Glossary
On-Air & Programming
Format
The overall style and content type that defines a station, such as Country, Top 40, News/Talk, or Classic Rock.
A station’s format is its identity — the genre of music or type of talk, the tone, the target audience, and the presentation style. Format decisions drive nearly everything downstream: the music, the imaging, the talent, and the content.
Formats set audience expectations. A listener tunes to a format for a known experience, and consistency with the format is what keeps them.