Best classic hits radio stations in 2026

[fordranger797]

We’ve covered this topic in the past, but I think it’s time for a refresher. Classic hits (and the definition of what classic hits actually “is”) has shifted a bit, and I think it would be interesting to hear your opinions on what classic hits radio stations you’re listening to in 2026.

Here are some of the stations that make my list (and why):

KJEB 95.7 in Seattle. It can be a little repetitive, but overall it’s a solid station that airs a decent variety of 80’s hits (with some 70’s and 90’s sprinkled in).

KOSF 103.7 in San Francisco. The variety on this station is quite good, and I end up streaming them from my desk at work, even though I’m not located in the SF market most of the time.

KRTH 101.1 in Los Angeles. I know this may be a bit of an unpopular opinion, but I think the variety is actually pretty decent (improving in just the last year or so). I’m not crazy about some of the modern pop they throw in, but when I’m in the Los Angeles market, I usually leave my radio on KRTH. It’s absolutely better than what I have available locally.

KABG 98.5 in Albuquerque. I was recently on a business trip in New Mexico, and was pleasantly surprised by this station. The playlist and variety seemed very expansive, and the personalities are all local.

CHBM 97.3 in Toronto. I’ll throw in a Canadian station for this list as well. The playlist on “Boom” is also pretty wide, with live personalities. Overall, it’s a solid station that does everything right.

I’d like to hear what other stations make the list in 2026!

 

[K.M. Richards]

I'm going to disagree with you on one of your choices, only because I have dissected their playlist and personalities as the PD of the "other" Classic Hits station in the market:

KABG 98.5 in Albuquerque. I was recently on a business trip in New Mexico, and was pleasantly surprised by this station. The playlist and variety seemed very expansive, and the personalities are all local.

The playlist is all over the place. They don't even keep the same ratio of the core 80s titles with the secondary 70s and 90s. Of the latter, they choose songs that make me scratch my head in amazement, and of the former, they don't even play the best-testing songs (and those are relatively few compared to the core decade).

They seem to overreact to me at times, putting songs into active rotation right after I played them sparingly on my Forgotten 45s feature. And yet they often overlook more listener-friendly, well-researched titles.

The personalities are all local but don't know when to STFU. Especially their morning guy, who has been deridingly described by many I have talked to as "talking for five minutes without actually saying anything".

KABG is still strong only because they were the heritage Oldies station in the market back in the day, and listener habits are hard to change in the absence of an actual format flip. I do give them credit for the way they transitioned to Classic Hits ... gradual, shifting out of the older songs simultaneously with adding the newer ones. And that approach worked for them and kept their history relevant.

But the rest of it? Suffice it to say that their PD is actually at the Bakersfield AGM cluster ... about 800 miles away.

 

[Superdave2351]

Check out 6IX in Perth, Western Australia. Still includes occasional 60s and you'd swear it played songs off the U.S. charts with only a few Aussie hits.

 

[ted chittenden]

I'm going to disagree with you on one of your choices, only because I have dissected their playlist and personalities as the PD of the "other" Classic Hits station in the market:



The playlist is all over the place. They don't even keep the same ratio of the core 80s titles with the secondary 70s and 90s. Of the latter, they choose songs that make me scratch my head in amazement, and of the former, they don't even play the best-testing songs (and those are relatively few compared to the core decade).

They seem to overreact to me at times, putting songs into active rotation right after I played them sparingly on my Forgotten 45s feature. And yet they often overlook more listener-friendly, well-researched titles.

The personalities are all local but don't know when to STFU. Especially their morning guy, who has been deridingly described by many I have talked to as "talking for five minutes without actually saying anything".

KABG is still strong only because they were the heritage Oldies station in the market back in the day, and listener habits are hard to change in the absence of an actual format flip. I do give them credit for the way they transitioned to Classic Hits ... gradual, shifting out of the older songs simultaneously with adding the newer ones. And that approach worked for them and kept their history relevant.

But the rest of it? Suffice it to say that their PD is actually at the Bakersfield AGM cluster ... about 800 miles away.

There is one other intelligent thing that KABG did, though it has nothing to do with its playlist. The station's transmitter used to be a lot further north, closer to its col of Los Alamos. This was done, I think, to protect the 98.7 mHz station (KSNM) licensed to Truth or Consequences (though *that* station's transmitter is south of TOC and closer to Hatch). Anyway, AGM got permission from the FCC a few years back to move its transmitter much closer to Albuquerque with a power reduction to protect said KSNM. That move alone allowed the station to be picked up more easily in New Mexico's largest city.

 

[K.M. Richards]

AGM got permission from the FCC a few years back to move its transmitter much closer to Albuquerque (with, if memory serves, both a directional antenna and a power reduction to protect said station in OTC). That move alone allowed the station to be picked up more easily in New Mexico's largest city.

Even with that, KABG's signal over Albuquerque is relatively unchanged and KRKE's 250 watt ERP is as easily received. The power decrease was because of the move to Sandia Crest and they do not have a directional antenna (which allows them to get a receivable signal into Santa Fe, the only real advantage to the move).

However, the OP apparently intended for this to be a comparison of programming, not signals, so we are drifting off-topic, methinks.

 

[fordranger797]

I'm going to disagree with you on one of your choices, only because I have dissected their playlist and personalities as the PD of the "other" Classic Hits station in the market:



The playlist is all over the place. They don't even keep the same ratio of the core 80s titles with the secondary 70s and 90s. Of the latter, they choose songs that make me scratch my head in amazement, and of the former, they don't even play the best-testing songs (and those are relatively few compared to the core decade).

They seem to overreact to me at times, putting songs into active rotation right after I played them sparingly on my Forgotten 45s feature. And yet they often overlook more listener-friendly, well-researched titles.

The personalities are all local but don't know when to STFU. Especially their morning guy, who has been deridingly described by many I have talked to as "talking for five minutes without actually saying anything".

KABG is still strong only because they were the heritage Oldies station in the market back in the day, and listener habits are hard to change in the absence of an actual format flip. I do give them credit for the way they transitioned to Classic Hits ... gradual, shifting out of the older songs simultaneously with adding the newer ones. And that approach worked for them and kept their history relevant.

But the rest of it? Suffice it to say that their PD is actually at the Bakersfield AGM cluster ... about 800 miles away.

Thank you for sharing your perspective here. Admittedly, I was only in ABQ a short time and probably didn’t spend enough time with 98.5 to say definitively if it was a good or a bad radio station. I did enjoy what I heard, though.

I listened to (who I believe was) the weekend personality while I was in town. I thought he was great. The playlist seemed adventurous, but reasonable. There was the typical Rod Stewart, Madonna, Prince, but also a few 70’s tracks dusted in (including one from the Isley Brothers that I haven’t heard in quite some time). But I have to give two thumbs up for playing Jane Child from 1990. “Don’t want to fall in love” is a great song that I think gets overlooked more than it should. And then they played Robert Palmer and Power Station, which gets an enthusiastic back flip from me.

Looking at the entire playlist now, I can definitely see the issue you brought up. Organized chaos may be a good term to describe it. While i find it interesting to hear a few uncommon (in 2026) 70’s tracks mixed in, I think I would prefer a more focused 80’s playlist. Maybe Jane Child and Power Station are a bit of a risk, but if presented properly I think it could work out well to break up the monotony of the other programming. I definitely don’t mind sticking around through the core tracks that I hear over and over again if I know there’s going to be something else to spice it up a bit.

103.7 KOSF probably does this better than the other stations I listed. You’re going to hear the core tracks that you’d expect to hear, but you’re also going to get some interesting nuggets from time to time, and I like that.

All in all, I think KABG could probably reel in their playlist a bit while also keeping it interesting. Play the core songs you’d expect to hear, but also play something that isn’t “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” over and over again.

 

[fordranger797]

I have a lot of free time at work, so I think about what I would do if I was trying to program a classic hits radio station. I’m sure that I haven’t even gotten close to what a pro would do, but this is something I came up with today. Keep in mind that this is a Gen Z perspective, and that I’ve never had a chance to work directly with the classic hits format (at least not yet). I feel like this is an hour of music that would be safe enough, while integrating some nuggets into the playlist to keep it interesting.

Madonna - Wrap you up
Bruce Springsteen - Dancing in the dark
Bon Jovi - Wanted dead or alive
Power Station - Some like it hot (*since it came up in discussion)
John Waite - Missing you
Fleetwood Mac - You make lovin’ fun (*safe 70’s throwback)
Richard Marx - Right here waiting
Bryan Adams - Heaven
Jane child - don’t want to fall in love (*came up in discussion)
Ace of Base - all that she wants
Cindi Lauper - Girls just want to have fun
Don Henley - Boys of summer
Duran Duran - Reflex
Matchbox 20 - Unwell
Pat Benetar - Hearbreaker
Phil Collins and Phillip Bailey - easy lover
Eagles - Hotel California

 

[crainbebo]

It's easy for me. The Big 100 (.7) in Bigfork MT, KIBG. Playlist that is wide to the max, stretching early-mid '60s Beatles up to 2005 or so. Must be at least 1,200 songs. Tons of "oh wow" hits that will NEVER get the light of day in major markets, lots of Bob Seger, Billy Joel, Toto, Bruce Hornsby, Eric Clapton (even more recent songs like "Believe in Life" and "Ridin' with the King", The Eagles...not a lot of R&B or dance-pop. More on the mellow rock to the harder rock side. Songs like "Look Out Any Window" by Bruce Hornsby get airplay right next to "Smokin' in the Boys Room" Brownsville Station. They air Throwback Nation at night so it's all repetitive hits after 7 MT. They have a syndicated '80s show on Saturday night and AT40 The 70s on Sunday afternoon. Steve Goddard used to be in the timeslot before he left syndication.
This station is one reason I LOVE traveling to Montana. Thank goodness they stream now...and they also rebroadcast into Missoula on 103.7.

 

[ted chittenden]

One station that I like that is definitely off the beaten path is WAXS-FM licensed to Oak Hill, WV (Beckley market). It plays a lot of R&B-influenced things from the 1970s-the early 1990s plus some 1970s AC (Carpenters, anyone?) The website can be found at

Home - Groovy 94.1

groovy.world

Yes, I know I'm an outlier...

 

[vw86]

WMJI Cleveland: I grew up listening to the station in the height of the Oldies days and they have done a great job with the transition to Classic Hits over the past 20 years. They've actually been much slower to advance through the eras than most since iHeart also has an Adult Hits in the market. But WMJI has modernized and stayed relevant while keeping their history

 

[K.M. Richards]

While i find it interesting to hear a few uncommon (in 2026) 70’s tracks mixed in, I think I would prefer a more focused 80’s playlist.

Next time you're in ABQ, listen to what I'm doing on 93.7 ...

Play the core songs you’d expect to hear, but also play something that isn’t “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” over and over again.

No song ever plays more than twice in a 24 hour period under my music scheduling rules, and I have a feature around :35 every hour called "Forgotten 45" which definitely is not the core library. I'm guessing that you'd like it.

 

[fordranger797]

Next time you're in ABQ, listen to what I'm doing on 93.7 ...



No song ever plays more than twice in a 24 hour period under my music scheduling rules, and I have a feature around :35 every hour called "Forgotten 45" which definitely is not the core library. I'm guessing that you'd like it.

I’ll check that out next time I’m in town. Obviously I didn’t hear about it in time to check it out on my last trip. If you ever need another employee, I’m available! lol

 

[K.M. Richards]

If you ever need another employee, I’m available! lol

Part of what makes this work -- both in terms of saleable programming and operations -- is what KRKE's owner Don Davis calls "clutter free" and his claim of being a management genius by asking me to program the station ... which I do remotely from Los Angeles.

We don't have live air talent. Technically, the only employees there are the sales staff. I have remote access to the KRKE automation (actually, because Don keeps me on retainer to also consult the rest of his stations, I have access to pretty much all the automation and production computers, and can even access the traffic computer if I need to modify the log templates), my main liner guy is the talented San Diego legend Gene Knight, my imaging voice is production wizard Don Elliot, my main liner writer is ex-KTWV, ex-KDES, ex-KEZY talent Amy Hiatt and the Saturday night classic New Wave show is voicetracked by the legendary ex-KROQer Freddy Snakeskin. All of whom work as outside contractors.

And we have had this arrangement for 3½ years as of last month, and no one wants to leave. Especially Don Davis.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Madonna - Wrap you up
Bruce Springsteen - Dancing in the dark
Bon Jovi - Wanted dead or alive
Power Station - Some like it hot (*since it came up in discussion)
John Waite - Missing you
Fleetwood Mac - You make lovin’ fun (*safe 70’s throwback)
Richard Marx - Right here waiting
Bryan Adams - Heaven
Jane child - don’t want to fall in love (*came up in discussion)
Ace of Base - all that she wants
Cindi Lauper - Girls just want to have fun
Don Henley - Boys of summer
Duran Duran - Reflex
Matchbox 20 - Unwell
Pat Benetar - Hearbreaker
Phil Collins and Phillip Bailey - easy lover
Eagles - Hotel California

All of the 80's titles you chose are either powers or secondaries with me, except for the Richard Marx song, which I dropped when it fell low enough in my tabulation of airplay because it was dragging down the energy level so much.

And you got the title of the Madonna song wrong.

It's "Dress You Up".

 

[K.M. Richards]

It's easy for me. The Big 100 (.7) in Bigfork MT, KIBG. Playlist that is wide to the max, stretching early-mid '60s Beatles up to 2005 or so. Must be at least 1,200 songs. Tons of "oh wow" hits that will NEVER get the light of day in major markets, lots of Bob Seger, Billy Joel, Toto, Bruce Hornsby, Eric Clapton (even more recent songs like "Believe in Life" and "Ridin' with the King", The Eagles...not a lot of R&B or dance-pop. More on the mellow rock to the harder rock side. Songs like "Look Out Any Window" by Bruce Hornsby get airplay right next to "Smokin' in the Boys Room" Brownsville Station. They air Throwback Nation at night so it's all repetitive hits after 7 MT. They have a syndicated '80s show on Saturday night and AT40 The 70s on Sunday afternoon. Steve Goddard used to be in the timeslot before he left syndication.
This station is one reason I LOVE traveling to Montana. Thank goodness they stream now...and they also rebroadcast into Missoula on 103.7.

A great example of what a station can do when they don't have to worry about ratings.

Out here in the real world, where most of us have to program to a population larger than the entire state of Montana ... not so feasible.

 

[Mark Roberts]

There is one other intelligent thing that KABG did, though it has nothing to do with its playlist. The station's transmitter used to be a lot further north, closer to its col of Los Alamos. This was done, I think, to protect the 98.7 mHz station (KSNM) licensed to Truth or Consequences

It (98.5) was originally KRSN-FM, put on the air by KRSN(AM) and intended to be a station for the Los Alamos community, and maybe Española, too. I don’t think T or C had anything to do with it, since KSNM wasn’t built until 1983 or 1984 and KRSN-FM dates back to 1956.

Somewhere in my collection I have a short excerpt of KRSN-FM from 1982 where it was broadcasting a city council meeting live, easily received in Albuquerque where I was visiting at the time.

KRSN(AM) was deleted in 2023 after years of financial challenges.

 

[TexasTom]

I'm going to give honorable mention to KEOM 88.5 in Mesquite, TX. For those who don't know North Texas, it's a close-in suburb just east of Dallas that covers the Dallas half of the Dallas/Fort Worth market and is run by the Mesquite ISD (school district) as a training ground for their high school students. The format covers the 70s to the 90s, and the song choices are a great example of something that appeals to music geeks more than it does to a mass audience.

I'm mentioning KEOM not because I think it reflects what a commercial station should do, but rather because I think it reflects the sort of music mix that would appeal to quite a few people here.

 

[vchimpanzee]

And you got the title of the Madonna song wrong.

It's "Dress You Up".

What I was thinking of was "Wrap it Up: by The Fabulous Thunderbirds. I like that one.

 

[fordranger797]

I think I may have found the final boss of strange classic hits radio stations. I was talking to someone I know in Cape Town, South Africa (and of course, I had to ask about some of the local radio stations over there). That’s where I discovered Magic 828. I encourage you to take a look at their playlist if you’d like to see the strangest collection of songs you’ll probably ever see (or hear) on the radio. Perhaps these songs were all popular in that part of the world? I find that a bit hard to believe, but maybe it’s possible.

Commercial Radio Station | Magic 828

Magic 828 is a South African commercial radio station playing the best of hits from the 80s, 90s and 2000's. With a wide range of music genres, there is something for everyone to enjoy.

magic828.co.za

 

[radiofan2023]

I think I may have found the final boss of strange classic hits radio stations. I was talking to someone I know in Cape Town, South Africa (and of course, I had to ask about some of the local radio stations over there). That’s where I discovered Magic 828. I encourage you to take a look at their playlist if you’d like to see the strangest collection of songs you’ll probably ever see (or hear) on the radio. Perhaps these songs were all popular in that part of the world? I find that a bit hard to believe, but maybe it’s possible.

Commercial Radio Station | Magic 828

Magic 828 is a South African commercial radio station playing the best of hits from the 80s, 90s and 2000's. With a wide range of music genres, there is something for everyone to enjoy.

magic828.co.za

One of the oddest station playlists I've ever seen -they play Nine Inch Nails and Frank Sinatra!