The name is familiar, but I can't say for sure why. I didn't really make a career in radion--I was one of those very marginal characters in radio--a fill-in--I worked in Michigan, using variants of the name Joe Edwards--I often worked on the stations that were the old style FM, and didn't need a name, because I had no microphone, just played "beautiful music" and carts--I went into advertising too(used to buy time on KLOK though!)

As I said, though, Billboard's charts, originally based strictly on sales, actually preceded radio and even the invention of the jukebox--the first having been in 1913(though those charts were for sheet music)--The first compilations of hit records actually started in a magazine called Talking Machine World in 1905--the ranking of record in the way that it is done today, started in Variety Magazine in 1929--by 1934, both Billboard and Variety were also charting records according to airplay--and today's charts factor in both airplay and sales--Another magazine, Cashbox, compiled the charts based on which songs are played the most on the jukebox--

My information comes from Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954, which is a compilation of the charts and hits from that time period--he also publishes a series of other books that include charts and chart information from the more recent charts--his books are the ultimate authority, and they are the ones ones that radio stations use--