Adult contemporary music formats

Adult contemporary
Simply referred to as 'AC', adult contemporary music stations are aimed at people age 30 years and older. These stations offer lively contemporary music of the past decade or two without cutting edge music, rock or rap music.

Hot AC
Stations with this format have a slightly younger target audience than the ac format. More upbeat music and more cutting edge music is prevalent. Hot AC is a hybrid between pop and AC music with an almost exclusive concentration on current hits and music of the past 12 months.

Modern AC
Stations with this format have a slightly younger target audience than the ac format. More upbeat music and more cutting edge music is prevalent. Modern AC is a hybrid between hot ac and modern rock music with an almost exclusive concentration on current hits and music of the past 12 months.

Soft AC
Also known as easy listening or beautiful music, this format is targeted to people 35 years and older. In comparison to the ac format, music can span from the past 4 decades and consists of a large majority of love ballads from popular artists, and less upbeat type music.

AC - oldies
This format is a blend of AC music and country music. The format is aimed at people 30 years and older and is usually found in smaller markets or rural populated areas. Music offered on these stations ranges from the 1960's to the 1990's.

AC-Romantica
This format is the Spanish language version of the AC format defined above. A large majority of music is performed by Spanish language artists and the presenters speak in Spanish. Their target audience is at adults 30 years and older and targeted to the Spanish speaking community.

Other AC formats
Other hybrids of the AC format exists. Such hybrids include rock AC, rhythmic AC and a variety of Spanish language music AC hybrids.