At the time, enough of a backlog of popular music from the rock and roll era had developed to support a format based on them; oldies stations, however, were still very rare, and instead, stations that did not want to bind themselves to the current top 40 playlist would mix in current hits with the hits of the past two decades.
This hybrid format began to fall out of favor in the 1980s as self-contained oldies stations rose to prominence.
The Adult Hits format dates back to 1990 when 98.9 WMMO was launched in Orlando, Florida.
[citation needed] Another predecessor was the short-lived "rhythm and rock" format run by KYOT in Phoenix, Arizona in the early 1990s.
Freeform could also be seen as another forerunner due to the freedom of music choice the DJ's had, very similar to what makes up the core basis of the adult hits format.