How Triple-A and Pop Intersected

I’m used to reverse crossovers to the Triple-A format on KINK Portland. It’s something they’ve done a number of times over the years. I wrote about KINK three years ago for playing Olivia Rodrigo and the Elton John & Dua Lipa duet. This week, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey is tied for No. 1 on KINK, and KINK has just spent the last two months (before the Christmas ratings period) at No. 2 in the market.

KINK’s success has been an acknowledged inspiration to Alternative CIND (Indie 88) Toronto, where Chappel Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” is the most-played song. I also heard Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” on KTSN (Sun Radio) Austin. If I had tuned in an hour later, I would have heard “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles. Styles landed at Triple-A a few years ago. Only that song’s presence on a non-comm was surprising enough to prompt this story, and even Sun Radio has been playing Styles for more than a year.

There weren’t any recent pop hits when I listened to non-comm WFPK Louisville on Wednesday, but I did hear “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees in commemoration of its reaching No. 1 on this day in 1978. (The station also played “Shining Star” by Earth, Wind & Fire. KTSN played “Night Train” by James Brown, and while it’s another discussion, Triple-A adopting a wider/deeper variety of Classic Soul over the years has been gratifying too.)

The difference between 2020 and five years later is that Triple-A has more to share with Top 40 these days. In June, the combination of crossover hits from Noah Kahan, Teddy Swims, and Hozier was already starting to recall Top 40’s rootsy/acoustic moment of Melissa Etheridge/Hootie & the Blowfish 30 years earlier. In recent months, I’ve noticed some Triple-A mainstream artists making songs that aren’t quite pop, but which are poppier.

To some extent, the greater influence is because Triple-A is one of the few current-based formats still committed to music discovery. In 2024, Triple-A had more than 100 top 20 hits, according to Mediabase. Alternative had more than a dozen fewer. Triple-A was third among formats in terms of having the most hits; Alternative was 10th, and relying so heavily on Triple-A seems to have had a softening effect on the currents it does play.

Triple-A’s greater input in the pop mainstream has definitely been a good thing both for Hot AC, which was starting to resist any song not already ratified by CHR, and especially in terms of helping to broaden Top 40. CHR’s biggest ratings moment this summer was also its best time for Shaboozey-to-Sabrina Carpenter-to-Kendrick Lamar variety. 

From a multi-format vantage point, Roan on Triple-A makes a lot of sense, both because of her cachet as an artist and because she represents an only-slightly-poppier distillation of the female singer-songwriters already heavily represented at Triple-A and Alternative. Remy Wolf, worked only to Triple-A, would have sounded great on CHR. Gracie Abrams wouldn’t be such a stretch on Triple-A, and WAPS (The Summit) Akron is playing her.

For those with long memories, the convergence of female singer-songwriters from various directions is reminiscent of the early ‘70s when Elton John, James Taylor, and Bread — acts long sorted into separate piles over the years — were still “Soft Rock” to many of the same fans. Taylor Swift already had several format identities, and yet her trip from segue to Triple-A and back has probably brought the formats to where they are now.

In general, my rule for reverse crossovers from Top 40 to any other formats has been that they sound best up until the week they peak at CHR.  (More than a decade ago, “Imma Be” by the Black Eyed Peas, now forgotten at every format, started then lingered at Hip-Hop/R&B radio well after Mainstream Top 40.) That’s different than holding on to records you helped break. There’s no discovery in hearing “Lose Control” anymore, but Triple-A should benefit from its support of Teddy Swims indefinitely.

Both the stations I heard were enjoyable listens that weren’t in any danger of being confused for Hot AC. Triple-A radio is now at a place where it no longer needs to borrow songs from pop to have cume-friendly records. Hearing Styles’ “Adore You” at a Triple-A, or some other equally poppy title, five years ago seemed to belay a lack of confidence, especially if a station hewed particularly to multi-format hits overall. Now, hearing “Watermelon Sugar” on Sun Radio in the same hour as Mavis Staples, Pink Floyd, and My Morning Jacket just reinforces a sense of “anything can happen.”