COLLEGE RADIO RECAP WEEK 45, CMJ ISSUE 1418

Three more reporting weeks left in the year! So very exciting. Judging from what I heard from music directors this week there will be quite a few of you "phoning it in" next week with Thanksgiving. The end of the year is an interesting time. The number of big records coming in has slowed down but there are still enough from a few weeks ago that are pushing towards the top. This time of year the longevity of the record tends to be a bit longer. Where as most of the year you see a peak in week 4 or 5 you could see one as late as week 6 or 7 because there are not as many big records coming up to push the old ones out.

I mention all this because these next three weeks could be a lot of fun. The last 3 have been pretty fun with a new #1 record each of the last three weeks. This week, in honor of Thanksgiving maybe? Neon Indian took the top spot. It would not shock me if they are one and done as well.

Lets take a look at the top of the charts.

1	5	7	1	5	NEON INDIAN	Vega Intl Night School	Mom And Pop
2	3	4	2	5	DEERHUNTER	Fading Frontier	4AD
3	8	20	3	3	JOANNA NEWSOM	Divers	Drag City
4	19	-	4	2	KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD	Paper Mache Dream Balloon	ATO
5	2	1	1	6	CHVRCHES	Every Open Eye	Glassnote
6	6	6	6	7	NEW ORDER	Music Complete	Mute
7	1	2	1	5	PROTOMARTYR	The Agent Intellect	Hardly Art
8	7	5	3	7	KURT VILE	B'lieve I'm Goin Down...	Matador
9	10	85	9	4	BEACH HOUSE	Thank Your Lucky Stars	Sub Pop
10	11	27	10	3	FUZZ	II	In The Red
11	114	-	11	2	GRIMES	Art Angels	4AD

Now lets only look at the records that are moving up or are steady

1	5	7	1	5	NEON INDIAN	Vega Intl Night School	Mom And Pop
2	3	4	2	5	DEERHUNTER	Fading Frontier	4AD
3	8	20	3	3	JOANNA NEWSOM	Divers	Drag City
4	19	-	4	2	KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD	Paper Mache Dream Balloon	ATO
6	6	6	6	7	NEW ORDER	Music Complete	Mute
9	10	85	9	4	BEACH HOUSE	Thank Your Lucky Stars	Sub Pop
10	11	27	10	3	FUZZ	II	In The Red
11	114	-	11	2	GRIMES	Art Angels	4AD

That still leaves us with 8 records.  I could totally see Deerhunter, Joanna Newsom or King Gizzard make that jump to #1 next week. I could also see Beach House or Grimes doing it. 

So lets predict what the last week of the year will look like. So in 3 weeks what is the #5 record on the charts? 

It could be something not currently in the top 11, but I have to think most of the records out there currently are not capable of such a jump. 

But if you want to consider this weeks #1 most added Givers as having a shot at top five by the end of the year , I would disagree with only 82 adds, it doesn't scream contender ( or it could be another Bully, what do I know) 

So in no order I think the top five records to end the year are: Beach House, Grimes, King Gizzard, Deerhunter and Joanna Newsom.   I feel pretty good about predicting Grimes and Beach House in there but I would not be shocked if Neon Indian hangs around as well. 

So just to put it out there here is what I think the top five looks like to end the year.

1) Grimes

2) Joanna Newsom

3)Beach House

4) King Gizzard

5) Deerhunter

What do you guys think? Send me your top five Doug at Piratepirate dot com Or on Twitter  and I will put it up here and we can look back in 3 weeks. 

Have a great Thanksgiving! Talk to you all in 2 weeks. 

Doug

CMJ RECAP WEEK 44 CMJ ISSUE 1417

Thank you for all the emails about last week's post! Glad you guys dug it. I am more than happy to share any stories of bad promoting if you have them as well. Let's keep everyone honest!

 So I guess I was wrong about Deerhunter. I really thought after last weeks move from #12 to #4 that it would slide back down but no it keeps charging ahead. Powered mostly by large stations and high chart numbers. If there were still a CORE chart I bet it would be #1.  Neon Indian also busts into the top 5 and Chvrches slides out of the top spot after only 2 weeks.

Some of the more interesting things on the chart though for me are the 2 Beach House records. The new one is at #10 and the old former #1 is at #15. I have no idea what is going to happen here. I guess at this point there are too many stations playing both to take one out of the system so will the old one hold back the new one?

I spend a lot of time talking about the top of the chart because getting #1 is the goal but another goal is longevity on the charts.  So lets take a look at some of the longest running records out there.

At the top we have Twenty One Pilots. 24 weeks on the top 200 at this point!

They are currently at #168 and peaked at #13. Most of the stations charting the record have charts littered with older records. One of these stations is even charting the first Weezer record. In 2015. Drives me crazy but what can you do.  I might just go for adds on the Beach Boys Pet sounds next week because ... why not.   Anyways so 24 weeks on the chart thats a LONG time. That means this record went for adds 6 months ago.

Does your station have a cut off for how long a record can be played. I know some out there do. My old station we had an 8 week rotation. Sometimes shorter during the busy time of year.  Even then I was tired of some of the "new stuff" after two months. I would be curious to hear thoughts from the stations out there. Should there be a limit or should it just be up to the stations. I would be in favor of a limit at say 12 weeks. Three months is way more than generous.

Something I have not done in a while is take a look at the last record on the charts.

This week we have Dave Rawlings Machine. They peaked at #150 and have had 3 weeks on the chart. They are currently at #200 with .02% of the stations.  So they have a a bit to go for #1.

Adds this week were a run away with Grimes the only one with over 100 adds. This seems like such a college radio record I would be shocked if it did not get #1 Kind of perfect timing as well. All the records currently in the top 10 should be dying down by the time this makes it up there. So if Grimes does not make #1 by the end of the year I would say it easily gets it at the start of next year.

Ok lets talk on twitter. Thanks for reading!

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