Country Airplay

Throughout its history of ranking country songs by popularity, Billboard has had several different airplay-only charts to measure the top-played songs on radio stations. The first of these was called "Country & Western Records Most Played By Folk Disk Jockeys", and debuted with the December 10, 1949, issue.[2] Like the other charts of the time, the number of positions was not standardized; the chart had anywhere from eight to 15 positions, varying from week to week. The chart, which had several other names, continued until October 13, 1958, when it was merged with the "best sellers" chart to become the Hot Country Songs chart.[2]

Starting with the October 20, 1984 issue, there were separate charts for radio airplay and singles sales, similar to the Hot 100 Airplay and Singles Sales charts that also debuted with this issue, it was a component chart that helped determine placement on the Hot Country Singles chart.

The airplay chart was discontinued in 1987 as Hot Country songs became solely based on disc jockey reports, but the sales chart continued until 1989.[2]

The Nielsen BDS-monitored country airplay chart was initiated on January 20, 1990, as a new incarnation of Billboard's long-running Hot Country Singles chart.[2] The chart replaced the previous version of the Hot Country Singles chart, which had been based on manually reported station playlists combined with weekly singles sales. At this time the chart consisted of 75 positions.[2] Four weeks later, on February 17, the chart was retitled "Hot Country Singles & Tracks".[2] Beginning with the January 13, 2001, issue, the chart was cut from 75 to 60 positions, and effective April 30, 2005 the chart was renamed "Hot Country Songs".[2]

Beginning with the chart dated October 20, 2012, Billboard changed the methodology of Hot Country Songs to also incorporate digital sales and streaming instead of airplay alone. In addition, the airplay component of the chart now factored in airplay on stations from all genres instead of the previous genre-specific radio panel. At this point the 23-year-old airplay-only chart was retitled "Country Airplay".

8 weeks

• "Amazed" – Lonestar (1999)
• "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" – Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett (2003)

7 weeks

• "The Good Stuff" – Kenny Chesney (2002)
• "Have You Forgotten?" – Darryl Worley (2003)
• "There Goes My Life" – Kenny Chesney (2003–2004)
• "Live Like You Were Dying" – Tim McGraw (2004)
• "Beautiful Crazy" - Luke Combs (2019)

6 weeks

• "It's Your Love" – Tim McGraw with Faith Hill (1997)
• "Just to See You Smile" – Tim McGraw (1998)
• "How Forever Feels" – Kenny Chesney (1999)
• "Breathe" – Faith Hill (1999–2000)
• "Ain't Nothing 'bout You" – Brooks & Dunn (2001)
• "I'm Already There" – Lonestar (2001)
• "Somebody Like You" – Keith Urban (2002)
• "19 Somethin'" – Mark Wills (2003)
• "Beer for My Horses" – Toby Keith duet with Willie Nelson (2003)
• "As Good as I Once Was" – Toby Keith (2005)
• "Better Life" – Keith Urban (2005)
• "Jesus, Take the Wheel" – Carrie Underwood (2006)
• "Our Song" – Taylor Swift (2007–2008)
• "Die a Happy Man" – Thomas Rhett (2016)

Sources:[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]