Editing Music radio (section)

===Country===
{{main|Country radio}}
While stereotyped as rural music, the [[Country music]] format is common and popular throughout the United States and in some other countries (particularly Canada and Australia, both of which share much of the same Anglo-Saxon and Celtic roots as the United States). Country has been a popular radio format since the early days of music radio, dating back to the early days of radio itself when [[barn dance]] radio programs were widely popular; however, the format was indeed originally a predominantly rural phenomenon, especially on AM radio. Decades worth of efforts at mainstreaming the format eventually paid off when country radio became widely popular among a large number of FM radio stations that signed on in the suburban United States in the 1980s and early 1990s.

For most mainstream country stations, the emphasis is generally on current pop country, following the same process as top 40; the remaining music in a particular station's library generally uses music from the past fifteen years (shorter for "hot country" or "new country" stations), with the exact music used varying depending on the station and the style of music the listener wants to hear.

[[Classic country]] is a variant of the country music format; it is effectively the country music analog to oldies. Classic country is generally preserved in the rural AM stations that country music aired on before its mainstream expansion. Depending on the music mix, it can play either relatively recent classic country tunes from the 1970s to the 1990s (generally more favorable to advertisers) or can span all the way back to the 1920s, thus playing music far older than almost any other radio format available.

Due to increasing similarities between country music and some variants of rock music (such as [[southern rock]], [[country rock]] and [[heartland rock]]), there have been efforts at combining country and rock formats together, most of which have been unsuccessful.

An alternative country format is [[Americana (music)|Americana]], which eschews the mainstream pop country songs in favor of classic-era, [[alt country]] and cult musicians. Like the music it plays, these stations can develop strong [[cult following]]s and listener loyalty, but they are also less commercially successful than pop country stations.