As top-40 radio became dominant on AM in the late 1950s, the Yankee Network continued to program for an audience that was now aging. In fact, at many stations, the programming content was undergoing a number of changes: for one thing, few stations had live orchestras any more. And with television becoming popular, many programs previously heard only on radio moved over to TV. Even soap operas, long a staple of network programming on radio, ceased in 1960. Also during this time period, many stations stopped relying on syndicated programs from NBC, CBS, ABC, or Mutual and began to do their own programming: in Boston, for example, WBZ ended its long affiliation with NBC to program its own music, using live and local announcers. Just like with WBZ, the emphasis at many radio stations had shifted to playing records. And as the top-40 hit format proliferated, in an effort to attract the growing youth audience, WNAC and the Yankee Network stayed with the older music; this earned them praise from a number of newspaper columnists, many of whom were also getting older and found top-40 unpleasant. For them, WNAC's and the Yankee Network's emphasis on "great standards" and songs with "beautiful melodies" was very comforting. The Yankee stations, especially flagship WNAC, played the music that the older audience enjoyed, avoiding songs that were popular with young people and focusing on "easy listening" music. One popular announcer during this time was Gus Saunders, who was also well known as the host of another of the Yankee Network's cooking programs; in addition, Saunders announced some of the network's sports events, such as Boston's BAA Marathon. Another popular announcer was Vin Maloney, who like Saunders, fulfilled a wide range of functions for WNAC and the Yankee Network, including announcing, news-reading, and covering sports. The Yankee News Service remained popular throughout the 1950s, and listeners relied on it for local news and sports; this was especially true in the summer of 1957, when Boston's newspapers went on strike. WNAC, WNAC-TV, and the entire Yankee Network increased the amount of hourly newscasts, added more news bulletins, and sent out members of its Boston staff to post news headlines on billboards around the city.