Classic hits

Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes rock and pop music from 1964 to 1988 or 1989, with occasional songs as recent as the early 1990s or before 1995. The term is erroneously used as a synonym for the adult hits format (which uses a slightly newer music library stretching from the 1970s through the 90s), but is more accurately characterized as a contemporary style of the oldies format, although most classic hits stations focus on pop hits from the late 1960s through the 90s.

Definition

The term "classic hits" is believed to have its birth at WZLX Boston when the station converted from "adult contemporary" to a format composed of the hipper tracks from the oldies format and album tracks from popular classic rock albums. The goal was to attract and magnetize two groups of baby boomers: those who didn't want the doo-wop and pop they found on the oldies stations, and those who didn't like the more heavy metal side of AOR stations.

Over time, the "classic hits" format has evolved into more of a station's slug line than of a tightly focused music library shared by the stations who use the term. The first branching-off in the late 1980s led to stations becoming more "classic rock"-based, and the second reincarnation manifested itself in the premises of the "Jack FM" and the "Arrow" formats. Some of the 21st-century versions are based on a music library mostly consisting of classic rock-style hits from the 1970s, along with R&B and pop hits from the late 1960s through the mid-1980s. In many of the cases, the stations are merely oldies stations that evolved into a more up-tempo sound with more newer songs, and the term is now considered a more appealing name than "oldies" to listeners and advertisers alike.

Classic Hits 4FM

Classic Hits 4FM is an Irish radio station. It is an independent multi-region radio station broadcasting to Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway. Reception is also possible in parts of several other neighbouring counties. The station broadcasts under a sound broadcasting contract from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

The station is part of Bay Broadcasting Limited, who also have interests in Radio Nova 100FM (Ireland) and Sunshine 106.8

Programming

Classic Hits 4FM is an Adult contemporary music / Classic Hits driven format with music from the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s with a small amount of more recent music, a specialist programme featuring Irish music, and also two phone-in shows on weekdays from 1-3PM and 9PM-Midnight. Most presenters on the station have previously worked on local and national radio stations across Ireland.

Specialist Programmes on Classic Hits 4FM include: Classic Song Investigation (Solve The Clues, Guess The Year), Classic Love Songs and Club Classics and Guaranteed Irish which are broadcast across the week on the Radio Station.

Hits

Hits may refer to:

Albums

Films

Publications

Initialisms

Classic

A classic is an outstanding example of a particular style, something of lasting worth or with a timeless quality. The word can be an adjective (a classic car) or a noun (a classic of English literature). It denotes a particular quality in art, architecture, literature, design, technology, or other cultural artifacts. In commerce, products are named 'classic' to denote a long-standing popular version or model, to distinguish it from a newer variety. Classic is used to describe many major, long-standing sporting events. Colloquially, an everyday occurrence (e.g. a joke or mishap) may be described in some dialects of English as 'an absolute classic'.

"Classic" should not be confused with classical, which refers specifically to certain cultural styles, especially in music and architecture: styles generally taking inspiration from the Classical tradition, hence classicism.

The Classics

The classics are the literature of ancient Greece and Rome, known as classical antiquity, and once the principal subject studied in the humanities. Classics (without the definite article) can refer to the study of philosophy, literature, history and the arts of the ancient world, as in "reading classics at Cambridge". From that usage came the more general concept of 'classic'.