CMJ RECAP ISSUE 1351 WEEK 26

Well we have made it to the half way point of the year!  Congrats everyone! What have been your favorite records of the year so far? What might of I missed so far? I still can't get enough of that Against Me! record. I also really enjoyed that Girl Talk and Freeway EP.  What are you looking forward to?  I hope there is a new Modest Mouse personally but who knows when that will come out, I imagine around the same time as Dr. Dre's DETOX comes out.

In pretty sad news it looks like the takeover of WRAS has happened.  It is a sad day for college radio as WRAS was arguably one the most important REAL college radio station. On the same level as KCRW, KCMP, and KEXP but run completely by students.  With the takeover they are no longer on that same level. I know they are fighting so be sure to follow the SAVE WRAS twitter for all updates.  With the downgrade of WRAS we are left with only 5 of the top stations as rated by CMJ. That got me thinking as to what stations should be Upgraded to take their place.

There are around 20 stations in the next tier.  I will say I only have a small idea of what goes into determining a stations weight for CMJ. If it were me there would be a simple formula you plug a bunch of numbers into that would generate a stations weight.  Wattage, Community involvement, potential listenership would be just a few.  Going only on these few criteria my top choices for station upgrades would be:  WMNF, KALX, KDHX.   We could even look to the NEXT tier of stations and I am sure we would find some really good ones deserving of having more impact on the chart. I am sure some of you think that all stations should be considered equal but thats foolish as a Spin at KEXP is worth 100x what a spin at WVGS would be.

Onto this weeks CHARTS!!!!

Parquet courts took the #1 spot last week from the Black keys and looks like they narrowly held onto it this week.  The top 3 records, Parquet Courts, Jack White and Black Keys are separated by 10 stations. Then the gap between 4 and 1 is almost 30 stations!  And the gap between 4 and 6 is only 15. So it looks like we clearly have 2 tiers here.  The youngest records making moves will have the best shots so we should be keeping an eye on Antlers and White Lung going forward. Last weeks #1 most added tie come in two very different spots. A Sunny Day in Glasgow with a top 20 debut at #19 and White Reaper at #37. Its possible A Sunny day... could make the move that we say from Antlers this week so we need to keep en eye on that.  Nothing else looks like it could seriously challenge for #1.  

This weeks top add is kind of a mystery to me as it dominated its way to the #1 add spot but still did not get over 100 adds. I consider the 100 add marker the first step in determining if a record has the juice to top #1 down the road.  You never know all the factors though could of the record been mailed late? ( should not matter with every company having digital servicing these days) Or more likely this time of year is that most stations are not around on a regular basis and therefore missed the record altogether.  

Making moves this time of year can be pretty hard with holidays/ vacations/ swimming pools/ day drinking/ birthdays  so what should be a 3 week march to the top of the charts can end up taking 5-6 weeks.   It does look like we have leveled off though over the past few weeks with an average of 230 stations per reporting period, but to show you how volatile those 230 are consider that in that time 280 stations have reported at least once.  So again you can have trouble knowing WHO will be impacting the chart.

Sorry I missed last week. I was hanging out in the Dominican Republic!  I Hope everyone has enjoyed the World Cup! I know I have. Also today is Steve's @ Pirate! Birthday he turns 74 years old!  Be sure to wish him a Happy Birthday on his twitters   . Canada at Pirate! birthday is on the 4th of july. Be sure to wish him a Happy birthday on his Instagram     My birthday is on the 6 and you can wish me a happy birthday on Twitter or Instagram  or Snapchat  or whatever social media you can find me on.  

Have a great week!

Douglas