When the Adult Hits format came to America in the mid-’00s, it shattered the fragile coalition of the “’80s, ’90s, and today” Hot AC station. Bob, Jack, and friends were able to superserve the ’80s and cherrypick the ’70s and ’90s as it suited them, although they rarely found much music from the ’90s that they wanted.

That left “today.” It was hard for the Hot AC of 2005 to see much value in owning “today.” There was Nickelback. There were the final hits of Modern AC’s late ’90s superstars as their careers trailed off. Then there were songs like the Black Eyed Peas’ “Let’s Get It Started” and Usher’s “Yeah” that adult women seemed to like, but which seemed incompatible with every other song Hot AC had played since 1997.

Six years later, the Adult Hits format has some existential issues of its own. Oldies/Greatest Hits stations are sharing most of their late ’70s songs and making a move on their ’80s pop/rock titles. And programmers are divided on whether the profligate variety and “oh wow” songs that were part of the initial plan are either no longer suitable in a PPM market or even more suitable.

So it’s interesting to see what KPKX (98.7 The Peak) Phoenix has made of all of this under new PD Jules Riley. The Adult Hits station has been, according to market observers, leaning more Hot AC for a while. But with today’s pop continuing to gain altitude, they’re also playing recurrents and currents in a quantity not usually embraced by the Adult Hits format, with spins up to 32 times a week on powers. By comparison, KBPA [Bob FM] Austin, Texas has a top spin of 10. KCBS [Jack FM] Los Angeles plays virtually no currents.

As significant, the currents and recurrents that The Peak is playing include the type of songs that were such a challenge for Hot AC in the mid-’00s: Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”; Ke$ha’s “We R Who We R”; Usher’s “DJ Got Us Falling In Love,” etc., although there’s “Hey Soul Sister,” “Just The Way You Are” and Neon Trees’ “Animal,” too. This even though some of the station’s previous ’70s/’80s Classic Rock center lane remains.
In other words,the type of station that so helped damage the ’80s/’90s/now coalition elsewhere has evolved into its own version of ’80s/’90s/now. In the February PPM, the Peak was up 3.5-4.0 6-plus. Then again, Adult Top 40 rival KMXP (Mix 96.9) continues to position as “’80s, ’90s, and Today” and also do well, although its rock-leaning version is very different. Viewed another way, the new Peak is one of an increasing number of stations in the AC world with era variety but reasonably consistent tempo.

The Peak is now positioned as “all about the variety.” It still has drops from John O’Hurley—one recent one: “variety that will never unfriend you.” Here’s the station at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 8.

• Taio Cruz, “Break Your Heart”
• Police, “Don't Stand So Close To Me”
• Sheryl Crow, “All I Wanna Do””
• Gloria Gaynor, “I Will Survive”
• Nickelback, “If Today Was Your Last Day”
• Level 42, “Something About You”
• Bruno Mars, “Grenade”
• Spin Doctors, “Two Princes”
• Avril Lavigne, “Complicated”
• Daughtry, “No Surprise”
• Prince, “Little Red Corvette”
• Elton John, “Tiny Dancer’”