THIS WEEK IN COLLEGE RADIO. CMJ ISSUE 1416 WEEK 43

Never a dull moment here in college radio land.  This time of year is very competitive. You could make the argument that almost every record thats been in the top 10 over the last 2 weeks could be a #1 record at a different time of year. You could even say some of the records from a few weeks back would of made it. 

Foals

Arcs

Fiddler

Destroyer

Metric

Dead weather

Youth Lagoon

Alex G

New Order

Kurt Vile

Deer hunter

Wavves

All would challenge for #1 if not up against each other.  I think the end of really big records for the year is coming but I have been thinking that starting last week. This week King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard joins in the competition but I am thinking the #2 most added Beach House has a better run than them.  

I have never seen this before where a NEW record from the same artist comes out as the OLD record is still being worked. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. 

I remember when Tom Waits had 2 records at the same time on the chart they were treated as separate records. It meant that neither record went to #1 at the time. The common strategy now is to make one record un-reportable so everyone is on the same page with a particular artist.  Both records are currently on the charts this week with the old Beach House coming in at #8 and the new one already at # 85 on the ADD week. If they are combined it should make for an easy path to #1. 

I think the biggest surprise this week was the move of Deerhunter from #12 to #4.  Kind of like what we saw from Kurt Vile a few weeks ago and I am going to guess it sees the same chart arc and stalls out where it is. 

Wavves made a nice move up the charts to #3 but amongst records that have a shot at #1 they have the least amount of the biggest 2 types of stations.  

Neon Indian will also be worth watching this next week. I am not sure how I would handle working 3 records in the top 7 and having each with #1 aspirations. I think I would try to get each a shot at #1 but that also can open the window for other records to sneak in there. There is part of me that might just try and keep #1 with the record I have there.   

I wanted to take a second to talk about how us as promoters promote to you. 

Please do not fall for gross promoter tactics.  If someone is pushing a record to you and you like the record and your station likes the record then great. You should chart it. And if you like that promoter or that record a lot and you want to get it more play so it goes #1 at your station to help out someone there is nothing wrong with that. You are allowed to take concert tickets, vinyl, CD's for your station but because you do you are not promising that the record is going to be #1. But again if you want to help there is nothing wrong with that.  

There are many things that are OK and lots of promoter strategies are harmless and are coming from a good place to help an artist or label. There are some though that are not. 

Do not be threatened by a promoter. If you have 1 record on your station from a promoter than you have one record. If you happen to have 12  then you have 12. Different stations sometimes lean towards different promoters because they push different types of music. But if you are charting 4 and the promoter threatens to remove you from his/her list because you are not charting enough, please do not fall for this line of promotion.  I know I am going to send records to stations where I think it makes sense and I think most will do that regardless of what they threaten. 

Do not be guilted by a promoter. It would mean SO MUCH to this band if they got top 5. It would not. Or maybe it would. It is not your problem. I want every station to do what they think is best for her or his station. Don't worry about us. We will be fine. Every record is going to be the most important record we are working while we are working it. Until the next one. Then that will be. 

So if you have a promoter giving you a huge guilt trip or threatening you, do your best to ignore them,  you are in charge. We are here to help you out though. And most of us are pretty good. Don't fall for the bad ones. 

Thanks for reading

Lets talk on twitter. 

Doug