Fredric M. Bronson (born January 10, 1949) is an American journalist, author and writer. He is best known for his appearances on American Idol, the weekly "Chart Beat" column in Billboard magazine, and as the author of books related to Billboard charts.Born to Irving and Mildred Bronson and raised in Culver City, California, Bronson showed an early aptitude for gauging the popularity of artists and songs. At age 11, Bronson won a contest in the Los Angeles Mirror-News requiring him to select favorites in several music categories. His prize was a lunch with actress Connie Stevens. As Bronson later wrote, "I realized that keeping track of records and artists wasn't such a bad idea." That wasn't the first brush with show business for Bronson. When he was five, he was selected to portray actor/writer/producer Jack Webb as a child in a series of photographs in the May 1954 issue of Cosmopolitan.One of Bronson's earliest published works was in the first letters column of The Amazing Spider-Man, in issue 3 published in 1962. A follow-up letter was printed in The Amazing Spider-Man No. 608, published 47 years later. His letters were also published on a regular basis in issues of Superman, Action Comics, Adventure Comics, The Flash and other DC Comics publications.From 1971 to 1982, he was a publicist for NBC-TV, based in Burbank, California. Bronson handled publicity for a number of TV series, including "Sanford and Son", "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century", "B. J. and the Bear", "Man from Atlantis", "The Bionic Woman", "Police Story", "Police Woman", "Bonanza", "Quark", "Joe and Valerie", "Voyagers!" and "The Powers of Matthew Star", as well as "Hollywood Squares", "The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder" and the Bob Hope specials.Bronson's regular "Chart Beat" column appeared weekly in Billboard magazine from January 1993, when he took over from Paul Grein who originated the column in March 1981, until April 2005, when it was transferred completely to Billboard.com. The online "Chart Beat Chat" column appeared at Billboard.com from April 1996 until March 5, 2009. Both dealt with notable activity on the Billboard charts including the Hot 100 for songs and Billboard 200 for albums. His new Billboard column, This Week In Billboard History, launched on the www.billboard.biz website on Dec. 6, 2011. He is the author of several chart related books, including Billboard's Hottest Hot 100 Hits, and The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. With Dick Clark, he authored Dick Clark's American Bandstand. His newest book, due for publication in April 2012, is The Sound Of Music Family Scrapbook, the story of the seven actors who played the von Trapp children in the beloved 1965 movie. Bronson also co-created the syndicated comic strip Dick Clark's Rock, Roll and Remember in 1995 with Dick Clark and Don Sherwood.Bronson has written for numerous award shows including both the World Music Awards and American Music Awards. He has also ap
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