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Has America's Best Music Eliminated All Adult Standards?

G

Gregg.

The service known as America's Best Music from Westwood One has played two or three adult standards per hour, mixed in with Soft Oldies of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. I'm listening now on line to WTRC Elkhart, Indiana. (www.TheHartOfElkhart.com) I'm not hearing any songs that might be standards.

In the last decade, the playlist would include songs from Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Perry Como, etc. But in the last hour, it's all been Soft Oldies: The Beatles, Dionne Warwick, Chicago, Barry Manilow.

The standards were limited to mostly songs that also hit the Top 40 of the 1960s and 70s. Let's remember that when we listened to Top 40 in those days, songs like Strangers in The Night by Sinatra, Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer by Cole and Candy Man from Sammy Davis were big hits, alongside The Supremes, The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones.

Has anyone else noticed this change?
 
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I just checked the web site and it's now listed under "Classic gold" rather than "Adult contemporary". I always thought it was curious to categorize it with adult contemporary formats. If they had made the opposite change we'd have something to worry about.

And the list of artists and sample hour look about like they did. You won't find a lot of actual standards.
 
Seems to me their playlist has been updated to artists/songs that current listeners would recognize. Cole and Como (and company) have been gone for decades. Best time to hear them is at Christmas time.
 
I just clicked on the listen now and a Nat King Cole song was playing.
 
vchimpanzee said:
I just checked the web site and it's now listed under "Classic gold" rather than "Adult contemporary". I always thought it was curious to categorize it with adult contemporary formats. If they had made the opposite change we'd have something to worry about.

And the list of artists and sample hour look about like they did. You won't find a lot of actual standards.
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"Classic Gold" is one of Westwood One's formats. I suspect that is what Gregg heard and the station changed to that from Adult Standards(America's Best Music), which is still listed on their website.
 
landtuna said:
Seems to me their playlist has been updated to artists/songs that current listeners would recognize. Cole and Como (and company) have been gone for decades. Best time to hear them is at Christmas time.
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No, Cole is still there. Most of his songs are played during commercial breaks so if your station has commercials there you won't hear him.
 
vchimpanzee said:
No, Cole is still there. Most of his songs are played during commercial breaks so if your station has commercials there you won't hear him.
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When Land Tuna said, "...have be gone for decades", I believe he meant that they were no longer with us rather than not being played on the station for decades.
 
I have listened for the last week on and off. Yes, I heard three standards artists in that time. I heard a song from Tony Bennett, one from Nat King Cole and they also played Something Stupid by Nancy & Frank Sinatra. But that's all I heard over many hours. As I said in my original post, it used to be two or three per hour, not two or three per week.

This is clearly the service called "America's Best Music." It's heard on WJOI Norfolk VA and WTRC Elkhart IN, both of which stream on line. Maybe the service schedules standards artists at break times. If your station breaks away from ABM to run local spots, those artists aren't getting heard then. I would imagine that there's a list of songs that last approximately 3 minutes or 3 1/2 minutes. Those are the songs that run when the local stations sometime breaks away.
 
Gregg. said:
I have listened for the last week on and off. Yes, I heard three standards artists in that time. I heard a song from Tony Bennett, one from Nat King Cole and they also played Something Stupid by Nancy & Frank Sinatra. But that's all I heard over many hours. As I said in my original post, it used to be two or three per hour, not two or three per week.

This is clearly the service called "America's Best Music." It's heard on WJOI Norfolk VA and WTRC Elkhart IN, both of which stream on line. Maybe the service schedules standards artists at break times. If your station breaks away from ABM to run local spots, those artists aren't getting heard then. I would imagine that there's a list of songs that last approximately 3 minutes or 3 1/2 minutes. Those are the songs that run when the local stations sometime breaks away.
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You'd think they'd update the website.
 
I thought of a good way to describe what has happened to adult standards radio because Doonesbury has a Christmas theme right now for some reason.

It used to be Bing Crosby. Now it's David Crosby.
 
kevtronics said:
I don't know if they're carrying America's Best Music, but I still hear some Standards on 1690 WPTX from Maryland.
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Do they stream? I can tell you if they are.

Edit: They are not.

Another edit: There was a DJ who didn't identify the station, as if he was on satellite, but America's Best Music just has the woman whose recorded messages praise the music. Also, the commercial break was very short. So far, I'm hearing more standards than America's Best Music seems to play. But how many standards get played varies.
 
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So far WPTX seems to play more standards than America's Best Music, and the contemporary stuff isn't as contemporary. But America's Best Music plays more standards during some hours than others and I haven't listened to WPTX long enough to make a determination whether they do the same. It is a good station if all you want is soft music. I've been listening to stations with mostly standards and those are more high-energy.

I spoke too soon about the contemporary music. I've never heard Sting (except possibly on Easy 95) on a station that was still playing some standards. Still, "Fields of Gold" is pretty good.
 
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"Shake You Down" by Gregory Abbott is a weird choice. However, the standards are still there every now and then, including some I haven't heard on America's Best Music.
 
The change I've noticed with America's Best Music over the last few months is the addition of new music. I have to say that's a disappointment and it's caused me to seek out alternatives. I like the Soft AC they were playing from the '60s, '70s, and '80s, but now they have moved onward past 1990.
 
America's Best Music plays a few current and recent titles. Maybe fewer than once per hour. But they've always been there... Adele, Norah Jones, Celine Dion, etc.
 
Gregg. said:
America's Best Music plays a few current and recent titles. Maybe fewer than once per hour. But they've always been there... Adele, Norah Jones, Celine Dion, etc.
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Yeah, as much as I've disliked Adele, she's been there a while. I remember hearing her before my local affiliate changed to oldies.

Celine Dion too, but some of her worst stuff wasn't there to begin with.

Norah Jones I knew for her standards, but she's done some AC too.

I wish someone would explain Colbie Caillat (and why her name is mispronounced). Even when the station where I live was local they would play "Bubbly" even though the man in charge perceived his station as "oldies" and said it was "still" oldies after the change.
 
Okay, WPTX has a DJ named Rod Tanner. I think that's what he said. It has been a long time since I heard George Michael's "Kissing a Fool". Sounded good. I don't know why people don't like to hear contemporary artists do those songs. The instrumentals backing him up sounded great and sound quality is so much better now than it used to be.

Rod Tanner That's outdated, because Wikipedia says 102.3 is AC.
 
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WPTX, like some former America's Best Music affiliates (and looking at the history of its Wikipedia article, it was one), seems to be going both more traditional and more contemporary at the same time. If you consider "Shangri-La" and the theme from "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" to be standards, there are more standards. But I heard The Bangles, and I absolutely do not get the logic of "Will You Still Love Me" by Chicago.
 
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