Hot Hits
Encyclopedia
Hot Hits was a radio format created by consultant Mike Joseph in the 1970s. That concept, which helped spur the birth of what is now known as CHR
, also revitalized the Top 40 format and would play a role in bringing the format to the FM band throughout the 1980s.
The concept was to play only the current hits on the Top 30 (or Top 50 on some stations) and no recurrents (that is, recent hits which had already finished their run on the charts) or oldies
whatsoever (unless they happened to be cuts on current chart albums).
The "Fusion" and "The Actualizer" jingles were actually created for TM in Los Angeles by Dick Hamilton. The original versions were sung in Los Angeles in Dick's studios by the Ron Hicklin Singers
, but by the time of the "Hot Hits" format, the vocals were recorded exclusively in Dallas. Many of the station references for the "Hot Hits" jingles reside in the archives of Media Preservation Foundation
.
"Hot Hits" stations played the Top 5 hits every hour and in between other hits on the current chart. The top hits on an average Hot Hits station had a turnover period of 45 minutes to an hour, thus guaranteeing that when listeners tuned in, they were more likely to hear a hit and less likely to hear a "stiff" or a "bomb." They often also featured cuts from current chart albums, even if those cuts happened to be songs which had already charted and would have been considered recurrent or gold otherwise.
Joseph put lots of effort into making his stations sound "localized" by having his DJs frequently mention cities and towns in the stations' listening areas, as well as streets, high and junior high schools, and other local landmarks. Prior to launching each Hot Hits station, he would spend months studying the market and the living patterns of its residents, and he stayed on at each station following its launch until he was certain the station was on the right track. (Usually stations kept him on as a consultant for a 52-week period afterward.)
One of the most frequent contests featured on Hot Hits stations was known as "The Name Game," or "Family Fortune" in some markets in later years. A person with a particular last name or living on a particular street would be called by the DJ and would then be asked the amount of cash in the jackpot in that time. A correct answer meant that the person won all the money in the jackpot; an incorrect answer or busy signal meant that the station would then add more money into the jackpot and try again with a different last name or street. This type of contest giveaway was standard on virtually all Hot Hits outlets consulted by Joseph.
In a 1982 Billboard article, Joseph stated that he felt the reason for his stations' success was that they hearkened back to the basics of Top 40 radio: "playing the hits, having fun, generating excitement through promotions, contests, and name-dropping - giving people what they want to hear, when they want to hear it. The standard of show business is to program the happening acts."
and graduate of Western Reserve University in Cleveland, began his radio career in 1950 at WTNS
in Coshocton, Ohio
, and soon moved on to Grand Rapids, Michigan
to program CBS Radio affiliate WJEF (now WTKG
). In December of 1955, he moved on to Flint, Michigan
, to transition old-line NBC Radio affiliate WTAC
into one of the nation's first Top 40 stations and a stunning success. WTAC's owners, the Founders Group, installed him as their national program director, and Joseph also oversaw stations in New Orleans, Honolulu, and Syracuse, NY (the Syracuse station, WFBL
, would later become one of his "Hot Hits" stations in 1979).
From Flint, Joseph moved on to program WMAX in Grand Rapids and WKBW
in Buffalo
(which he later described as his first prototype of the Hot Hits format), and then in 1960, he helped transform WABC
in New York City
from a struggling, cash-strapped MOR outlet into one of the dominant Top 40 stations in North America. In the fall of 1963, following another success story in Grand Rapids at WLAV, Joseph oversaw the transformation of struggling MOR station WKMH in Detroit into WKNR (Keener 13)
, still fondly remembered as one of the Motor City's most popular radio stations ever, and a few years later oversaw a similar turnabout at WFIL
in Philadelphia. His resume also included stations in Minneapolis, St. Louis, New Orleans, Puerto Rico, and other markets, in a variety of formats from Top 40 to talk radio to beautiful music
(Joseph admitted to being a classical music aficionado in a 1983 Billboard magazine article).
In 1972, Joseph set the stage for what would become the first wave of Hot Hits stations on the FM band when he was hired to program WMVM, a struggling beautiful-music station in Milwaukee. In June of that year, WMVM's calls were changed to WZUU, and Joseph installed a tight Top 40 playlist of 30 current songs (with no recurrents or gold) which he dubbed "Super Hits." Joseph later credited his approach at WZUU for helping to end the dominance of Milwaukee's two AM Top 40 stations, WOKY
and WRIT-AM
(ironically, WZUU today bears the WRIT
calls). Further success came in 1975 at WPJB
"JB105" in Providence, Rhode Island
, with a similarly styled format known as "Big Hits."
(96.5) in Hartford, CT, from a long-running but low-rated classical music format to hit radio as "96 Tix." Fans of the classical music were irate, but the move paid off for WTIC-FM, as the station was top five-rated in the Hartford market by the end of that year. Although WTIC-FM dumped the name "96 Tix," the Fusion jingles, and the Mike Joseph formatics in the spring of 1979, it continued as a Top 40 station until tweaking its sound to Hot Adult Contemporary in 1994.
The first Mike Joseph-consulted station to actually use the term "Hot Hits" on the air, and one of the few AM stations to try the "Hot Hits" concept, was WFBL
-AM (1390) in Syracuse, NY - which Joseph had programmed back in 1956 as national program director of the Founders Group. In response to dropping ratings, WFBL management hired Joseph in the spring of 1979 to help turn around the station's already-in-place "Hit Radio 14" Top 40 format). From June of 1979 through November 1980 (when the station changed format to Music of Your Life
), WFBL played "Hot Hits" as "Fire 14," which played its top 14 hits every week in heavy rotation.
The "Hot Hits" concept really appeared to grow in popularity after WCAU
-FM (98.1) in Philadelphia, which had been struggling through unsuccessful Urban, Oldies and Disco formats for over a decade, relaunched with Hot Hits on September 22, 1981 as "98 Now." With legendary personalities such as Terry "The Motormouth" Young and Paul Barsky
, WCAU-FM came to dominate as Philadelphia's choice for hit music for much of the 1980s, until flipping to Oldies as WOGL in 1987. Within a year of WCAU-FM debuting "98 Now," "Hot Hits" had moved west to Chicago's WBBM-FM
, where the original staff included Steve Davis, Joe Dawson, Gary Spears, Dave Robbins, Bob Lewis, Frank Foster and Tony Taylor; and Detroit's WHYT (now WDVD
), which both coincidentally were both on the 96.3 FM frequency and used the on-air name "96 Now."
Other stations in the early 1980s which utilized the "Hot Hits" concept included: WFEC
-AM (1400), Harrisburg, PA ("Fire 14"); KITS
-FM (105.3), San Francisco ("105 Kits," prior to the adoption of the station's long-running Alternative Rock format); WMAR-FM (106.5), Baltimore
(later also as WMKR, "K106"); and WNVZ
-FM (104.5), Norfolk/Newport News, VA ("Z104"). WFEC, which had been a successful Top 40 station in years past, was not consulted by Mike Joseph although it was modeled after WCAU-FM and followed the basics of Joseph's formula to the letter. The format's success also inspired imitators, such as the Rick Peters-derived "Hit Radio" approach utilized at WHTT
(formerly WEEI-FM) Boston, KHTR
St. Louis, and KKHR
Los Angeles, in the mid-1980s.
station as a result. By the end of 1983, both WBBM-FM in Chicago and WHYT in Detroit had allowed their contracts with Joseph to expire and had dropped the "Hot Hits" formatics while continuing to stay with the Top 40 sound and breaking in non-current music. Both would continue with success in the CHR format through the rest of the 1980s and beyond. While WNVZ is the most recent station known to have used the "Hot Hits" approach under that name, Joseph did go on to program several other CHR stations during the late 1980s with similar formatics, including WTRK
"Electric 106" in Philadelphia in 1986, and WGY-FM
"Electric 99" in Schenectady, NY, in 1988. WQBA-FM in Miami also ran a Spanish-language version of the format, complete with the "Hot Hits" jingle package, in the mid-1990s, although they referred to the format by the English phrase "Super Hits."
Joseph, who had trademarked the phrase "Hot Hits" in 1979, did allow some of his former client stations, including WHYT and WCAU-FM, to continue identifying themselves with the phrase "Hot Hits", and also allowed some stations he did not consult which he felt were close to the original Hot Hits concept, such as WZOU
in Boston, WNTQ
in Syracuse, and KAMZ in El Paso, to use the phrase as well. However, in 1994, he took legal action to stop Blockbuster Video from using the phrase "hot hits" to describe its product.
Contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...
, also revitalized the Top 40 format and would play a role in bringing the format to the FM band throughout the 1980s.
The concept was to play only the current hits on the Top 30 (or Top 50 on some stations) and no recurrents (that is, recent hits which had already finished their run on the charts) or oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
whatsoever (unless they happened to be cuts on current chart albums).
Jingles
Most "Hot Hits" stations used a jingle package from TM Productions, Inc. (now JonesTM) of Dallas, Texas known initially as "The Actualizers" and syndicated combined with another package as "Fusion"; by 1982, however, the "Actualizers" cuts had been renamed "Hot Hits" to solidify its association with Joseph's stations (although the jingle package was not exclusive to Joseph-consulted stations, and in fact was used by some stations which programmed Oldies or even Country formats). The jingles were often played back-to-back two or three in a row.The "Fusion" and "The Actualizer" jingles were actually created for TM in Los Angeles by Dick Hamilton. The original versions were sung in Los Angeles in Dick's studios by the Ron Hicklin Singers
Ron Hicklin Singers
The Ron Hicklin Singers were a group of Los Angeles studio singers contracted and organized by Ron Hicklin. They are most famously known as the real singers behind the background vocals on The Partridge Family recordings....
, but by the time of the "Hot Hits" format, the vocals were recorded exclusively in Dallas. Many of the station references for the "Hot Hits" jingles reside in the archives of Media Preservation Foundation
Media Preservation Foundation
Media Preservation Foundation is a United States 501 non-profit organization dedicated to the archival of media history mainly aimed towards Radio and Television ID Jingles and associated items...
.
Formatics
The creation of "Hot Hits" was Mike Joseph's method of combating the "more music, less personality" approach that was becoming prevalent on Top 40 radio at the time, as well as the splintering of Top 40 into urban-leaning, adult contemporary-leaning and album rock-leaning camps, and what Joseph perceived as neglecting the needs of younger listeners aged 12 to 24 to focus solely on older adults. "Hot Hits" stations bucked this trend by playing all the hits on the charts, regardless of genre, whether they were rock, new wave, R&B, AC, disco, or even country crossover."Hot Hits" stations played the Top 5 hits every hour and in between other hits on the current chart. The top hits on an average Hot Hits station had a turnover period of 45 minutes to an hour, thus guaranteeing that when listeners tuned in, they were more likely to hear a hit and less likely to hear a "stiff" or a "bomb." They often also featured cuts from current chart albums, even if those cuts happened to be songs which had already charted and would have been considered recurrent or gold otherwise.
Joseph put lots of effort into making his stations sound "localized" by having his DJs frequently mention cities and towns in the stations' listening areas, as well as streets, high and junior high schools, and other local landmarks. Prior to launching each Hot Hits station, he would spend months studying the market and the living patterns of its residents, and he stayed on at each station following its launch until he was certain the station was on the right track. (Usually stations kept him on as a consultant for a 52-week period afterward.)
One of the most frequent contests featured on Hot Hits stations was known as "The Name Game," or "Family Fortune" in some markets in later years. A person with a particular last name or living on a particular street would be called by the DJ and would then be asked the amount of cash in the jackpot in that time. A correct answer meant that the person won all the money in the jackpot; an incorrect answer or busy signal meant that the station would then add more money into the jackpot and try again with a different last name or street. This type of contest giveaway was standard on virtually all Hot Hits outlets consulted by Joseph.
In a 1982 Billboard article, Joseph stated that he felt the reason for his stations' success was that they hearkened back to the basics of Top 40 radio: "playing the hits, having fun, generating excitement through promotions, contests, and name-dropping - giving people what they want to hear, when they want to hear it. The standard of show business is to program the happening acts."
Joseph's early successes
Mike Joseph, a native of Youngstown, OhioYoungstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
and graduate of Western Reserve University in Cleveland, began his radio career in 1950 at WTNS
WTNS (AM)
WTNS is a radio station broadcasting a country music format. Licensed to Coshocton, Ohio, USA, the station is currently owned by Coshocton Broadcasting Co.....
in Coshocton, Ohio
Coshocton, Ohio
Coshocton is a city in and the county seat of Coshocton County, Ohio, United States. The population of the city was 11,682 at the 2000 census. The Walhonding River and the Tuscarawas River meet in Coshocton to form the Muskingum River....
, and soon moved on to Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...
to program CBS Radio affiliate WJEF (now WTKG
WTKG
WTKG is a radio station broadcasting a talk radio format. Licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, and now owned by Clear Channel Communications, it first began broadcasting under the WION call sign...
). In December of 1955, he moved on to Flint, Michigan
Flint, Michigan
Flint is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit. The U.S. Census Bureau reports the 2010 population to be placed at 102,434, making Flint the seventh largest city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Genesee County which lies in the...
, to transition old-line NBC Radio affiliate WTAC
WSNL
WSNL is a radio station broadcasting a religious format. Licensed to Flint, Michigan, it first began broadcasting in 1946.The original call letters were WFLM, but the station was purchased in December of 1946 by George W. Trendle and H. Allen Campbell, who changed the call letters to WTCB and made...
into one of the nation's first Top 40 stations and a stunning success. WTAC's owners, the Founders Group, installed him as their national program director, and Joseph also oversaw stations in New Orleans, Honolulu, and Syracuse, NY (the Syracuse station, WFBL
WFBL
WFBL, located at 1390 kHz on the AM dial, is a talk and news radio station owned by Buckley Broadcasting and serving the city of Syracuse, New York....
, would later become one of his "Hot Hits" stations in 1979).
From Flint, Joseph moved on to program WMAX in Grand Rapids and WKBW
WWKB
WWKB is an AM radio station in Buffalo, New York that operates on a frequency of 1520 kHz. It is owned and operated by Entercom Communications. The station carries a progressive talk radio format. Declaring itself as A New Voice, A New Choice, The Voice of the New Majority; WWKB carries a number...
in Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
(which he later described as his first prototype of the Hot Hits format), and then in 1960, he helped transform WABC
WABC (AM)
WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Cumulus Media Networks...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
from a struggling, cash-strapped MOR outlet into one of the dominant Top 40 stations in North America. In the fall of 1963, following another success story in Grand Rapids at WLAV, Joseph oversaw the transformation of struggling MOR station WKMH in Detroit into WKNR (Keener 13)
WDTW (AM)
WDTW is a Detroit-area radio station, operating at 1310 kHz with 5,000 watts. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications and airs mostly syndicated progressive talk radio programs....
, still fondly remembered as one of the Motor City's most popular radio stations ever, and a few years later oversaw a similar turnabout at WFIL
WFIL
WFIL is a radio station and a former television station serving the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its transmitter is located in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania....
in Philadelphia. His resume also included stations in Minneapolis, St. Louis, New Orleans, Puerto Rico, and other markets, in a variety of formats from Top 40 to talk radio to beautiful music
Beautiful music
Beautiful music is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s...
(Joseph admitted to being a classical music aficionado in a 1983 Billboard magazine article).
In 1972, Joseph set the stage for what would become the first wave of Hot Hits stations on the FM band when he was hired to program WMVM, a struggling beautiful-music station in Milwaukee. In June of that year, WMVM's calls were changed to WZUU, and Joseph installed a tight Top 40 playlist of 30 current songs (with no recurrents or gold) which he dubbed "Super Hits." Joseph later credited his approach at WZUU for helping to end the dominance of Milwaukee's two AM Top 40 stations, WOKY
WOKY
WOKY is a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, radio station. They broadcast a classic country radio format emphasizing country from the 50s-80s...
and WRIT-AM
WJYI
WJYI is a radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. It runs a Christian format with Contemporary Christian Music from Salem Radio Network's Today's Christian Music network. It also features brokered teaching and preaching programs from both local Churches and national ministries. It also airs...
(ironically, WZUU today bears the WRIT
Writ
In common law, a writ is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court...
calls). Further success came in 1975 at WPJB
WWLI
WWLI is a radio station in Providence, Rhode Island that under ownership of Cumulus Media. This station is better known as "Lite Rock 105" and plays the adult contemporary format. Its transmitter is located in Johnston, Rhode Island.-History:...
"JB105" in Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
, with a similarly styled format known as "Big Hits."
Hot Hits takes off
Joseph's first high-profile success story with the Hot Hits approach came in the spring of 1977, when he switched WTIC-FMWTIC-FM
WTIC-FM is a radio station primarily serving the Hartford, Connecticut market, though its signal can be picked up throughout most of Connecticut and into Springfield, Massachusetts. It currently broadcasts a Hot Adult Contemporary format. It is located on the dial at 96.5 MHz...
(96.5) in Hartford, CT, from a long-running but low-rated classical music format to hit radio as "96 Tix." Fans of the classical music were irate, but the move paid off for WTIC-FM, as the station was top five-rated in the Hartford market by the end of that year. Although WTIC-FM dumped the name "96 Tix," the Fusion jingles, and the Mike Joseph formatics in the spring of 1979, it continued as a Top 40 station until tweaking its sound to Hot Adult Contemporary in 1994.
The first Mike Joseph-consulted station to actually use the term "Hot Hits" on the air, and one of the few AM stations to try the "Hot Hits" concept, was WFBL
WFBL
WFBL, located at 1390 kHz on the AM dial, is a talk and news radio station owned by Buckley Broadcasting and serving the city of Syracuse, New York....
-AM (1390) in Syracuse, NY - which Joseph had programmed back in 1956 as national program director of the Founders Group. In response to dropping ratings, WFBL management hired Joseph in the spring of 1979 to help turn around the station's already-in-place "Hit Radio 14" Top 40 format). From June of 1979 through November 1980 (when the station changed format to Music of Your Life
Music of Your Life
Music of Your Life is a satellite-delivered radio network featuring the Adult Standards music format. Created by record executive and jingle writer Al Ham, and now under the direction of Marc Angell, Music of Your Life has more than 50 AM, FM and HD-2 radio station affiliates, and has been in...
), WFBL played "Hot Hits" as "Fire 14," which played its top 14 hits every week in heavy rotation.
The "Hot Hits" concept really appeared to grow in popularity after WCAU
WOGL
WOGL is an FM radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.The station plays mostly post 1964 pop leaning Oldies positioned Classic Hits music, including Motown, soul and rock and roll spanning roughly 1964–1985. An occasional pre-1964 song is played. WOGL is owned by CBS Radio...
-FM (98.1) in Philadelphia, which had been struggling through unsuccessful Urban, Oldies and Disco formats for over a decade, relaunched with Hot Hits on September 22, 1981 as "98 Now." With legendary personalities such as Terry "The Motormouth" Young and Paul Barsky
Paul Barsky
Paul Barsky was a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania talk radio personality. Last featured on WYSP, Barsky has previously been a fixture on other Philadelphia radio stations, including the now defunct Y100....
, WCAU-FM came to dominate as Philadelphia's choice for hit music for much of the 1980s, until flipping to Oldies as WOGL in 1987. Within a year of WCAU-FM debuting "98 Now," "Hot Hits" had moved west to Chicago's WBBM-FM
WBBM-FM
WBBM-FM, known on air as "B96", is a Rhythmic Contemporary outlet in Chicago, Illinois with a Rhythmic based playlist. The station is owned by CBS Radio and broadcasts at 96.3 MHz with an ERP of 4.2 kW. WBBM's main competition is WKSC-FM "103.5 Kiss FM", as well as urban rivals WGCI-FM &...
, where the original staff included Steve Davis, Joe Dawson, Gary Spears, Dave Robbins, Bob Lewis, Frank Foster and Tony Taylor; and Detroit's WHYT (now WDVD
WDVD
WDVD is a hot adult contemporary radio station in Detroit, Michigan, broadcasting at 96.3 MHz on the FM dial. WDVD's studios and offices are located in the Fisher Building near downtown Detroit. WDVD's transmitter is located in Oakland County in Royal Oak Township at 8 Mile Road and Wyoming Avenue...
), which both coincidentally were both on the 96.3 FM frequency and used the on-air name "96 Now."
Other stations in the early 1980s which utilized the "Hot Hits" concept included: WFEC
WTCY
WHGB is a radio station broadcasting an sports format. Licensed to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, it serves the greater Harrisburg metropolitan area. It first began broadcasting under the call sign WFEC. The station is currently owned by Cumulus Media and features sports programming from ESPN Radio...
-AM (1400), Harrisburg, PA ("Fire 14"); KITS
KITS
KITS is a San Francisco, California, USA-based radio station broadcasting at 105.3 MHz. The station is owned by CBS Radio and programs a modern rock format. The station also broadcasts on HD channel L2, locally on Comcast cable channel 986, and is streaming online.-Hot Hits:The station's...
-FM (105.3), San Francisco ("105 Kits," prior to the adoption of the station's long-running Alternative Rock format); WMAR-FM (106.5), Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
(later also as WMKR, "K106"); and WNVZ
WNVZ
WNVZ is a Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Norfolk, Virginia, serving Hampton Roads. WNVZ is owned and operated by Entercom.-1967 to 1972 , Country as WTID-FM:...
-FM (104.5), Norfolk/Newport News, VA ("Z104"). WFEC, which had been a successful Top 40 station in years past, was not consulted by Mike Joseph although it was modeled after WCAU-FM and followed the basics of Joseph's formula to the letter. The format's success also inspired imitators, such as the Rick Peters-derived "Hit Radio" approach utilized at WHTT
WODS
- External links :****...
(formerly WEEI-FM) Boston, KHTR
KLOU
KLOU is a radio station with an oldies format in St. Louis, Missouri, specializing in hits from the 1960s and 1970s.-History:The station began broadcasting on February 12, 1962 as KMOX-FM, by playing an easy listening/standards format. The focus then shifted to an adult contemporary style of music...
St. Louis, and KKHR
KCBS-FM
KCBS-FM is a radio station in Los Angeles, California broadcasting to the Greater Los Angeles area on 93.1 FM. KCBS-FM airs an adult hits music format branded as "Jack-FM"....
Los Angeles, in the mid-1980s.
The heat cools off
Beginning in 1983 Hot Hits stations started playing recent hits from the past several years mixed into the Hot Hits. Most of the stations therefore evolved into a more common CHRContemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...
station as a result. By the end of 1983, both WBBM-FM in Chicago and WHYT in Detroit had allowed their contracts with Joseph to expire and had dropped the "Hot Hits" formatics while continuing to stay with the Top 40 sound and breaking in non-current music. Both would continue with success in the CHR format through the rest of the 1980s and beyond. While WNVZ is the most recent station known to have used the "Hot Hits" approach under that name, Joseph did go on to program several other CHR stations during the late 1980s with similar formatics, including WTRK
WISX
WISX is a Hot adult contemporary radio station licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are owned by Clear Channel Communications.-Beautiful Music Era: WQAL/WWSH:...
"Electric 106" in Philadelphia in 1986, and WGY-FM
WRVE
WRVE is a Hot Adult Contemporary radio station licensed to Schenectady, New York and serving the Capital District and Upper Hudson Valley of New York. It broadcasts at 99.5 FM at 14.5 kilowatts ERP from a transmitter in Guilderland, New York...
"Electric 99" in Schenectady, NY, in 1988. WQBA-FM in Miami also ran a Spanish-language version of the format, complete with the "Hot Hits" jingle package, in the mid-1990s, although they referred to the format by the English phrase "Super Hits."
Joseph, who had trademarked the phrase "Hot Hits" in 1979, did allow some of his former client stations, including WHYT and WCAU-FM, to continue identifying themselves with the phrase "Hot Hits", and also allowed some stations he did not consult which he felt were close to the original Hot Hits concept, such as WZOU
WJMN (FM)
WJMN is a successful Rhythmic Top 40 radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, USA, under the ownership of Clear Channel Communications. Its current slogan is "Hip Hop and Today's Hit Music!" and can be heard as far north as the White Mountains under good conditions, and in portions of...
in Boston, WNTQ
WNTQ
WNTQ, 93Q, is a Mainstream Top 40 station based in Syracuse, New York. The Cumulus Media outlet operates at 93.1 MHz with an ERP of 97 kW.-History:...
in Syracuse, and KAMZ in El Paso, to use the phrase as well. However, in 1994, he took legal action to stop Blockbuster Video from using the phrase "hot hits" to describe its product.