The ARC Weekly Top 40 is an American mainstream music chart. ARC stands for American Radio Chart. The chart was founded in 1980 and measures popular songs based on radio airplay and singles sales. The chart lists the most popular songs in ranking from number one to number forty.
Although an official United States chart, the ARC Weekly Top 40 has no relation to the main U.S. chart, the Billboard Hot 100 and its component charts, the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay and Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales. Since the chart is based on mainstream music, the songs that often reach number one on the ARC Weekly Top 40 do not necessarily reach the top on the Hot 100. The chart is actually more similar to Billboard's Pop 100, Pop 100 Airplay and Mainstream Top 40 charts. The weekly updated charts are assigned Saturday dates, and are posted publicly on the preceding Wednesday evening.
The first song to reach number one on the ARC Weekly Top 40 was 'Escape (The Pina Colada Song)' by Rupert Holmes, on 5 January 1980. The charts are currently archived on the Rock On the Net website (www.rockonthenet.com)