Forerunners of the adult hits format appeared on radio during the 1970s. At the time, enough of a backlog of popular music from the rock and roll era had developed to support a format based on them;
oldies stations, however, were still very rare, and instead, stations that did not want to bind themselves to the current top 40 playlist would mix in current hits with the hits of the past two decades. This hybrid format began to fall out of favor in the 1980s as self-contained oldies stations rose to prominence. The Adult Hits format dates back to 1990 when 98.9
WMMO was launched in
Orlando, Florida. Another predecessor was the short-lived "rhythm and rock" format run by
KYOT in
Phoenix, Arizona in the early 1990s. Adult hits stations target adults 25–54, and more specifically at 35- to 44-year-olds. Freeform could also be seen as another forerunner due to the freedom of music choice the DJ's had, very similar to what makes up the core basis of the adult hits format. A large number of adult hits stations utilize male names as their branding. The practice was popularized by the franchised
Jack FM and
Bob FM brands, and has been widely imitated with other common male names.
Related formats • "Traditional country" is a format of
country music that focuses primarily on
neotraditional,
country pop, and
country rock hits from the 1980s through the 2000s, as well as contemporary songs that fit within these styles (including newer songs by artists who were prominent during that era). The format generally avoids
Bluegrass music, as well as more youthful
bro-country songs. • A
Spanish-language variation of the format, "Jose FM", is
syndicated by
Entravision. ==Formatting==