CMJ ISSUE 1440 COLLEGE RADIO RECAP WEEK 19

It appears we are knee deep in the transition from Spring to Summer. Over the past 2 weeks we have gone from 270 reporters to 216. Thats a pretty steep decline. This kind of decline can have huge impacts on records. Say if the 60+ stations were the ones playing your record. You might see a huge or premature drop like we saw with Frightened Rabbit this week. In only week 4 they went from #11 to #14 when they looked to be trending up.   It can also mean you get to ride a huge wave of stations that might just be playing your record. Look at the nice jumps from Sturgill Simpson ( #15 from #23) or Little Scream #29 from #51)  Those are both pretty new records so they were bound to go up. But something a little older like Tancred going up to #37 from #54 or Prism Tats going up to #54 from #104, jumps like that are easier when you happen to have the right reporters reporting.

I hope everyone checked out last weeks extra post about reporting. I love looking through the old CMJ magazines. It is part of the reason I write this. I miss the side commentary about all the records. The news that was once provided by the magazine.  I do tend to focus a lot on the top of the charts because I find that interesting but I will try to cover anything interesting going forward. Such as the drop in reporters.

The biggest debut this week comes from last weeks #1 add White Lung but last weeks #2 most added record Pitty Sex comes in at #10. But what a heartbreaking week for both of these records. You start out with a good record thinking, in a few weeks the mess up at the top with M83, Tacocat, King Gizzard and Parquet Courts will all be over and we should have a shot to slide in there. At least thats what I would think. Then in a span of a few days thats ruined with a surprise James Blake record and then thats ruined with a surprise Radiohead record.

This week Parquet Courts held strong at #1, the percentage of stations has gone down every week but they are still at a healthy 58%.  In what could be seen as the end of M83's chances King Gizzard jumped up into the #2 spot holding M83.  Sure missing out on M83 going #1 with 3 indies has to be disappointing but Mute also has Yeasayer and Moderat going at the same time and to get all 3 in the top 10 thats pretty impressive. Thats my glass half full take on M83.

Fruit Bats took the #1 ADD spot this week but the record I will be watching is Radiohead as they came in with 46 adds in the top 5 most added. They also debuted at #64 on the chart. I have to imagine most people did not have the record yet so this all seems like its going to end badly for every other record on the charts. The question is how high will Radiohead be next week. #64 with essentially 2 days of airplay. Sure the singles were out a few more days but even still then its #64 as a digital single.  I doubt it happens but its not out of the world to think it could be #1 next week. Surely it will do what Pitty sex did this week jumping into the top 10, I even think top 5 is a sure thing.  What do you think?

Lets continue the conversation on twitter.