This week in College radio, CMJ ISSUE 1300 Week 23

Round numbers are always so exciting! 1300! Seems like quite the big deal right?  I remember for issue 1000 they were planing a really special issue with all of these fun recaps that stations and promoters all wrote. I think they were even going to do a best of all time issue( something I might of made up but would really still love to see)  and then time went on and here we are at issue 1300 and I am still waiting.  Anyways 1300 issues is pretty impressive regardless and this week I would rather focus on that than the actual snoozefest that is the charts in the summertime. I was planing on doing this every other week in the summer but then I get asked why I did not write one and then I feel good that people read it when i do write it... so here we are.

I was thinking this would be a good week to do a best records of the year so far post but most years there are around 50 reporting weeks so I thought we would do that week 25. But in the meantime how about you tell me your favorite records thus far via twitter @theanimalarrg .


This week was almost exactly like last week. We have the same exact top 3 in Vampire Weekend, The National and Daft Punk.  All three records gained stations this week and there were a few more reporters this week. What is kind of crazy to look at is Daft Punk had a very good week but was still nowhere near getting to #1, they could not even slide past #2!  In the summer though the rules for how long you can push a record kind of go out the window.  In the fall or spring you have a compact window with so many records pushing their way toward the top of the charts and all doing so very quickly.  But in Winter and Summer those times are extended. You can have a record in week 6 make a big jump up the charts this time of year whereas that is unheard of in the Fall/ Spring.   The problem is the longer you wait you have the issue of more records joining the party.  So while the past 2 weeks the only real contenders for #1 have been Vampire Weekend, The National and Daft Punk we now have to start taking a look at records that are making moves like Mikal Cronin, making its move into the top 5.  also last weeks #1 add Portugal. The Man making a move from 198 to #8 ( easily the biggest move of the week ) and Shannon and the Clams making an impressive move from 19 to 7.

But I really have no idea out of those who will be the next #1 and I can't really know until Vampire Weekend starts to weaken. They GAINED stations again and while it was not a lot it was not a drop in stations. And as more people come back from summertime margaritas to do their charts the number could go up even more. So until I see them go down I have to think they will just stay there. If I had to guess I would say that they keep it for one more week and then Portugal. The Man  jumps up to take #1.  But if someone else does take it this next week I still think Portugal. The Man gets it in 2 weeks.

For adds this week Surfer Blood was the top add in a pretty weak ADD week. I don't know a lot about Surfer Blood but I thought going into the week they would be #1 and while they were they only had 85 adds. As we have seen in the summer thus far even in low reporting weeks we see big adds at least get 100 adds if they have any chance to challenge for #1.

I have  spent a lot of time talking about ADD since this Blog was started because I can never really decide how little or how much they mean to a success of a record. So I thought we could take a look at the last 6 weeks of adds and see if we can find any connection between the success or failure of a record based upon ADD position or number. I picked 6 weeks because the ADDs we will look at for the issue of 1294 would be ones that ended this week in most campaigns or will end soon.

To start lets look at just each ADD week over the past six weeks and in place of the label I have put where they are on Chart issue 1300 and where they peaked if they are on the way down.

1 week ago -- Radio 200 Adds Chart  #1299 All charts are subject to change prior to print

TW	TA	Artist	Recording	Chart(peak)
1	105	PORTUGAL. THE MAN	Evil Friends	8
2	58	ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER	Personal Record	33
3	57	ROGUE WAVE	Nightingale Nights	47
4	54	BIG DEAL	June Gloom	42
5	54	PASTELS	Slow Summits	29
6	42	KID CONGO AND THE PINK MONKEY BIRDS	Haunted Head	64
7	41	CAPITAL CITIES	In A Tidal Wave Of Mystery	46
8	33	STRANGLERS	Giants	92
9	30	GRMLN	Empire	59
10	28	DIRTY BEACHES	Drifters/Love Is The Devil	80
11	27	CAMERA OBSCURA	Desire Lines	41
12	27	CITY AND COLOUR	The Hurry And The Harm	67
13	23	FEMI KUTI	No Place For My Dream	193
14	21	IMAGINARY CITIES	Fall Of Romance	79
15	20	QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE	Like Clockwork	24
16	20	JON HOPKINS	Immunity	109
17	17	SOUTHWIRE	Southwire	112
18	15	POKEY LAFARGE	Pokey LaFarge	155
19	15	VARIOUS ARTISTS	True Blood: Music From The HBO Original Series Volume 4	139
20	15	WHEN SAINTS GO MACHINE	Infinity Pool	177

2 weeks ago-- Radio 200 Adds Chart  #1298

TW	TA	Artist	Recording	Chart(peak)
1	107	DAFT PUNK	Random Access Memories	3
2	72	SHANNON AND THE CLAMS	Dreams In The Rat House	7
3	61	BRAZOS	Saltwater	50
4	57	LAURA MARLING	Once I Was An Eagle	23
5	53	BRONCHO	Can't Get Past The Lips	66
6	40	CRYSTAL FIGHTERS	Cave Rave	40
7	39	MOUNT KIMBIE	Cold Spring Fault Less Youth	18
8	38	HOODED FANG	Gravez	49
9	32	TRICKY	False Idols	31
10	28	VAN STEE	We Are	98 (97 peak)
11	19	SCOUT NIBLETT	It's Up To Emma	71
12	18	TEEN	Carolina [EP]	97
13	17	POOR YOUNG THINGS	The Heart. The Head. The End.	(not on chart)
14	15	SECRET COLOURS	Peach	131 (99)
15	15	EMILY BELL	In Technicolor	(not on chart)
16	14	KAE SUN	Afriyie	(not on chart)
17	12	BATHS	Obsidian	119
18	11	ACID	AciD	162
19	11	BASTILLE	Haunt [EP]	58
20	10	PAPER KITES	Woodland [EP]	190 (188)

3 weeks ago --Radio 200 Adds Chart  #1297

TW	TA	Artist	Recording	Chart(peak)
1	114	NATIONAL	Trouble Will Find Me	2
2	66	WAMPIRE	Curiosity	11
3	64	SATURDAY LOOKS GOOD TO ME	One Kiss Ends It All	36
4	61	FRONT BOTTOMS	Talon Of The Hawk	35
5	51	COCOROSIE	Tales Of A Grasswidow	45 (42)
6	43	TREETOP FLYERS	The Mountain Moves	61
7	40	WILD NOTHING	Empty Estate	21 (20)
8	37	MAN OR ASTRO-MAN?	Defcon 5 4 3 2 1	26
9	32	MAJICAL CLOUDZ	Impersonator	44
10	32	BOXER REBELLION	Promises	57
11	28	TULLYCRAFT	Lost In Light Rotation	73
12	24	CLUB 8	Above The City	82
13	24	GYPSY AND THE CAT	The Late Blue	179 (98)
14	19	W-H-I-T-E	III	88 (74)
15	16	HERMITUDE	HyperParadise	144 ( debut)
16	15	RADICAL DADS	Rapid Reality	not on chart
17	13	BNLX	BNLX	123 (debut)
18	13	CAMERA2	This Is Not A Sad Song [EP]	121
19	12	LORDE	The Love Club [EP]	not on chart

4 weeks ago--  Radio 200 Adds Chart  #1296

TW	TA	Artist	Recording	Chart(peak)
1	118	VAMPIRE WEEKEND	Modern Vampires Of The City	1
2	86	MIKAL CRONIN	MCII	4
3	60	MS MR	Secondhand Rapture	51 (42)
4	58	BIBIO	Silver Wilkinson	16 (13)
5	57	FITZ AND THE TANTRUMS	More Than Just A Dream	14
6	57	BAPTIST GENERALS	Jackleg Devotional To The Heart	37 (27)
7	53	DUNGEONESSE	Dungeonesse	30
8	33	EMMA LOUISE	Vs Head Vs Heart	118 (113)
9	31	PURE X	Crawling Up The Stairs	52 (43)
10	29	BIG BLACK DELTA	Big Black Delta	110 (84)
11	26	JULIAN LYNCH	Lines	102 (79)
12	24	GRANDCHILDREN	Golden Age	54
13	20	SAM AMIDON	Bright Sunny South	87 (167)
14	16	MOHAWK LODGE	Damaged Goods	not on charts
15	16	GOLD AND YOUTH	Beyond Wilderness	84 (62)
16	12	TUNNG	Turbines	96 (80)
17	11	KISSES	Kids In LA	not on charts
18	8	JC BROOKS AND THE UPTOWN SOUND	Howl	100 (83)
19	8	ANCHORESS	Set Sail	not on charts
20	7	VARIOUS ARTISTS	Ghost Brothers Of Darkland County	126 ( 81)

5 weeks ago Radio 200 Adds Chart  #1295

TW	TA	Artist	Recording	Chart(peak)
1	105	SHE AND HIM	Volume 3	10 (3)
2	87	SMALL BLACK	Limits Of Desire	12
3	81	DEERHUNTER	Monomania	5
4	69	CHILD OF LOV	The Child Of Lov	63 (28)
5	57	SAVAGES	Silence Yourself	19 (15)
6	40	NEIGHBOURHOOD	I Love You	65 (48)
7	37	UNCLUDED	Hokey Fright	39 (31)
8	37	GRAHAM MACRAE	Dundrearies	83 (62)
9	34	ALPINE	A Is For Alpine	34 (26)
10	32	HOCKEY	Wyeth Is	153 (111)
11	30	MOTHER FALCON	You Knew	91 (58)
12	29	ADULT.	The Way Things Fall	74 (60)
13	27	RADIATION CITY	Animals In The Median	111(80)
14	26	AM AND SHAWN LEE	La Musique Numerique	75 (61)
15	16	BATS	Free All The Monsters	not on chart
16	16	JESSIE WARE	Devotion	not on chart
17	16	HAILER	Another Way	not on chart
18	15	WOLF EYES	No Answer : Lower Floors	not on chart
19	15	ROUGE	Blurry	not on chart
20	12	WE ARE LOUD WHISPERS	Suchness	154( 122)

6 weeks ago Radio 200 Adds Chart  #1294

TW	TA	Artist	Recording	Chart(peak)
1	109	!!!	Thr!!!er	22 ( 8)
2	108	STILL CORNERS	Strange Pleasures	20 ( 9)
3	99	IGGY AND THE STOOGES	Ready To Die	86 (26)
4	90	GUIDED BY VOICES	English Little League	25 (16)
5	60	DAUGHTER	If You Leave	13
6	59	WOLF PEOPLE	Fain	171 (56)
7	46	FEATURES	The Features	163 ( 78)
8	44	PRETTY AND NICE	Golden Rules For Golden People	197 ( 46)
9	39	FRANK TURNER	Tape Deck Heart	146 (68)
10	34	SNOOP LION	Reincarnated	Not on chart
11	33	ALICE RUSSELL	To Dust	68 (35)
12	32	POSTELLES	And It Shook Me	108 ( 101)
13	28	FORTRESS SOCIAL CLUB	Dreamin' The Life	166 (117)
14	25	HUMAN EYE	Into Unknown	127 (73)
15	22	CRACKLING	Mary Magdalene	182 (181)
16	19	BROTHERS IN LAW	Hard Time For Dreamers	not on chart
17	17	DISCLOSURE	The Singles [EP]	full added this week
18	15	MINDLESS SELF INDULGENCE	How I Learned To Stop Giving A Shit And Love Mindless Self Indulgence	not on charts
19	15	VALLEYS	Are You Going To Stand There And Talk Weird All Night?	not on charts
20	15	BLANK REALM	Go Easy	not on charts

The first thing I noticed was how many records are on the decline after 4 weeks on. Only 8 total records from weeks 4, 5 and six are at their peak right now.  Only 3 of those from weeks 5 and 6.  If you go to 3 weeks ago only 6 records are either in decline or not on the charts. So your third week looks to be when most people peak.   I also noticed that of last weeks ADDS every record made it on the charts. This is a sure sign of the summer as this almost never happens throughout the year.

I wanted to also take a look at average peak position

#1 --4.16
#2--12.6
#3--34.3
#4--27.3
#5--29.8
#6--49.3
#7--37.1
#8--64.6
#9--78
#10--77

I  stopped at #10 as I could not decide a proper way to represent the records that are no longer on the charts without having to go back and look each one up.

The thing that stands out is the drop off from #1 to #2 as I thought those would be closer as we have seen in the past a lot of #2 most added records get to #1 but I think in the summertime that becomes a bit harder.  One thing I sort of expected was the drop off from Top five most added and #6.  Of course throughout each week you can see outliers such as last weeks Queens of the Stone age, already at #24 on the charts.   But for the most part records that were added higher had higher debuts ( or chart movements)  Another interesting thing to look at would be comparing how records did based on who is working it.

I think that about does it for this week. Please do let me know if you have any questions and you have 2 weeks to think of your top 10 of the year so far!  Thanks a lot for reading!