“The chart will significantly elevate the profile of dance music at radio.”
With the survey dated Aug. 16, 2003, Billboard began the Dance/Mix Show Airplay ranking, with then-dance radio chart manager Ricardo Companioni touting its value to the genre. Billboard also described dance as “an emerging radio format in major U.S. markets” at the time.
Twenty years later, the chart continues to reflect the biggest dance hits on radio each week.
When the list premiered (in Billboard’s pages for the first time in the Oct. 25, 2003, issue), it tracked airplay on eight stations: WKTU New York, KDLD Los Angeles, KPTI San Francisco, KKDL Dallas, WQSX Boston, WPYM Miami, KNRJ Phoenix and KCJZ San Antonio, Texas. (Today, only WKTU remains a reporter.)
In November 2011, the chart was made over from its original Hot Dance Radio Airplay name to Dance/Mix Show Airplay, with its panel of core 24/7 dance stations augmented with mix show hours on pop stations, which now comprise around 80 reporters. Three years later, the chart expanded from 25 spots to its current 40-position depth. (Stations’ airplay is tracked by Mediabase and provided to Billboard by Luminate.)
Over its 20-year archives, the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart has built up a history of achievements by some of the most key names in the genre.
Below is a look at 20 impressive feats achieved on Dance/Mix Show Airplay, from the acts with the most No. 1s to the longest-leading hit and more, from the inaugural chart, dated Aug. 16, 2003, through the latest, Aug. 19, 2023-dated tally.
(Notably, Aug. 16 doubles as the birthday of one of the chart’s most successful performers: Madonna.)
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