CMJ NOMINATIONS THE STATION AWARDS.

Welcome back friends! Yesterday I went through the reasons Douglas Blake from Pirate! should be your pick for Promoter of the year.  (You can see that in the post below)  Today I wanted to go through the Station awards and how I pick who I will nominate.


This year there are 8 Station awards.  I would say the average promoter talks to 100+ stations. Some more, some less. So to divide those 8 awards up between those stations is difficult. I am sure quite a few promoters come from really great stations and will nominate them for a lot of the awards but lucky for me my station is dead so it is not something i consider.

Over the past week I have asked stations to tell me what they want to be nominated for, with that answer not being EVERYTHING.  I try to get the MD think about what their station should be recognized for. I know most MD's don't like to pick themselves for MD of the year but if thats what you think you should be recognized for I say go for it.

I also try and look at previous years awards and not nominate the same stations over and over again.
Last year WTBU won station of the year and MD of the year so I would try and pick someone else.

Here is the full list of last years winners.

Radio Awards

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Station Of The Year
WTBU (Boston, MA)

Music Director Of The Year
Ingrid Jin, WTBU

Specialty Music Director Of The Year
Andrew Weiler, CJLO

Most Creative Programming
KALX (Berkeley, CA)

Best Community Resource
KUOM (Minneapolis, MN)

Best Student-Run, Internet-Only Station
WVAU (Washington, DC)

Best Taste In Music
Trevor Morrison, WHUS

Best Use Of Limited Resources
Radio UTD (Richardson, TX)

Rookie Of The Year
Michelle Feghali, WDBM

Biggest Champion Of The Local Scene
KUOM (Minneapolis, MN)

Biggest Improvement
WVFS (Tallahassee, FL)

Will Never Sell Out
Ross Koeberl, KUOM

 Not to say I won't nominate those stations for anything but I won't nominate them for what they won last year, but all of those stations above are still very good. 

So lets look at each award. (keep in mind these are from MY pool of stations) 

Most Creative Programming

Station with the most interesting and innovative programming

 For me this is almost a runner up to the Station of the Year award.  Last years winner KALX is a great example.  Other good stations I would consider for this award are KUOM, WVFS, KZSC, KVRX. 

Best Student-Run, Internet-Only Station

Student-run station doing great things without a terrestrial signal

Last Year WVAU won and they are not one of my stations. These stations tend to be on the smaller side but of course as it says above they do great things.  Out of my stations I really like Spinnaker radio in Florida, 

Small Station, Big Idea

Station that accomplished the biggest and best things with limited resources

I guess this station would be the one that is like the one above but has an actual signal. WLUR is one of the more consistent stations I have and I would consider them. WRRG as well. KSYM, KRSC all come to mind also. 

Biggest Improvement

Station that took the biggest strides in the past year

I always feel bad about this one. It's like you were pretty awful last year and well you are doing better this year. So I guess its a good thing that you are better but its mostly that we all disliked your former MD.  WLUW is one of the stations that has gotten better recently without changing MD's so thats one I will think about.  KTSW is doing good things. KSJS has also gotten its act together after what seems like a year off. WMUL has also done a good amount to improve. 

Biggest Champion Of The Local Scene

Station that best supports their surrounding city and community, from local bands to record stores to listenership and beyond

Last years winner KUOM is a great example of this and I don't fault anyone that nominates them again.  I would pick a station that tries to do a lot of different things with local artists and with artists while they are in town.  WDWN, WVFS, WBWC, and WTSR are good candidates this year. 

Specialty Music Director Of The Year

Best music director with a specialty/genre focus. Please include name and station.

As someone that just promotes to the top 200 I do not talk to a lot of specialty directors but if you have someone in mind I will post below with the other pushes from radio stations. 

Music Director Of The Year

Best overall music director. Please include name and station.

 Now we are on to the big guns. What makes a good music director? You might think I would say its someone that charts all of my records but it's not. It's someone that returns my calls and emails on a regular basis. That listens to the records I prioritize for that station and that has constructive feedback for me. Some of my favorite MD's barely play any of my records. But I respect them for the way they run the station.  

Its so hard to pick one but my short list  right now are Geoff from KRSC, Chloe from WLUW, Madison from WTSR, Shay from KZSC, Dan from WHUS, Jamie from WITR, Quentin from KUMD, Sean From KVMR and David from WVFS  One of those will be my  nomination. 

Station Of The Year

Best overall station

Now last year WTBU won Station of the year. They are not my station. But I was surprised. There was a lot of talk last year about how the awards are carried out both on the Industry and Station side and if the way the voting is done really leads to "the best" being rewarded. It really ends up being a numbers game at CMJ if you bring 30 people from your station, you get 30 votes and well you are more likely to win. I do not know if this was the case last year but this has been brought up to me many times as to how people win. With that said of the Music Directors listed above one of those stations will be my station of the year. And while you can see the 2 going hand in hand I try to have a different station in each category. That is just they way I choose to do it. 

So that does it. This years preview of the Station nominations for the CMJ awards. If you want me to add anything just tweet at me. 

So far I have received 2 emails promoting themselves, and If I get anymore I will post them here. 

This is From WKNC 

Biggest Champion Of The Local Scene -- We have 10 hours a week that are strictly NC music, featuring interviews and live performances of local bands. We also host Local Band Local Beer every Thursday. 

Small Station, Big Idea- Unfortunately our university does not entirely acknowledge us, probably because they are focused on other matters. Because of this we are almost entirely self funded and have a bunch of events that help us raise money to do cool things. For example, we just had the Radio Ride and made over $1000 from that alone. We are kinda the angsty 3rd son trying to get our dad's (NC State) attention! Help us get noticed by our dad!!

Biggest Improvement-- WKNC has been growing a ton this year. We are getting more and more bands for our Lounge sessions and we are finalist for CBI's National Student Production Awards for the categories of audio newscast and social media. 

Most Creative Programming -- If someone wants to play a certain genre they can. Currently we have specialty shows for the following genres: Emo, Punk, Disco, South Asian, A Capella, Spanish programming, K-pop and post rock. Pretty crazy 

This is From WDWN 

Biggest Champion Of The Local Scene 

Station that best supports their surrounding city and community, from local bands to record stores to listenership and beyond

I forgot this earlier from WTSR 

Have you voted for CMJ nominations yet? Do I still have time to convince you that WTSR should be nominated for Biggest Champion for the Local Scene? Station of the Year? Are you not totally sick of me being around after two years and want to nominate me for MD of the Year? I plan to use my newly minted argumentation and debate skills to make my case.  Are you campaigning for Promoter of the Year? Lemme hear why you should get my vote!

This just in from WVUA 

Golly jee, we're at it again! Last year we won CMJ's Best Student-Run, Internet-Only Station. This year we want to take home that and more! American University's WVAU has had an exciting year after we were crowned last year at CMJ, but as always we are looking to move forward and think bigger. We hope to not only prove we can take the Student-Run Internet-Only title two years running, but want to flex our waveform muscles with some other awards as well. The nominations we hope to receive are: Best Student-Run, Internet Only Station Station of the Year Music Director of the Year (Michael Lovito) Click here for the nomination form! WE got KALX as well now  Woah totally forgot about the CMJ COLLEGE RADIO AWARDS! We would definitely appreciate a nomination for most creative programming! A  quick look at our charts definitely shows that we have incredibly unique programming, and with specialty shows dedicated to metal, difficult/avant-garde, world/international, jazz, RPM, roots, country, hip hop, and rap, we try and succeed at diversity. Here's our livestream to see what I mean. AND WLUW  You could nominate WLUW for like "Best at not doing what they're told" or like "Best at saying no to authority" or something like that. Or maybe most improved if we're being serious? Like have you seen our youtube channel and how awesome our in-studios are now? You could also nominate me for "always sick" or "best meltdowns during tracking" or "most likely to get too drunk and run away during CMJ." Or best music director it's whatever.