Billboard is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. Originally founded in Cincinnati in 1894 as Billboard Advertising, it was a trade paper for the bill posting industry. After a few years, it began to publish news of outdoor amusements, a major consumer of billboard space. Eventually Billboard became the paper for circuses, carnivals, amusement parks, fairs, vaudeville, and other live entertainment.
The magazine began covering the motion picture industry in 1909 and radio in the 1920s. With the development of the jukebox in the 1930s, The Billboard began publishing music charts. In the 1950s it began covering the television industry, including ratings charts for programs. It continued to carry news of fairs, carnivals, theme parks and other outdoor entertainments until 1961 when these departments were spun off into a new weekly magazine called Amusement Business which ceased publication in 2006. (Wikipedia)
