Variety is a
radio format
A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when radio was compelle ...
that plays music across numerous genres.
Free-form variety is associated with a wide range of programming including talk, sports, and music from a wide spectrum. This format is usually found on smaller,
non-commercial
A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that does not, in some sense, involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis. For example, advertising-free community ...
public broadcasting
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
stations such as
college radio
Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produced ...
,
community radio
Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popu ...
or
high school radio
High school radio are radio stations located at high schools and usually operated by its students with faculty supervision. The oldest extant high school AM radio station is AM 1450 KBPS in Portland, Oregon. Portland radio station KBPS, first ...
stations. If a variety formatted station has a
program director, that person exerts little if any influence on the music or other programming choices beyond the normal regulatory control required by that country's licensing regulations.
Variety is also associated with
full-service radio. This format is primarily found in the rural United States, on commercial AM stations, and on a few FM public radio stations (usually those that play jazz). These stations tend to favor older listeners and play a mix of music that focuses more on older mainstream music, although much broader than the typical suburban
oldies
Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as w ...
or
classic hits
Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 198 ...
station; a full-service station will often play music from the
adult standards,
classic country
Classic country is a music radio format that specializes in playing mainstream country and western music hits from past decades.
Repertoire
The radio format specializes in hits from the 1950s through the early 1980s, and focus primarily on inn ...
,
adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
or ethnic formats as well. Full-service radio also regularly includes room for local news and talk.
Hot Adult Contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...
and similarly formatted stations often brand with "mix" and "variety" to demonstrate the fact that they play music from several decades (usually from the 1980s to the present). However, these stations have much more restrictive playlists than true variety stations such as those in the freeform and full-service categories. An example is
WBNW-FM in
Binghamton, New York
Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflu ...
or www.varietyradio.co.uk. The phrase "variety hits" is a synonym for the
adult hits format (typified by the "''Male First Name'' FM" branding), which indeed usually has a larger variety than a typical hot AC station.
Radio formats
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