America's Best Music is the on-air branding of an adult standards 24-hour radio network, known internally as Adult Standards and formerly known as AM Only, currently owned by Dial Global. It was one of the original Westwood One's Transtar networks. The format is no longer exclusive to AM stations and is carried on some FM stations too.
Its main competitor is Music of Your Life, currently offered by Planet Halo, Inc. Until 2010, Timeless from Citadel/ABC Radio was another similar format.
The target audience of the format is persons 35 to 64, with 40 percent of music from the 1960s, 30 percent from the 1970s, and 15 percent each from the 1950s and since 1980. Artists include Neil Diamond, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, The Carpenters, Johnny Mathis, Barry Manilow, Celine Dion, James Taylor, Elton John, Anne Murray, Andy Williams, Engelbert Humperdinck, Linda Ronstadt, Nat King Cole, Captain and Tennille, and Simon and Garfunkel. The format also incorporates "new standards" material by artists like Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Michael Bublé, Steve Tyrell, Rod Stewart, Bette Midler, Carly Simon, and Renee Olstead. Also, the network plays continuous Christmas music between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day each year.
The current lineup of DJs as of December 2008 includes Jeff Rollins, Carl Hampton (a former Music of Your Life and Jones Standards personality), John Gleason and Don Reid on weekdays, as well as Ed Brand and Joe Daniels on weekends. Bill A. Jones is also a DJ. Former DJs include Nick Gerard, Mark Haden, Rick Wagstaff, Rick Garza, Lou Simon, and Peter Doeblin. Chick Watkins, the format's program director, was also a DJ for many years.
Read more about America's Best Music: History, Stations, Three Sample Hours of Programming (1999), Sample Hour of Programming (2010)
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