As expected, Billboard magazine has reached an agreement to acquire Radio and Records, its 33-year-old Los Angeles-based competitor.

R&R has always maintained a strong focus on radio.

Billboard has its own radio-driven publication, Billboard Radio Monitor.

Billboard and R&R both publish their own airplay charts, which are created using data from competing airplay monitoring firms, Nielsen SoundScan’s BDS (owned by VNU, parent company of Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter) and Mediabase.

Billboard owner, Dutch media giant VNU, says it will keep the R&R brand and will integrate R&R’s L.A.-based operations into the Billboard Music Group. R&R publisher Erica Farber will remain and the takeover date is July 31. VNU didn’t announce a price for the deal that’s long been speculated about.

Radio & Records was founded in 1973 by Bob Wilson, has witnessed several ownership changes. In the late 1980s and early ’90s, the publication was owned by radio chain Westwood One. The magazine was purchased by Perry Capital in 1994.