Formatradio

What do the radio formats AC, UC, AOR mean?

AC, UC, AOR are various abbreviations for radio formats by which the individual radio stations define themselves. Depending on which radio format a radio station chooses, the style of music, the topics and also the proportion of speech is defined.

The most common formats at a glance:

AC is the abbreviation for Adult Contemporary. This format is probably the most widely used format. For more information, see the term AC.

UC is the abbreviation for Urban Contemporary. This format has a low speech component. News also does not play an overriding role. The target group for this format is between 18 and 34.

CHR is the abbreviation of Contemporary Hit Radio. This radio format plays current music titles that are usually no older than 6 years old. CHR’s target group is 14 to 29 years old. Because only current titles are played here, you have a more limited selection of titles and the playlist repeats itself more quickly. The speech portion is kept short and concise here and often punctuated by jokes and competitions.

AOR is the abbreviation for Album Oriented Rock. However, you can find less AOR in Germany. The target group for this radio format is between 18 and 45 years old and predominantly male. The titles that are played are oriented towards rock bands. Partly also lesser-known bands.

MOR is the abbreviation for Middle of the Road. The listeners of this radio format are between 35 and 55 years old. Musically, the festival is aimed at a broad audience. This is the reason why neither completely new titles nor completely old titles are played at MOR. Programmes may be aimed at specific target groups.

Radio stations that play oldies up to the 70s are usually listened to by listeners over 40 years old.

As the name suggests, the Melodie-Schlager radio format plays mainly melodic hits. The target audience of this channel is between 30 and 59 years old.

In the case of information or news radio stations, the focus is on current news.