Billboard Radio Monitor
Encyclopedia
Billboard Radio Monitor was a weekly music trade publication
that followed the radio industry
and tracked the monitoring of current songs by format, station and audience cumes. The magazine was a spinoff of Billboard magazine and was mostly available through subscription to people who work in the radio industry as well as music chart
enthusiasts. (It was developed in Columbia, Maryland initially by Alan Smith and Jonas Cash, principals of the music company called AIR. AIR created music listening competitions for radio programmers in 5 different musical genres and were looking for a "qualifier" for the contests. The contests involved testing new songs potential by having radio programmers listen to and respond to each song's hit potential using a national chart as the qualifier. After using Radio and Records chart for the first 10 years of the competition, AIR developed the BAM, went into partnership with Billboard Magazine to produce and market the magazine. As members of the Board of Directors, the AIR principals continued to improve it's features over the next 8 years under the new name of Billboard Radio Monitor.
It started out in 1993 as one 8 page publication covering Top 40, Rhythm 40, Crossover, Urban, AC, Hot AC, Rock, Alternative and Country formats. Eventually, four different publications under the Airplay Monitor title appeared and became the #1 source of hit music information.) They were combined in 2001 and would later change their name to Billboard Radio Monitor in 2003. On July 14, 2006 publication ceased and was relaunched under the Radio & Records
banner on August 11, 2006. The move was a result of a merger between the current R&R and Radio Monitor after VNU Media acquired R&R on July 6, 2006. The relaunched R&R
would later cease publication on June 5, 2009.
in 1990 and the fragmentation of music formats, the need for a magazine that would focus on one format would come to the forefront. That move resulted in the spinoff of Airplay Monitor, a publication that would the monitor songs or tracks being played on radio station by the number of spins, which in turn are added and tabulated to the corresponding chart the station reports to. The charts and the number of spins featured on the chart are also used to factor in the main Billboard Hot 100
chart, as well as the Hot 100 Airplay
, Pop 100
, Pop 100 Airplay
, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and Hot Country Singles & Tracks music charts.
The monitored radio panels are:
, which became a part of the Billboard Information Group a month later on August 1. R&R had been considered a rival to Billboard and BRM for more than 33 years (since 1973, the year R&R started) and like BRM also used radio airplay to determine chart activity.
In a statement on both R&R and Billboard Radio Monitor's websites:
“This acquisition is in line with VNU's strategy to further strengthen its services to the radio and record industries,” said Michael Marchesano, president and CEO of VNU Business Media and Nielsen Entertainment. “With the added resources of VNU, especially our music services, including the Billboard Information Group, Nielsen BDS, and Nielsen SoundScan, R&R will continue to grow as a vibrant brand.”
With the purchase of R&R it was announced on July 12, 2006 that their operations were integrated into R&R after the transition was completed, since both BRM and R&R's charts and radio reporting panels were identical to each other, thus resulting in Billboard Radio Monitor ceasing publication with its July 14 issue. However they continued issuing weekly charts and report on radio industry news online during the turnover, as R&R started integrating their articles and columns into the Billboard Information Group.
Once the merger was completed both trades was relaunched on August 11 under the "R&R
" name, which combined the features and format articles from the current R&R but continues to use the same BDS charts and format reporting panels that was featured in Radio Monitor, starting with the week ending August 6. The change also ended R&R's partnership with Mediabase
after the August 4, 2006 issue.
used the Top 40 Mainstream chart as its main source.
Trade journal
A trade magazine, also called a professional magazine, is a magazine published with the intention of target marketing to a specific industry or type of trade. The collective term for this area of publishing is the trade press....
that followed the radio industry
Radio industry
The "radio industry" is a generic term for any companies or public service providers who are involved with the broadcast of radio stations or ancillary services.Radio broadcasters can be broken into at least two different groups:...
and tracked the monitoring of current songs by format, station and audience cumes. The magazine was a spinoff of Billboard magazine and was mostly available through subscription to people who work in the radio industry as well as music chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
enthusiasts. (It was developed in Columbia, Maryland initially by Alan Smith and Jonas Cash, principals of the music company called AIR. AIR created music listening competitions for radio programmers in 5 different musical genres and were looking for a "qualifier" for the contests. The contests involved testing new songs potential by having radio programmers listen to and respond to each song's hit potential using a national chart as the qualifier. After using Radio and Records chart for the first 10 years of the competition, AIR developed the BAM, went into partnership with Billboard Magazine to produce and market the magazine. As members of the Board of Directors, the AIR principals continued to improve it's features over the next 8 years under the new name of Billboard Radio Monitor.
It started out in 1993 as one 8 page publication covering Top 40, Rhythm 40, Crossover, Urban, AC, Hot AC, Rock, Alternative and Country formats. Eventually, four different publications under the Airplay Monitor title appeared and became the #1 source of hit music information.) They were combined in 2001 and would later change their name to Billboard Radio Monitor in 2003. On July 14, 2006 publication ceased and was relaunched under the Radio & Records
Radio & Records
Radio & Records was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It originally started out as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006, up until its final issue in 2009.-History:The company was founded in 1973 and...
banner on August 11, 2006. The move was a result of a merger between the current R&R and Radio Monitor after VNU Media acquired R&R on July 6, 2006. The relaunched R&R
R&R (magazine)
R&R was a weekly music trade publication that followed the radio industry and tracked the monitoring of current songs by format, station and audience cumes...
would later cease publication on June 5, 2009.
History
Prior to 1993, the radio stations playlists and radio music charts were featured in Billboard. But with the addition of monitored airplay from Nielsen Broadcast Data SystemsNielsen Broadcast Data Systems
Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, better known as BDS, is a service that tracks monitored radio, television and internet airplay of songs based on the number of spins and detections...
in 1990 and the fragmentation of music formats, the need for a magazine that would focus on one format would come to the forefront. That move resulted in the spinoff of Airplay Monitor, a publication that would the monitor songs or tracks being played on radio station by the number of spins, which in turn are added and tabulated to the corresponding chart the station reports to. The charts and the number of spins featured on the chart are also used to factor in the main Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart, as well as the Hot 100 Airplay
Hot 100 Airplay
The Hot 100 Airplay chart is a chart released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. It measures radio airplay, and is one of the three component charts, along with the Hot Singles Sales and the Hot Digital Songs charts, that determine the chart positions of singles on the Billboard...
, Pop 100
Pop 100
The Pop 100 was a songs chart that debuted in February 2005 and was released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States until its discontinuation in 2009...
, Pop 100 Airplay
Pop 100 Airplay
The Pop 100 Airplay was a chart created in 2005 and released weekly by Billboard in the United States. It measured mainstream radio airplay, and was one of the three component charts, along with the Hot 100 Singles Sales and Hot Digital Songs charts, that determined the chart positions of singles...
, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and Hot Country Singles & Tracks music charts.
Airplay Monitor (1993-2003)
At the start of Airplay Monitor's first issue on January 9, 1993, the publication was available in four editions, which would last until 2001, when they were consolidated into one publication as Airplay Monitor:- Top 40 Airplay Monitor
- Mainstream Top 40
- Rhythmic Top 40 (originally Top 40 Rhythm-Crossover from 1993 to 1997)
- Crossover (1997–2002)
- Adult Contemporary
- Adult Top 40
- Modern Adult (1997–2002)
- R&B Airplay Monitor
- Mainstream R&B
- Adult R&B
- Rap (based on playlists from both Rhythmic Top 40 and Mainstream R&B reporters)
- Rock Airplay Monitor
- Active Rock
- Heritage Rock
- Mainstream Rock (combined playlists from Active and Heritage Rock)
- Modern Rock
- Triple-A
- Country Airplay Monitor
- Country Tracks (based on airplay)
Billboard Radio Monitor (2003-2006)
On January 6, 2003, just ten years after its debut, Billboard renamed the publication Billboard Radio Monitor. The change was to reflect to growing landscape of the radio industry as it began to incorporate more articles involving programmers, markets, formats and artists into the magazine. They also expanded the number of format airplay panels as well and in 2004 became the first music trade to include satellite and audio networks in its reporting panels.The monitored radio panels are:
- Mainstream Top 40
- Rhythmic Top 40
- Dance airplay
- Adult Top 40
- Adult Contemporary
- R&B/Hip-Hop airplay
- Adult R&B airplay
- Rap airplay
- Country airplay
- Modern Rock airplay
- Active Rock airplay
- Heritage Rock airplay
- Triple-A airplay
- Smooth Jazz airplay
- Contemporary Christian airplay
- Christian AC airplay
- Gospel airplay
- Latin Rhythm airplayLatin Rhythm Airplay panelThe Latin Rhythm Airplay chart comprises singles and tracks from artists who represent the Hispanic rhythmic/Hurban genre, which includes Reggaeton, Hispanic R&B/Hip-Hop, Rhythmic Pop/Dance and crossovers from English-language and/or bilingual acts...
- Latin Pop airplay
- Regional Mexican airplay
- Tropical/Salsa airplay
The merger with Radio & Records
On July 6, 2006 VNU, the parent company of Billboard Radio Monitor, announced the acquisition of Radio & RecordsRadio & Records
Radio & Records was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It originally started out as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006, up until its final issue in 2009.-History:The company was founded in 1973 and...
, which became a part of the Billboard Information Group a month later on August 1. R&R had been considered a rival to Billboard and BRM for more than 33 years (since 1973, the year R&R started) and like BRM also used radio airplay to determine chart activity.
In a statement on both R&R and Billboard Radio Monitor's websites:
“This acquisition is in line with VNU's strategy to further strengthen its services to the radio and record industries,” said Michael Marchesano, president and CEO of VNU Business Media and Nielsen Entertainment. “With the added resources of VNU, especially our music services, including the Billboard Information Group, Nielsen BDS, and Nielsen SoundScan, R&R will continue to grow as a vibrant brand.”
With the purchase of R&R it was announced on July 12, 2006 that their operations were integrated into R&R after the transition was completed, since both BRM and R&R's charts and radio reporting panels were identical to each other, thus resulting in Billboard Radio Monitor ceasing publication with its July 14 issue. However they continued issuing weekly charts and report on radio industry news online during the turnover, as R&R started integrating their articles and columns into the Billboard Information Group.
Once the merger was completed both trades was relaunched on August 11 under the "R&R
R&R (magazine)
R&R was a weekly music trade publication that followed the radio industry and tracked the monitoring of current songs by format, station and audience cumes...
" name, which combined the features and format articles from the current R&R but continues to use the same BDS charts and format reporting panels that was featured in Radio Monitor, starting with the week ending August 6. The change also ended R&R's partnership with Mediabase
Mediabase
Mediabase is a music industry service that monitors radio station airplay in 180 US and Canadian markets. Mediabase publishes music charts and data based on the most played songs on terrestrial and satellite radio, and provides in-depth analytical tools for radio and record industry professionals...
after the August 4, 2006 issue.
Use In Countdown Shows
From January 9, 1993 up until its last first-run show on January 28, 1995, American Top 40American Top 40
American Top 40 is an internationally syndicated, independent radio program created by Casey Kasem, Don Bustany, Tom Rounds and Ron Jacobs. Originally a production of Watermark Inc...
used the Top 40 Mainstream chart as its main source.
See also
- The "Original" Radio & Records (1973-2006)Radio & RecordsRadio & Records was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It originally started out as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006, up until its final issue in 2009.-History:The company was founded in 1973 and...
- The "New" R&RR&R (magazine)R&R was a weekly music trade publication that followed the radio industry and tracked the monitoring of current songs by format, station and audience cumes...
- Billboard magazine