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.