in the Canadian Army and became the conductor/arranger of the Canadian Band of the allied expeditionary force sent overseas during...
- Ferrante & Teicher
Ferrante & Teicher were a duo of American piano players, known for their light arrangements of familiar classical pieces, movie soundtracks, and show tunes....
- Arthur Fiedler
Arthur Fiedler was the long-time conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, a symphony orchestra that specializes in popular and light classical music. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Pops one of the best-known orchestras in the country...
- James Galway
Sir James Galway OBE is a Northern Ireland–born virtuoso flutist from Belfast, nicknamed "The Man With the Golden Flute"...
- Geraldo
Gerald Walcan Bright, better known as Geraldo was a British bandleader....
(and his New Concert Orchestra)
- Jackie Gleason
Herbert Walton Gleason, Jr. , baptized as John Herbert "Jackie" Gleason, was an American comedian, actor and musician....
- Ron Goodwin
Ronald Alfred Goodwin was a British composer and conductor known for his film scores.-Life:...
- Morton Gould
Morton Gould was an American composer, conductor, arranger, and pianist.Born in Richmond Hill, New York, Gould was recognized early as a child prodigy with abilities in improvisation and composition. His first composition was published at age six...
- Arthur Greenslade
Arthur Greenslade is a British conductor and arranger for films and television as well as a for a number of performers. In the 1950s he was pianist / arranger with the Oscar Rabin Band. He has arranged for Jack Jones, Chris Farlowe, Serge Gainsbourg, Cat Stevens, Diana Ross. and Dusty Springfield...
- Joe Harnell
Joe Harnell was an American easy listening composer and arranger....
- Richard Hayman
Richard Hayman is an American arranger, harmonica player, and conductor.Hayman started out as a player and arranger for the Borrah Minnevitch Harmonica Rascals before becoming an arranger for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during the early 1940s. He did arrangements for the MGM films Girl Crazy,...
- Hollyridge Strings
The Hollyridge Strings was a studio orchestra that specialized in easy-listening music and recorded for the Capitol Records label in the 1960s and 1970s....
- Nick Ingman
Nick Ingman is an easy listening orchestra conductor and composer.Recordings include:*'Big Beat' *'The Love Album' *'Terminator'...
- Bob James
Bob James is a smooth jazz and jazz fusion keyboardist, arranger and producer.-Biography:During the 1970s, Bob James played a major role in turning fusion jazz more mainstream...
- Bradley Joseph
Bradley Joseph is an American composer, arranger, and producer of contemporary instrumental music. His compositions include works for orchestra, quartet, and solo piano, while his musical style ranges from "quietly pensive mood music to a rich orchestration of classical depth and breadth".Active...
- Bert Kaempfert
Bert Kaempfert was a German orchestra leader and songwriter. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records, and wrote the music for a number of well-known songs, such as "Strangers in the Night" and "Spanish Eyes".-Biography:He was born in Hamburg, Germany - where he received his...
- André Kostelanetz
André Kostelanetz was a popular orchestral music conductor and arranger, one of the pioneers of easy listening music.-Biography:...
- James Last
James Last is a German composer and big band leader.-Biography:Last's father was an official at the public works department of the city of Bremen and he grew up in the suburb of Sebaldsbrück. He learned to play the piano from the age of 12, then switched to double bass as a teenager...
- Liberace
Wladziu Valentino Liberace , better known by only his last name Liberace , was a famous American entertainer and pianist...
- Living Strings
The Living Strings was an easy listening studio orchestra operated by RCA Records on its Camden label. There were also related groups called the Living Voices, the Living Brass, the Living Guitars. All of the Living... records were produced by the same group of people...
- Longines Symphonette
Longines Symphonette may refer to:* A record label , owned by the Longines watch company, which specialized in releasing classic radio programs and multiple-record box sets ;...
- Geoff Love
Geoff Love was a British easy-listening orchestra leader.Love was born in the industrial town of Todmorden in West Yorkshire. His father was a mixed race American born guitarist and dancer, and his mother an actress. As a child Love began to learn to play the violin but then switched to the...
- Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger. He is remembered particularly for being a composer of film and television scores. Mancini also won a record number of Grammy awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995...
- Mantovani
Annunzio Paolo Mantovani , known by the mononym Mantovani, was a popular conductor and light orchestra-style entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature...
- Ray Martin
Ray Martin may refer to:*Ray Martin , Australian journalist*Ray Martin , Canadian*Ray Martin , UK*Ray Martin , Australian rules football player...
- Paul Mauriat
Paul Mauriat was a French orchestra leader, specializing in light music. He is best known in the United States for his remake of André Popp's "Love is Blue," which was #1 for 5 weeks in 1968...
- Robert Maxwell
Ian Robert Maxwell MC was a Czechoslovakian-born British media proprietor and former Member of Parliament , who rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire, which collapsed after his death as a result of the fraudulent transactions he had committed to support his business empire,...
- George Melachrino
George Melachrino was a musician, movie composer, and musical director who was English born of Greek and Italian descent. He was an accomplished player of the violin, viola, oboe, clarinet and saxophone....
- Wes Montgomery
John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an American jazz guitarist. He is generally considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Pat Martino, George Benson, and Pat Metheny.-...
- Tony Mottola
Tony Mottola was an American guitarist who released dozens of solo albums. Mottola was born in Kearny, New Jersey and died in Denville, New Jersey.-Career:...
- Peter Nero
Peter Nero is an American pianist and pops conductor.-Early life:Born in Brooklyn, New York, As Bernard Neirow, Nero started his formal music training at the age of seven. By the time he was fourteen, he was accepted to New York City's prestigious High School of Music and Art and won a scholarship...
- Cyril Ornadel
Cyril Ornadel is a British conductor, songwriter and composer chiefly in musical theatre. He studied at the Royal College of Music....
- Norrie Paramor
Norrie Paramor is best known as a record producer, but was also a composer, arranger, and orchestral conductor...
- Johnny Pearson
Johnny Pearson is a British composer and pianist. He has written a catalogue of library music, and has had many of his pieces used as the theme music to television series, including 3-2-1, All Creatures Great and Small, Captain Pugwash, Mary Mungo & Midge and ITN's News at Ten...
- Frank Perkins
Frank Perkins was a British engineer, businessman, creator of the Perkins Diesel Engine, and founder of the Perkins Engines Company.-Background and early life:...
- Franck Pourcel
Franck Pourcel was a musician of the lounge or easy listening genre.Born in Marseille August 11, 1913...
- Nelson Riddle
Nelson Smock Riddle, Jr. was an American bandleader, arranger and orchestrator whose career spanned from the late 1940s, struggled with the advent of rock 'n' roll, and saw a career revival in the early 1980s...
and his Orchestra
- David Rose
David Rose was a British-born American songwriter, composer, arranger, and orchestra leader. His most famous compositions were "The Stripper", "Holiday for Strings", and "Calypso Melody". He also wrote music for the television series Little House on the Prairie and Bonanza...
- George Shearing
Sir George Shearing OBE is an Anglo-American jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group which recorded for MGM Records and Capitol Records...
Quintette
- Felix Slatkin
Felix Slatkin was an American violinist and conductor.-Biography:Slatkin was born in St. Louis, Missouri to a Jewish family originally named Zlotkin from areas of the Russian Empire now in Ukraine. He began studying the violin at the age of nine with Isadore Grossman...
- Ernest Tomlinson
Ernest Tomlinson is an English composer, particularly noted for his Light music compositions. He is sometimes credited as Alan Perry.-Life:...
- Sidney Torch
Sidney Torch MBE was a British pianist, cinema organist, conductor, orchestral arranger and a composer of light music.Born Sidney Torchinsky of Russian parents, Torch learned the rudiments of music very quickly from his father, an orchestral trombonist...
- Billy Vaughn
Richard "Billy" Vaughn was a singer, multi-instrumentalist, and orchestra leader.He was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, where his father was a barber who loved music and inspired Billy to teach himself to play the mandolin at age 3, while suffering a case of the measles...
and his Orchestra
- Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk was a musician, accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, hosting The Lawrence Welk Show from 1955 to 1982...
- Paul Weston
Paul Weston was an American pianist, arranger, composer and conductor. Weston was born Paul Wetstein in Springfield, Massachusetts....
- Charles Williams
-United Kingdom:* Sir Charles Hanbury Williams , Member of Parliament and satirist* Charles Williams, Baron Williams of Elvel , life peer ennobled in 1985...
- John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career that spans six decades, Williams has composed many of the most famous film scores in Hollywood history, including Star Wars, Superman, Home Alone, the first three Harry Potter movies and all but two of Steven...
- Roger Williams
Roger Williams may refer to:* Roger Williams , Welsh soldier of fortune* Roger Williams , English theologian, co-founder of Rhode Island...
- Hugo Winterhalter
Hugo Winterhalter was an American musician.Easy listening arranger and composer, Winterhalter was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Mount St. Mary's near Emmitsburg, Maryland in 1931, where he played saxophone for the orchestra and sang in tow of the choirs...
- Victor Young
Victor Young was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. He was born in Chicago.-Biography:...
- Peter Yorke
- Among the vocal artists featured on beautiful music stations may include many of the same ones featured on the adult standards
Adult standards is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations.Adult standards is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly those persons over 50 years of age, but it is mostly targeted for senior citizens...
format and others:
- The Association
The Association is a pop music band from California in the sunshine pop genre. They are best known for their popularity in the 1960s, when they had numerous hits at or near the top of the Billboard charts. , they are still performing....
- Michael Buble
Michael Steven Bublé , born 9 September 1975 in Burnaby, British Columbia) is a Canadian singer and actor. He has won several awards, including a Grammy and multiple Juno Awards. His first album reached the top ten in Lebanon, the UK and his home country of Canada, and achieved only modest chart...
- The Carpenters
The Carpenters were a vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter. Carpenters was the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and press materials is...
- Ray Charles Singers
- Rosemary Clooney
Rosemary Clooney was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House", which was followed by other pop numbers "Botch-a-Me " , "Mambo Italiano", and "This Ole House", songs which...
- Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat "King" Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz...
- Perry Como
Pierino "Perry" Como was an Italian-American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with it in 1943. "Mr...
- Harry Connick, Jr.
Harry Connick, Jr. is an American singer, actor, composer, and pianist. Connick has sold over 25 million albums worldwide. He is ranked among the top 60 best-selling male artists in the United States since 1952, by the Recording Industry Association of America, with 16 million certified albums....
- Ray Conniff
Joseph Raymond Conniff was an American musician. He was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, and learned to play the trombone from his father. He studied music arranging from a course book.After serving in the U.S...
Singers
- Vic Damone
Vic Damone is an American singer and entertainer.- Early life :Damone was born Vito Rocco Farinola in Brooklyn, New York to Italian immigrants Rocco and Mary Farinola. His father was an electrician; his mother taught piano. Inspired by his favorite singer, Frank Sinatra, Damone began taking voice...
- Doris Day
Doris Mary Anne von Kappelhoff , known by her stage name Doris Day, is an American singer and actress.With the versatility to sing, dance, and play comedy and dramatic roles, she became one of America's biggest box-office stars. Day has 39 movies to her credit, even though she retired from films in...
- John Denver
John Denver was an American country music/folk singer-songwriter and folk rock musician. He was one of the most popular acoustic artists of the 1970s in terms of record sales, recording and releasing around 300 songs, of which about 200 were composed by him. He was named Poet Laureate of Colorado...
- Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter. Diamond is one of pop music's most enduring and successful singer-songwriters. As a successful pop music performer, Diamond scored a number of hits worldwide in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s...
- Dan Fogelberg
Daniel Grayling Fogelberg was an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, whose music was inspired by sources as diverse as folk, pop, classical, jazz, and bluegrass music.-Early life and family:Dan Fogelberg, the youngest of three sons, was born in Peoria, Illinois, the son of...
- John Gary
John Gary was an American singer and a technically accomplished vocalist.-Early life:Gary started singing at the age of 5. He joined his older sister, Shirley Strader, who was considered the Shirley Temple of northern New York. At the age of 9, he had won a 3-year scholarship to the prestigious...
- Engelbert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck is a well-known British popular music singer who became famous internationally during the 1960s and 1970s, after adopting the name of the famous German opera composer Engelbert Humperdinck as his own stage name.-Early years:He was one of ten children of British Army officer...
- Jack Jones
Jack Jones is an American jazz and pop singer. He was one of the most popular vocalists of the 1960s.-Overview:He was rated highly by Frank Sinatra, Mel Tormé and Tony Bennett and a major influence on Scott Walker...
- Norah Jones
Norah Jones is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, keyboardist, guitarist, and actress of Anglo-American and Indian-Bengali descent. She is the daughter of sitarist Ravi Shankar and the half-sister of Anoushka Shankar...
- Anita Kerr
Anita Kerr is an American singer, arranger, composer, conductor, pianist, and music producer...
Singers
- Diana Krall
Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC is a Grammy Award-winning Canadian jazz pianist and singer. She is known for her contralto vocals.- Early life :...
- Steve Lawrence
Steve Lawrence is an American singer, perhaps best known as a member of a duo with his wife Eydie Gormé, billed as Steve and Eydie. The two have appeared together since appearing regularly on Steve Allen's The Tonight Show in the mid-1950s.-Personal life:Lawrence was born Sidney Liebowitz to a...
- The Lettermen
The Lettermen are an American pop music vocal group. The Lettermen's trademark is close-harmony pop songs with light arrangements. They were popular mainly with adult audiences during the 1960s.-History:...
- Johnny Mann
Johnny Mann is an American arranger, composer, conductor, entertainer, and recording artist.-Background:...
Singers
- Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor and comedian. He was one of the best known musical artists of the 1950s and 1960s. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "Mambo Italiano", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That A Kick In The...
- Johnny Mathis
Johnny Mathis is an American singer of popular music.One of the last in a long line of traditional male vocalists who emerged before the 1960s, Mathis concentrated on romantic jazz and pop standards for the adult contemporary audience through to the 1980s...
- Sergio Mendes
Sérgio Santos Mendes is a Brazilian musician. He has released over thirty-five albums, and plays bossa nova heavily crossed with jazz and funk....
- Matt Monro
Matt Monro was an English singer who became one of the most popular entertainers on the international music scene during the 1960s. Throughout his 30-year career, he filled cabarets, nightclubs, music halls, and stadiums in Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and Hong Kong to Africa, the Middle...
- Nana Mouskouri
Nana Mouskouri , born as Ioanna Mouskouri on October 13, 1934, in Chania, Crete, Greece, is a singer who is confirmed to have sold over 200 million records worldwide in a career spanning over five decades, making her one of the world's best-selling female recording artists of all time. She was...
- Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a British-born, Australian-raised singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 albums...
- Patti Page
Clara Ann Fowler , known by her professional name Patti Page, is an American singer, one of the best-known female artists in traditional pop music...
- Helen Reddy
Helen Reddy is an Australian/American singer-songwriter and actress. She has won a Grammy Award, appeared on Broadway and feature films, and been credited with writing and singing one of the most iconic and culturally significant songs of the 1970s, "I Am Woman".Reddy became one of the world's...
- Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music vocalist and entertainer. Her many vocal styles in a variety of genres have resonated with the general public over the course of her four-decade career...
- Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers." His professional career had stalled by the...
- Jo Stafford
Jo Elizabeth Stafford was an American singer of traditional pop music and jazz standards whose career ran from the late 1930s to the early 1960s...
- Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, film and theatre actress. She has also achieved note as a composer, liberal political activist, film producer, and film director. She has won two Academy Awards, ten Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, and a Peabody all by the age of...
- Andy Williams
Howard Andrew "Andy" or "Paul" Williams is an American pop singer. Andy Williams has recorded 18 gold and three platinum certified albums. When Ronald Reagan was president, he declared Andy's voice to be "a national treasure". He had his own popular TV variety show from 1962–71...
- Nancy Wilson
Nancy Wilson is an American singer with more than 70 albums, and three Grammy Awards. She has been labeled a singer of blues, jazz, cabaret and pop; a "consummate actress"; and "the complete entertainer." The title she prefers, however, is song stylist...
Further reading
Phil Stout & Schulke Radio Productions