The full service radio format

Radio format

A radio format or programming format not to be confused with broadcast programming describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. Radio formats are frequently employed as a marketing tool, and constantly evolve...

 consists of a wide range of programming. Mostly found on the AM band, the format can be found on a handful of FM stations. It is popular mainly among smaller, local stations in rural areas not owned by major broadcasting conglomerates.

Programming generally heard on full service stations can include:

• Local and national (or top-of-the-hour) news, often including agriculture reports
• At least one local talk show (often under a generic name such as Viewpoint, Dialog, or Hotline), occasionally along with syndicated talk programming
• Music
• Automated programming in overnight time slots, or even a sign-off
• Tradio
  Tradio
  Tradio is the name given to a type of talk radio show format where listeners call in to buy or sell items. The concept of is analogous to classified ads in local newspapers....
  
  , a free advertising service for listeners to offer things for sale
• High school football
  High school football
  High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....
  
   and other local sports
• Significant local advertising

Since the full-service format is traditionally confined to AM and rural listeners, oldies

Oldies

Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....

/classic hits

Classic hits

Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes rock and pop music from 1964 to 1989. The term is sometimes erroneously used as a synonym for the adult hits format, but is more accurately characterized as a contemporary style of the oldies format...

, adult standards

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...

 and classic country

Classic country

Classic country is a music radio format that specializes in playing mainstream country hits from past decades.This genre generally follows one of two formats: those specializing in hits from the 1920s through the early 1970s, and focus primarily on innovators and artists from country music's Golden...

 tend to form the basis of most music rotations on these stations. Full service stations tend to have somewhat more of a freeform

Freeform (radio format)

Freeform, or freeform radio, is a radio station programming format in which the disc jockey is given total control over what music to play, regardless of music genre or commercial interests. Freeform radio stands in contrast to most commercial radio stations, in which DJs have little or no...

 playlist, allowing disc jockeys to play favorite tunes, and as such, album cuts, B-sides, "forgotten 45s," local bands and lesser-known performers and songs can see more air time on a full-service station than on most other commercial formats. Depending on the ethnic composition of the station's coverage area and/or ownership and management, at least a portion of a full-service station's weekend programming is often set aside for ethnic music programming such as polka

Polka

The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...

, Italian music

Music of Italy

The music of Italy ranges across a broad spectrum of opera and instrumental classical music and a body of popular music drawn from both native and imported sources. Music has traditionally been one of the cultural markers of Italian national and ethnic identity and holds an important position in...

, native American music

Native American music

American Indian music is the music that is used, created or performed by Native North Americans, specifically traditional tribal music. In addition to the traditional music of the Native American groups, there now exist pan-tribal and inter-tribal genres as well as distinct Indian subgenres of...

, or Celtic music

Celtic music

Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...

, almost always by a local host. These ethnic shows often play on Sunday morning for listeners on their way to church.

Full service is not one of the formats defined by Arbitron

Arbitron

Arbitron is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s...

; in most cases, full-service stations are usually listed under the blanket category of "variety."