When WBMX (Mix 104.1) Boston decided to downplay the ’80s recently, moving its positioner to “the Best Mix of the ’90s, 2000s and Now,” it became the latest example of a Hot AC/Adult Top 40 station moving away from the music that was once the format’s calling card. Stations like KSTP-FM (KS95) Minneapolis and KUCD (Star 101.9) Honolulu had already imaged around “’90s, 2K and Today.” Others, like WPLJ New York and WRQX (Mix 107.3) Washington, D.C., are using some variant of the “Today’s Best Music/Hits” positioner that once used to signify that a station was Top 40 and not Hot AC.

Not every Hot AC has made the move to the same degree. Many of Clear Channel’s Hot ACs continue to have a prominent ’80s component, including Rock AC-leaning WRVE (The River) Albany, N.Y., KIOI (Star 101.3) San Francisco, KBIG (104.3 My FM) Los Angeles, WMMX (Mix 107.7) Dayton, Ohio, and KMYI (Star 94.1) San Diego. But Clear Channel’s very successful KMXP (Mix 96.9) Phoenix has successfully downplayed (although not eliminated) the ’80s for a while now in exchange for more ’90s.

The brief for moving away from the ’80s has been building for more than five years. Bob- and Jack-FMs have been pounding those songs for nearly a decade. Mainstream AC has further emphasized the ’80s as well as it phases out the ’70s. And Oldies/Greatest Hits stations are filtering more of those songs in all the time—particularly those big enough to still test well for a Hot AC.

There’s also the strength of current product. Songs like Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” and Neon Trees’ “Animal” not only recall the ’80s musically, but they also fill the same anthemic uptempo pop need that songs like “Dancing In The Dark” and “Jessie’s Girl” did in the first half of that decade. And those songs that aren’t sonic throwbacks raise compatibility issues as stations consider the specter of playing “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” into “Dynamite.”

“We’re pretty much out of the ’80s business,” says Saga Executive VP Steve Goldstein. “Most Hot ACs are now down below five percent ’80s. If the format’s median age is thirty years old, that [gives us a listener born in] 1980. In 1990, they were 10 years old. We dropped the ‘decades’ message a while ago. We’re generally using ‘today’s best mix’ or something focused on today.”

But not everybody is willing to move away from the ’80s just yet:

“It depends on the markets,” says Andrew Jeffries, who programs KBIG and KIOI (Star 101.3). “If you’ve got a well-radioed market with a lot of ’80s, I can understand the impatience to get them off the radio? But would I do it on either of my stations? No, and the key reason is the audience.”

Jeffries emphasizes that “our ’80s are different from what they used to be. We’re not digging up Phil Collins’ ‘One More Night.’ There are still some undiscovered gems that fit in with Taio Cruz or Daughtry or Kelly Clarkson…There are a lot of ’80s that stand the test of time.”

KBIG, in particular, has the advantage of a successful co-owned and adult-friendly Mainstream Top 40 in KIIS, which gives it some room to maneuver in terms of era. “There are not many situations where a Hot AC should try and occupy the ‘today’ franchise,” says Jeffries. “It takes you from being a Hot AC and the audience you’re after to a different place. I’m not against the idea of reducing the ’80s, but when it’s right, not just because there’s an eight at the start of the era.”

KFBZ (The Buzz) Wichita, Kan., PD Dusty Hayes is up against both a Clear Channel “Brew” station playing ’80s Classic Rock and a “Bob FM.” While that might be all the encouragement that some PDs need to move on, Hayes refuses to “cede a popular bloc of music to my competitors.” Besides, he says, “Some songs are just transcendent. My 20 year old daughter cranks up ‘Don’t Stop Believin’” when she hears it. The Target ads are the hippest, coolest ads around, and the new one has ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot.’ So these songs are just part of the American consciousness. Do we play Icicle Works’ ‘Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)’? No.”

“At WPTE [(The Point) Norfolk, Va.], we haven’t dropped the ’80s,” says PD Barry McKay. “We average one-per-hour. The ’80s have become our ‘oh wow’ category, with most of them upbeat and giving us a fun vibe. It’s a small category. We’re careful not to schedule ‘You Give Love A Bad Name’ into or out of Bruno Mars so ‘Time Spent Logging’—thanks, Dave Shakes!—is important to Time Spent Listening. At this moment, the ’80s make sense for us.”

KPLZ (Star 101.5) Seattle OM Kent Phillips says his station still “plays one ’80s song an hour and then every day at noon we do the ‘’80s Lunch.’ This has been a feature on the station since 1995. The all-eighties hour is the highest rated hour on the station outside of the morning show. In October it did an 8.6 share 25-54 and a 10.8 share in women 25-54. In the PPM, the share doubled.”

Phillips adds, “I think the ’80s has a place on an established Hot AC with years of history. A station that has launched since 2000 may want to avoid it. I program eight Hot AC stations. Only two have an 80’s component. It depends on heritage and the market.”

At KSRZ (Star 104.5) Omaha, Neb., PD Kurt Owens says, “The ’80s were a big part of [the station at our sign-on], but may be an even bigger factor now. ’80s music is still probably our biggest musical image with our core audience. It would be a mistake for us to run away from something the audience loves and we already own. Most of our audience wants to stay connected to what’s going on today musically and still hear their favorites from the ’80s. The trick, and ongoing challenge, is to play the right ’80s songs.

Star also goes all-’80s every weekend using various themes, such as “Class Reunion Weekends” and “’80s Shuffle Play Weekends.” “Outside our ‘’80s @ Noon By Request,’ our ’80s/’90s/Now position means that the ’80s songs are just expected so we don’t stage them specifically. As a matter of fact, we stage the newest of the new music we play because it’s a smaller percentage of our mix,” Owens adds.

So how do you feel about the '80s at Hot AC/Adult Top 40? Your comments are welcome.

Read our Fresh Listen to WBMX's revamped format here.