Editor Walt Grealis Frequency Weekly Company RPM | Categories Music magazines First issue 24 February 1964 | |
Final issue
— Number 13 November 2000
Volume 71, No. 27 | ||
RPM (ISSN 0315-5994 and later ISSN 0033-7064) was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.
Contents
RPM stood for "Records, Promotion, Music". The magazine was reported to have variations in its title over the years such as RPM Weekly and RPM Magazine. RPM maintained several format charts, including Top Singles (all genres), Adult Contemporary, Dance, Urban, Rock/Alternative and Country Tracks (a.k.a. Top Country Tracks) for country music. On 21 March 1966, RPM expanded its Top Singles chart from 40 positions to 100.
For the first several weeks of its existence, the magazine did not compile a national chart, but simply printed the current airplay lists of several major market Top 40 stations. A national chart was introduced beginning with the June 22, 1964 issue, with its first-ever national #1 single being "Chapel of Love" by The Dixie Cups. Prior to the introduction of RPM's national chart, the CHUM Chart from Toronto radio station CHUM was considered the de facto national chart.
The RPM Awards
The modern Juno Awards had their origins in an annual survey conducted by RPM since its founding year. Readers of the magazine were invited to mail in survey ballots to indicate their choices under various categories of people or companies.
The RPM Awards poll was transformed into a formal awards ceremony, The Gold Leaf Awards in 1970. These became the Juno Awards in following years.
1964 RPM Awards
The RPM Awards for 1964 were announced in the 28 December 1964 issue:
A column on page 6 of that issue noted that the actual vote winner for Top Canadian Content record company was disqualified due to a conflict of interest involving an employee of that company who was also working for RPM. Therefore, runner-up Capitol Records was declared the category's winner.
1965 RPM Awards
The Annual RPM Awards for 1965 were announced in the 17 January 1966 issue, with more country music categories than the previous year: