COLLEGE RADIO RECAP WEEK 35

Well that escalated quickly.

If you have yet to read it be sure to check out the great article about CMJ on Stereogum.  It is a long one but well worth your time.

Yesterday the CEO of CMJ sent out a press release that was covered by Pitchfork and Billboard You can read about them there but really they say very little. Just more of the same "be patient" line they posted on their Facebook and Twitter a month ago.  

I think its funny that they failed to post this announcement on the CMJ website or to email it to CMJ subscribers as they easily could of done.

I wanted to highlight this particular passage of the press release.

A little patience and a whole lot less wild and unsubstantiated speculation is what we need right now. CMJ will continue as an innovative force and a strong presence going forward. We’ll share more about our 2016 and 2017 program soon.

I want to say that all my speculation has been substantiated.  For the record.

I would still not bet money on there being a "legit" CMJ Marathon this year.  Perhaps a one day festival so they don't get sued by the 100's of stations that are promised a free badge to the marathon each year, but even that seems like a stretch to me.

The thing is though that if/ when CMJ dies it does not mean that College radio is dying with it. Artists are still being introduced via College and community radio and while CMJ might be the current glue that holds this community together I have no doubt that something will pop up.  I have given examples of 3 different charts lately that could do that. Or it could be something else.  

I think patience is pretty thin at college radio at this point. Every week I get emails from stations asking if they should renew their subscription because they are not sure they get anything from CMJ. I tell them I would not.  I mean why would you.

I am sure there will be a lot more to say about this in the coming days. Former CMJ GM David laid out some really good thoughts on this twitter and they are worth reading.

Looks like last weeks issue of my chart was a big hit and while i was not going to do it every week I will do it as soon as all the charts are up.  I would like to talk about ADDS this week though as Angel Olsen destroyed everyone.

All charts are subject to change prior to print

TW	TA	Artist	Recording	Label
1	72	ANGEL OLSEN	MY WOMAN	Jagjaguwar
2	53	CASS MCCOMBS	Mangy Love	Anti
3	49	GLASS ANIMALS	How To Be A Human Being	Harvest
4	43	MORGAN DELT	Phase Zero	SUB POP
5	38	MILD HIGH CLUB	Skiptracing	Stones Throw

Not even close. I am working on the Cass record and thought we might have a shot but that was quickly thwarted. Early on we were close, at one point it was 16-14 in Angels favor.  That was the closest it would be. By morning it was 31-24 and we could never close the gap.   I always find it impressive when a record dominates so much with no secondary indie. Secretly Canadian has their own team to work records and I wanted to take a brief minute to look at how dominant they have been this summer. 

Currently on the charts we have Angel Olsen #1 most added,  you knew that. 

3

3

2

2

6

DINOSAUR JR.

Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not

Jagjaguwar

came close to #1 and without Thee Oh sees they may of taken #1 

6

7

8

1

11

MITSKI

Puberty 2

Dead Oceans

Any time an indie label can score #1 on their own I am impressed. 

28

35

-

28

2

RYLEY WALKER

Golden Sings That Have Been Sung

Dead Oceans

34

23

14

4

13

WHITNEY

Light Upon The Lake

Secretly Canadian

Top FIVE at the same time they were scoring a Mitski #1!

72	-	-	72	1	ALEX CAMERON	Jumping The Shark	Secretly Canadian

I am sure I missed some as the CMJ charts are a mess with many artists not having label designations but the point is this is all being done by what I believe is a one or two person team.  I would not be shocked to see Angel Olsen be the next one to take #1. Well not if I can help it, but it will be fun to watch. 

Lets talk on twitter. 

COMPARING THE 5 DIFFERENT CHARTS / DCC ISSUE 1

As I mentioned yesterday there are some new players on the College chart landscape.

So I thought it would be fun to compare them all with what CMJ puts out. And make our own top 20.
CMJ at one point would show what the top 20 were on its public part of the website so lets start there.

TW	LW	2W	PK	WKS	Artist	Recording	Label
1	4	5	1	8	BLOOD ORANGE	Freetown Sound	Domino
2	5	22	2	3	THEE OH SEES	A Weird Exits	Castle Face
3	2	3	2	5	DINOSAUR JR.	Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not	Jagjaguwar
4	1	2	1	7	AVALANCHES	Wildflower	Astralwerks
5	3	1	1	7	JULIE RUIN	Hit Reset	Hardly Art
6	6	4	1	7	BADBADNOTGOOD	IV	Innovative Leisure
7	8	6	1	10	MITSKI	Puberty 2	Dead Oceans
8	7	8	7	7	BAT FOR LASHES	The Bride	Warner Bros
9	12	33	9	3	HEATERS	Baptistina	Beyond Beyond Is Beyond
10	10	15	10	5	HEAVEN FOR REAL	Kill Your Memory
11	9	7	1	9	DEERHOOF	The Magic!	Polyvinyl
12	11	9	9	13	CAR SEAT HEADREST	Teens Of Denial
13	31	-	13	2	AGES AND AGES	Something To Ruin	Partisan
14	30	-	14	2	FIELD MOUSE	Episodic	Topshelf
15	18	27	15	4	DESCENDENTS	Hypercaffium Spazzinate	Epitaph
16	22	18	16	6	DEATH VALLEY GIRLS	Glow In The Dark	Burger
17	13	14	13	4	BJORK	Vulnicura Live	One Little Indian
18	23	11	1	16	RADIOHEAD	A Moon Shaped Pool	XL
19	26	167	19	3	HALEY BONAR	Impossible Dream	Thirty Tigers
20	20	-	20	2	WILD BEASTS	Boy King	Domino

First up Spinitron

Rank	Spins	Artist	Disk	Genre
1	79	Thee Oh Sees	A Weird Exits	Rock
2	72	Dinosaur Jr.	Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not	Rock
3	70	BadBadNotGood	IV	Jazz
4	69	The Avalanches	Wildflower	Electronic
5	68	The Julie Ruin	Hit Reset	Rock
6	66	Blood Orange	Freetown Sound	Rock
7	56	Case/lang/veirs	case/lang/veirs	Americana
8	53	Ages and Ages	Something to Ruin	Rock
9	52	Paul Simon	Stranger to Stranger	Rock
10	51	Deerhoof	The Magic	Rock
11	50	Haley Bonar	Impossible Dream	Rock
12	49	Car Seat Headrest	Teens of Denial	Rock
13	45	Jeff Beck	Loud Hailer	Rock
14	42	DJ Shadow	The Mountain Will Fall	Electronic
15	42	Wild Beasts	Boy King	Rock
16	40	Aphex Twin	Cheetah EP	Electronic
17	40	Atmosphere	Fishing Blues	Hip-Hop
18	40	Whitney	Light Upon the Lake	Rock
19	39	Heaters	Baptistina	Rock
20	39	Michael Franti & Spearhead	Soulrocker	Rock

So right off the bat we have 9 records on CMJ That don't even appear on the Spins based chart.

Mitski, Bat for Lashes, Heaven for Real, Field Mouse, Descendents Death Valley, Bjork and Radiohead

Before we get too into it lets check out the next one NACC 

1	7	THEE OH SEES	A Weird Exits	Castle Face
2	5	BLOOD ORANGE	Freetown Sound	Domino
3	1	DINOSAUR JR.	Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not	Jagjaguwar
4	2	BADBADNOTGOOD	IV	Innovative Leisure
5	6	HEAVEN FOR REAL	Kill Your Memory	Mint
6	3	JULIE RUIN	Hit Reset	Hardly Art
7	8	BAT FOR LASHES	The Bride	Warner Bros
8	4	AVALANCHES	Wildflower	Astralwerks
9	10	MITSKI	Puberty 2	Dead Oceans
10	21	JPNSGRLS	Divorce	Light Organ
11	19	DESCENDENTS	Hypercaffium Spazzinate	Epitaph
12	14	HEATERS	Baptistina	Beyond Beyond Is Beyond
13	12	DEERHOOF	The Magic!	Polyvinyl
14	13	CAR SEAT HEADREST	Teens Of Denial	Matador
15	32	AGES AND AGES	Something To Ruin	Partisan
16	9	DJ SHADOW	The Mountain Will Fall	Mass Appeal
17	31	FIELD MOUSE	Episodic	Topshelf
18	23	DEATH VALLEY GIRLS	Glow In The Dark	Burger
19	15	BJORK	Vulnicura Live	One Little Indian
20	24	RADIOHEAD	A Moon Shaped Pool	XL

So this one matches up well with the CMJ chart with the main difference being JPNSGRLS at #10 ( they come in at #22 on the CMJ chart so not so crazy there.

and now onto the last chart.  The Muzooka College radio chart 

Now they have a weighted and and unweighted chart.
I will show you both since the Weighted should lean towards what CMJ does and the unweighted should lean towards what NACC are doing.

( well trying to copy and paste that was very problematic) So go check out the chart from the link above

Now lets present to you for the first time ever. Dougs College Chart.

DCC volume one

1--THEE OH SEES ( 1.2 AVERAGE)
2--DINOSAUR JR (2.8 AVERAGE)
3--BLOOD ORANGE (3.6)
4--AVALANCHES (4)
5--BADBADNOTGOOD (5.4)
6--JULIE RUIN (5.8)
7--HEAVEN FOR REAL (8.5)
8--MITSKI (8.6)
9--CAR SEAT HEADREST (10.6)
10--HALEY BONAR ( 11)
11--DEERHOOF (12)
12--BAT FOR LASHES (12)
13--AGES AND AGES (13)
14--DESCENDENTS (13)
15--HEATERS (13.3)
16--FIELD MOUSE (15.5)
17--DEATH VALLEY GIRLS (16)
18--WILD BEASTS (17.5)
19--RADIOHEAD (17.6)
20--BJORK (18)
ALSO APPEARING ON CHARTS
CASE/LANG/VEIRS
PAUL SIMON
JEFF BECK
DJ SHADOW
APHEX TWIN
ATMOSPHERE
WHITNEY
MICHAEL FRANTI
JPNSGRLS
AVET BROS
WARPAINT
CCR HEADCLEANER
WHITE LUNG
FEA
KATIE DEY

So there you have it the definitive #1 record in college radio. Thee Oh Sees.

We will do this again perhaps in a few months as the newer charts get better but the main take away I saw from this is that all but one chart had Thee OH Sees at #1.  Also the amount the charts were the same surprised me a bit as I thought there may be some bigger differences.

What do you think?

Lets talk about it. www.twitter.com/theanimalarrg

College radio recap week 34

Soon these dog days of summer will be over and people stations will start returning from their summers off.  Hopefully sooner rather than later although if this summer is any indication we are not going to have nearly as many people back as we would normally.
This week there were 167 reporters.
This time last year there were 213.
2 years ago there were 221
3 years ago 223

So the drop off as you can see this year has been a lot more extreme than in previous years and every week I get at least one email like this one:

Hi Doug,

I have some bad news for you :( It's looking like we're not going to be submitting charts today... Our NMR subscription has ended and I've notified my GM about it because he handles all of our subscriptions, but with the move he hasn't been able to take care of it yet. He's also a little reluctant to renew because of the state of CMJ right now

And I don't blame them. I actually tell stations like this that I wouldn't renew either.  Because this chart is starting to become less reliable.  167 stations is not a true measure of what is getting played at college radio when many of those stations are just going through the motions. Its even more troubling when its the big stations not actively participating. This week marks the 4th week in a row that KEXP has sent in the same chart.

Rank	Artist	Recording	Label	User Supplied Version
1	CAR SEAT HEADREST	Teens Of Denial
2	AVALANCHES	Wildflower	Astralwerks
3	JAMILA WOODS	HEAVN	Closed Sessions
4	BLOOD ORANGE	Freetown Sound	Domino
5	MICHAEL KIWANUKA	Love And Hate	Interscope
6	JUNIUS MEYVANT	Floating Harmonies	Record
7	LISA PRANK	Adult Teen	Father/Daughter
8	DELVON LAMARR ORGAN TRIO	Close But No Cigar	Self-Released
9	DINOSAUR JR.	Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not	Jagjaguwar
10	HOLY FUCK	Congrats	Innovative Leisure
11	NICE AS FUCK	Nice As Fuck
12	MERCHANDISE	"End Of The Week" [Single]
13	BADBADNOTGOOD	IV	Innovative Leisure
14	MITSKI	Puberty 2	Dead Oceans
15	JULIE RUIN	Hit Reset	Hardly Art
16	MINOR VICTORIES	Minor Victories	Fat Possum
17	JAGWAR MA	Every Now And Then	Mom And Pop
18	MARTHA	Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart	Dirtnap
19	CASE/LANG/VEIRS	Case/lang/veirs	Anti
20	MARGARET GLASPY	Emotions And Math	ATO
21	LET'S EAT GRANDMA	I, Gemini	Pias
22	FOUR TET	Randoms
23	JUSTICE	"Safe And Sound" [Single]
24	GOAT	"Try My Robe" [Single]	SUB POP
25	NAVVI	Omni	Hush Hush
26	WHITNEY	Light Upon The Lake	Secretly Canadian
27	AMAZING	Ambulance	Partisan
28	JORDAN RAKEI	Cloak
29	BETH ORTON	Kidsticks	Anti
30	TWIN RIVER	Passing Shade	Light Organ

All of these record are getting a false boost because, for whatever reason, CMJ is allowing them to just submit a dummy chart.  This has allowed records that should be done to hang longer because of how much weight KEXP has on the chart and now that they are one of the last top weighted stations its even more of an impact. 

CMJ said they would look into it and I reached out to KEXP but never heard back. 

Remember there are alternatives. 

https://spinitron.com is a spin based chart and at this point has nearly more stations than CMJ. 

so their chart would give us a better idea of what is actually getting played at college radio. 

1	79	Thee Oh Sees	A Weird Exits	Rock
2	72	Dinosaur Jr.	Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not	Rock
3	70	BadBadNotGood	IV	Jazz
4	69	The Avalanches	Wildflower	Electronic
5	68	The Julie Ruin	Hit Reset	Rock
6	66	Blood Orange	Freetown Sound	Rock

Another new alternative that I do not know much about is The North American College and Community Chart. 

Now much like the Muzooka College radio charts  I am a bit wary of charts when I don't know who is being included on them. 

But I like the idea of alternatives. So please check them out. 

So in regards to the actual CMJ chart this week there was a bit of an upset when Blood Orange came back from the dead and took the #1 spot. Very impressive indeed and not to take anything away from that accomplishment, as I gave them almost NO chance to make it happen, but you have to wonder if KEXP doesn't send in the same chart that they have the last 4 weeks do they take the top spot? I don't know but I would guess that the number 2 record Thee Oh Sees would of been on there and you have to wonder how that changes things. Especially when you look and see that Thee Oh Sees have 7 more stations than Blood Orange.   

The ADDS were actually a bit of a surprise as Of Montreal RAN away with them pretty easily.  

1	88	OF MONTREAL	Innocence Reaches	Polyvinyl
2	62	CRYSTAL CASTLES	Amnesty (I)	Republic
3	40	DEAD GAZE	Easy Travels	Ernest Jenning

Lets continue the conversation on Twitter.