THIS WEEK IN COLLEGE RADIO. CMJ ISSUE 1302 WEEK 25

Half a year gone! It has happened so fast! I will get into the CMJ charts for this week but frankly they were boring and I thought of about 12 other things I wanted to talk about.

Since we are at the half way point let us do a half year recap!

So far this year there have been 14 #1 records. Last year at this time there had been 9. So a little more turnover than last year. Although last year did start with Black Keys holding #1 for the first 7 weeks of the year. 2 years ago there were 12 at this point so it looks like we are right on par.  Only 6 records so far that have been #1 most added have made it to #1.  If you had to name a #1 record based upon the numbers so far this year I think it would come down to Local Natives, Toro Y Moi or Vampire Weekend although Vampire is surely hurt by the lack of summer reporters. Each of those records had a 3 week reign at #1. So let's look at the average number of charters they each had.

TORO Y MOI --178.6
LOCAL NATIVES--160.3
VAMPIRE WEEKEND--150.3

So in just looking at that it looks like Toro Y Moi is WELL in the lead to for #1 of the year.

What are your favorite records of the year so far? Let me know, share in the comments.

To decide my favorite of the year I try and go back and see what I have spent the most time with so far.
To anyone that knows me you will be less than shocked to know that Tegan And Sara have the most plays from me so far and obviously they are going to make the list so lets see who else I have liked the most this year.

In no order, except in the order I remember them.

Tegan And Sara--Heartthtrhob  --Part of me wishes this record would of come out after the success of some other really poppy records. I kind of feel like this one paved the way and opened the door at college radio for some of the more produced records.  Anyways I really liked it.

The Knife --Shaking the Habitual

Parquet courts--Light up Gold

They Might Be Giants--Nanobots  -- My favorite They Might be giants record since Apollo 18. So good. Heads on fire is such a great song!

Yo La Tengo--Fade

Airstrip--Willing

Thee Oh Sees

Widowspeak--Almanac -- Absolutely fell in love with this band at SXSW.

Wavves--Afraid of Heights-- Never been a huge fan until this record and I just never wanted to take it off my playlists

Off with Their Heads--My favorite Punk record so far this year.

Generationals-- HEZA

Strfkr--Miracle Mile

I went with 12 since I had 5 Pirate! bands in there and wanted to try and make a more representative list.  I do need to spend more time with Vampire Weekend and Daft Punk but I just have not done it yet.


So don't forget to share yours! Looking forward to seeing what you guys dig.

On to the CHARTS!

It is so hard to promote in the summertime.  You get a baseline number of how many stations you think will report based upon the last few weeks but the trick is to figure out who will be reporting this week. It makes it very frustrating to say the least.
Right now we have an average of 226 stations each week over the last 4 weeks. If we look at all reporters over that time there have been 300 reporters. So any given week 74 stations are not reporting on average.  So if I am getting in touch with the right people or if the right people are seeing my email I have a good chance to have a good week.   The records that suffer though are not the Daft Punk's or The Nationals, although you could say being stuck at #2 for 3 weeks in a row is suffering, but rather those in the middle of the charts the bands from 30-60 that can be impacted greatly by 5 or so stations not reporting.

I wanted to use one of my own records as an example of how difficult figure out the chart can be in the summer time.  Over the past 6 weeks we have been working a band that has seen some success at college and specialty and was well enough at radio called Boxer Rebellion.  Last week was week 5 and typically when you hit week 5 the chances of you continuing to climb are slim as you are unlikely to get new stations on board. I always feel if a station has not played something after 5 weeks you should move on. Yet Boxer Rebellion had a new peak coming out of week 5. We had one more week to push the record. So it being summer I thought lets continue to make this a big priority, we are at 47 we have a chance for top 40 why not go for it.  But again you have no idea who will be reporting. So we went for it ...

66

47

57

47

6

BOXER REBELLION

Promises

Insound

Not exactly the results I was looking for. You expect when you make something a priority that It should at least continue to do half way decent, all bets are off in the summer.  Just interesting to see how one decision can impact a lot of the other ones.

That was a bit of a tangent but this week really had no element of excitement. Daft Punk dominated to keep #1 while Portugal. The Man made some movement but are still a good 30 stations behind. Last weeks #1 record Austra debuted at #34 so we won't see them be challenging anytime soon. If I had to pick some to keep an eye on it would be Boards of Canada, moving up to #7 from #64 and Sigur Ros moving from #138 to #12.  But in watching how slow moving it gets when you get into the top 10 I am not really sure what to expect.  This week the number one add was Smith Westerns who had the biggest add week I have seen in about a month but no debut on the charts so who knows how much of a contender they will really be.


Lastly I had have had one person send me the best of 2013 so far .. if you want to be added just let me know via twitter @theanimalarrg

http://open.spotify.com/user/charmandstrange/playlist/2gTQBuht2kdmwK1olqi3X0

THIS WEEK IN COLLEGE RADIO : CMJ ISSUE 1301 WEEK 24

Well look what we have here! A brand new #1 record! Congrats to Daft Punk! It is hard to believe that this is the first ever number one record for Daft Punk, considering a lot of people think of them as a heritage type band at college radio.  I had a feeling early on that Daft Punk would have a chance this week. When I checked on Monday they were up by a few stations and in previous weeks they had been way behind. Vampire weekend did have the lead a few times and in just looking at those numbers I thought it was going to be close. Upon further review Daft Punk had more of the larger stations so I am going to guess that there was never any real threat of them not making it.    The National stay at #2 while Vampire Weekend fall to #3. Portugal. The Man looks to be the next contender moving up to #5.

It will be interesting to see what happens next. Daft Punk could very well be one and done but I could also see them holding it for the next 3 weeks.  The National have a chance to squeeze in there should Daft Punk be one and done. Portugal. The Man had a good jump in stations but they look to be a few weeks away. After that I have no idea. The adds the last few weeks have been very subpar. Two weeks  in a row with no record getting 100 adds means that it is doubtful that either of these weeks will produce the next #1 record. But at some point there will have to be another #1 so who knows.

Last weeks ADDS did have a good showing on the charts with KING TUFF having the #1 debut of the week.  last weeks #1 add Surfer Blood coming in at #16  and CSS in at #29.   Some dark horses could be Camera Obscura with a big 41 to 11 move or Queens of the Stone age as beggars has shown to do very well as of late.

This weeks ADDS were won by Austra with 79 adds while Boards of Canada and Sigur Ros were right there with 74 and 73 each.  So we will keep an eye on those but I have a feeling that in the end Boards of Canada and Sigur Ros will both eclipse Austra on the charts.

That about does it this week. As we get deeper into the summer things tend to move a bit slower and there tends to not be as much excitement.   NExt week is week 25 of the reporting year so we will go through our top records at the half way point. Share yours with me and I will share with everyone, if you want.

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!

                                                                                

This week in College Radio week 22. CMJ issue 1299

This past week was spent in Las Vegas for the Punk Rock Bowling tournament. We came in 17th in the Bowling tournament and I won the Poker tournament so a pretty good weekend. I was unable to keep track of the progress of CMJ in the detail I like to thus no recap was written.  I will say it was no shock to see Daft Punk #1 most added and Vampire Weekend take the top spot on the charts.   So this week I thought I would try something new and keep a rolling diary of each day leading up to the release of the charts on Tuesday.

Thursday, May 30th 8:16AM

Right now it is Thursday morning and my first step of every week is to look at what everyone has going for ADDS to get an idea of how hard of a week it will be.

AAM --  Has Eleanor Friedberger from Merge records and Kid Congo and the pink Monkey Birds

The Syndicate  Has Big Deal, City and Colour, Koji and Portugal the Man

Terrorbird Has Big Deal, Coma Cinema, GRMLN, Pokey Lefarge, Splashh, and Susanne Sundfor


Never Better -- No update on Adds yet

Team Clermont--Georgia's House, Lily & Madeleine, Memoryy

Vitriol-- No updates on Adds yet

Distiller-- Jonny Fritz, Femi Kuti, The Stranglers, True Blood Soundtrack, Yellowbirds, V/A Best of Switchstance Remix ( listed as RPM)

A Man A Plan A Canal--The Pastels,

Co-Sign--Booker T, Frankie & The Heartstrings, ( I think as no Add dates are listed but those are the first entries)

Pirate! -- Capital Cities, Elsten Torres

Planetary Group--Does not list adds online

So there you have it. Sometimes I forget to check all of them but I like to have a general Idea of what the big adds will be for the week.  The success of the last Portugal the Man record was a surprise to me but that seems to be the biggest name out there.  With two indies on Big Deal that should do rather well also. Everything else seems to be a crapshoot. ( Not included are those records just being promoted by the label and we should find those out as stations report )  Last week it only took 10 ADDS to get on the list so I imagine this week to be about the same.

Friday May 31st

Ooooof. Fridays in the Summer. Brutal. Nothing happens. I got one IM today around Noon saying ... "lets ring the Gong on today" No one is around anywhere, my buddy list dwindles to about half of what it is the rest of the week.   It could be a busy day if stations actually took advantage of the start of reporting. On average only about 6-10 stations report on Friday, none of them being difference makers.

Never Better did update their adds though and they have --Rogue Wave, Dirty Beaches, Jon Hopkins, Rose Windows, Tokyo Denmark, Walla

So it's looking more and more like Portugal The Man will have little trouble getting to #1 most added this week ( assuming Planetary is on it like they were the last one)

The race for #1 should be pretty interesting though. We have a very strong Vampire Weekend at the top but we have The National moving its way up the charts and Daft Punk should jump at least into the top five.  She and Him look to have no real path to #1 when you consider those other records.

Sunday June 1st.

Yeah I check this on the weekend. I have to start getting ready for Monday. In the Summer it becomes that much more important to have a good Monday. Thus far 20 stations have filed their reports with CMJ.  The only major news thus far would be getting in the chart from KEXP.  We can look at what they added and get another idea of what might be going for adds that we missed earlier.

Camera Obscura - Desire Lines (4AD)
Big Deal - June Gloom (Mute)
Joseph Arthur - The Ballad of Boogie Christ (Lonely Astronaut)
Free Time - Free Time (Underwater Peoples)
Queens of the Stone Age - Like Clockwork (Matador)
Portugal. The Man - Evil Friends (Atlantic)
Houndmouth - From the Hills Below the City (Rough Trade)
Art Vandelay - Eye 8 The Crow (self-released)
The Pastels - Slow Summits (Domino)
YAST - YAST (Adrian)
When Saints Go Machine - Infinity Pool (!K7)
Yellowbirds - Songs from the Vanished Frontier (The Royal Potato Family)
Ever So Android - EP (self-released)
Walton - Beyond (Hyperdub)
Pokey LaFarge - Pokey LaFarge (Third Man)
(Various) - Om Lounge Vol. 13 (Om)
Ryan Hemsworth - Still Awake (self-released)
Syclops - A Blink of an Eye (Running Back)
Groundislava - Treasure Chest (self-released)
(Soundtrack) - True Blood Volume 4 (ATO)
Fan Fiction - Seconds (self-released)
Golden Gardens - Narcissus (Neon Sigh)

I can't say for certain that the top five ADDS listed there will be the top five adds but most of the time they are. Records from Camera Obscura and Queens of the Stone age will be big on the charts but if we look at how recent label worked adds have done, they usually fall short but then excel on the charts.  Camera Obscura being a former #1 record holder is worth watching but in the past QOTSA have not been as strong.  I still think for adds Portugal The Man is the band worth watching this week.


Monday, June 3rd.

Four hours into the Monday work day and not much to report really. We are up to 40 stations that have reported so it is really not worth reading too much into these numbers but here they are regardless.

Vampire Weekend--26
The National--20
She and Him--18
Daft Punk--17

Might check some other records later but right now I see those as the four with a real shot at #1.


Monday June 3rd.

Only a few more hours in the working day for Monday and still a very low percentage of stations, unless we are having another low reporting week like Memorial day but I thought we would get a bounce back up after last week.

A little news on ADDS but nothing shocking as it looks like Portugal. The Man is leading the way
with Big Deal, ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER  and GRMLN holding down second for ADDS.

It has been a few hours since we checked on the #1 contenders


Vampire Weekend--26--35
The National--20--26
She and Him--18--25
Daft Punk--17--26

So what I like to do is see what the biggest jump out of the records was. Looks like both Daft Punk and Vampire Weekend jumped 9 stations while The National only went up 6 and She and Him 7.  The hard part becomes, if you are not Vampire Weekend, is looking for stations that will chart your record but not Vampire Weekend. When a band is that big of a name it becomes a runaway train that is hard to stop.

Monday June 3rd 6pm Eastern time. 

Things really take a dive after 6 on the East Coast in the summer and really not much has changed in the 3 hours that have passed. 

Vampire Weekend--26--35--45
The National--20--26--35
She and Him--18--25--29
Daft Punk--17--26--35

Only 2 stations have reported ADDS in that time so there is no real change to announce there either.  Most of the time I want to take off at 6 but will end up spending the next hour catching up on music news I might of missed throughout the day.


Tuesday June 4th

Well overnight we usually see some movement we are up to 110 adds.
Portugal. The Man has 53 adds
Eleanor Friedburger with 29
Rogue Wave with 28
Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds with 27
Pastels with 26
Big Deal with 25
Capital Cities with 21
Grmln with 18

So as you can see Portugal. The Man is going to run away with this and I doubt I will check again before the charts close in 4 hours.


Vampire Weekend--26--35--45--86
The National--20--26--35--66
She and Him--18--25--29--58
Daft Punk--17--26--35--65

I am not shocked but I did expect a better showing from The National and Daft Punk. I am sure it will come but they both look to be a few weeks away.  So far 130 stations have reported so we have at LEAST 70 more stations that should report putting us above 200 but I would expect around another 100.  So it's not impossible that some record could make a move but If I were working Vampire weekend I would feel pretty good about where I was.


Tuesday, June 4th

I am starting to think I picked the most boring week ever to do a breakdown like this.
With just one hour to go before charting we stand like this



Vampire Weekend--26--35--45--86--125
The National--20--26--35--66--102
She and Him--18--25--29--58--82
Daft Punk--17--26--35--65-93

I have seen crazy things happen before but I have never seen a 23 station gap be made up in under an hour so I doubt that will happen.

Right now the number of stations reporting adds is only at 158.  We might not break 200 adds! oooof
Sounds like summer has hit hard at college radio.

Portugal. The Man leads the way but still needs 20 more Adds to break 100 for the week.
Everything else appears to be a good 30-40 Adds behind.

I guess I should of checked this before but in looking over the last 6 years of data, it looks like the week after Memorial Day is a lower reporting week than Memorial day about half the time. So I guess this is not unexpected. I did think we would see a rebound though as there was a rebound last year.

Tuesday June 4th 2:11 PM
The charts are released with Vampire Weekend at #1 and Portugal. The Man as #1 most added.
yawn. Should of picked that week where Phoenix got #1 over Vampire a few weeks ago.. Full recap to follow bellow.

And now ...

THE WEEK IN COLLEGE RADIO CMJ ISSE 1299 WEEK 22

What a SNOOZE fest! It was never close. Ever.  In the end you look at the top 3 though and you see The National climbing up and Daft Punk making a big move from #29 to #3. But if we look at the breakdown of the top 5 records

Vampire weekend had 70% of the stations charting.
Your #2 record The National only have 56%!
#3 Daft Punk with 51%
#4 Phoenix with 44%
#5 Mikal Cronin with 46%

I really was expecting a close week but Vampire is DOMINATING and I think it could get more stations on board. I think we could see them #1 for the next 2-3 weeks!

Shannon And The Clams come in with the top debut at #19 this week. I will get to this a bit more in Adds but the biggest move comes from Queens of the Stone Age jumping from #177 to #68.


In ADDS this week Portugal. The Man led wire to wire with no real pressure from anyone else. It is hard to figure out what will be the path of Portugal. The Man. On one hand they dominated adds getting over half the stations that did adds to ADD the record! That is pretty impressive. However we have seen a trend recently of big records making huge debuts on the week they go for adds. Last week Daft Punk had a debut at 29. Two weeks ago it was the National and they debuted at #82 before jumping up to #4. But this week Portugal. The Man only come in at #199. Does it mean anything? For a former #1 band I am going to guess it means nothing.

This time of year it is so hard to un-seed the #1 record. Over the last 3 years the record that has held #1 on Memorial day has ended up holding that spot for AT LEAST the next 4 weeks. Last year it was Beach House as they held for 4 weeks. Two years ago it was Fleet Foxes and they held the spot for 5 years and three years ago it was the Black Keys and they held it for 6 weeks.  I think Vampire Weekend has a chance to hold for another 2 weeks and would not be shocked if the next #1 is something that goes for adds in the next few weeks.   I still think The National and Daft Punk have a chance to get #1 but every week that goes by makes it that much harder for them.  Hopefully we get a few more stations back over the next few weeks and the charts become a little more interesting.

Until next time! Thanks for reading. If you have any questions or need anything at all please hit me up on twitter @theanimalarrg

This week in College Radio. CMJ issue 1297 Week 20

Before we get into the week 20 action I wanted to talk about a few things. First Week 19. Last week we saw Phoenix take the #1 spot, it was a lot closer than I had anticipated but they still pulled it out.  #1 most added last week was Vampire Weekend.  We saw the number of reporters drop again as more people packed their bags for the nearest waterpark or rooftop bar.  

Last week I was away at the AAA Noncommvention. Hung out with a lot of great people. Did some Karaoke, had a fun run, went to some panels, saw the rocky statue. It was a bast of a time.

(graham and I at the museum) 

There were also some panels and my favorite the Music Meeting where we get to rate unreleased songs.  The one thing I wanted to talk about though was the panel " The new Art of the Add, as I have brought up before was the important of ADDS. Everyone has a different ideas as to what they are for and if they should be paid attention to.  There are arguments for ignoring them and for sticking by them.  I want to address it from the promoter side of things.

First off it sounded to me like the reason for ignoring an ADD week for a lot of these stations was because there was not enough going on yet, no tour, appearances ect. What they fail to fully realize though is that they could be the ones driving the story instead of being a footnote of progress.  I know radio has a LOT of competition but I think if more stations took a song they liked and played it they could help make more stars than they realize.   The other thing with an ADD date is that it usually thought out to help make maximum impact for tour dates and appearances.  It is also designed to help get a record another bullet point so that the story can be driven even further.  Last year we worked a small band called the Lumineers. They did OK, we did have a lot of stations get on board early and play the record. The record has since gone platinum!  But
the record only peaked in the 30s on CMJ but was on the charts for over 30 weeks!  Why? Because stations kept on jumping on the bandwagon liked Lebron James had joined the band.  Had these stations been leaders and now followers the record surely would of been a top 10 if not a top 5 success and perhaps it would of gotten them even bigger. They could of had the chance to say we ( college radio ) helped create this huge success and now.. now they will say this band is too big for college radio.

And now to week 20 in college radio. And really I am amazed at what went down this week.  First off the number of stations went down to 234 I would like to think this is the bottom but looking back to last year we got down to 219 ( on the Memorial day weekend) That just happens to be next week so I expect us to hit somewhere around 210-220 next week. That, combined with the fact that a lot of stations are going to be re-reporting last weeks chart, will make it difficult for there to be any real movement on the charts. I saw a lot of that this week on the charts where records in PRIME movement weeks ( weeks 3 and 4 ) went up only a few or down a few, a running in place if you will.

So if I were to of made a prediction last week I would of said that Vampire Weekend will be your new #1 this week. Huge add week and a nice debut and Phoenix barely getting in there last week. Seemed like an easy call.  This week was anything but easy, time of year, many promoters pushing huge records just leads to a lot of the same looking charts out there and makes it a very tight top 200.  The major players this week were Junip, Iron and Wine, Phoenix and Vampire Weekend ( I also kept an eye on She and Him, Yeah yeah yeahs, !!! and Flaming lips but the others separated themselves from the pack pretty early on)   Early on I thought for sure Vampire Weekend had it locked up as they had some of the biggest stations in college radio at #1 or in the top 5.  However Iron and Wine made it really close down the stretch had they not been missing one of the bigger stations I think they could pulled off the rare, return to #1 trick.  In talking to some other promoters Vampire Weekend seemed to be the overwhelming pick for #1. Then the results came out.

Phoenix

I was shocked.

Just when you think you understand the charting system it throws you a curve ball like this.  Vampire Weekend had more big stations on board than Phoenix. More #1 spots than Phoenix 30-22. ..
When you are looking to predict how a record will do for yourself each week it is nearly impossible to keep track of every factor. So the factors I look at are the size of the station on board each record and how many #1's they have in comparison.  10 times out of 10 this is a better predictor than number of stations on a record overall.   I have looked over the numbers and I really am still at a loss as to how Phoenix is the number one record at college radio still.  If I were working this record I would be ....at least a little more shocked than I am right now.  In my opinion when the charts are this close I would love to thee the formula behind it all to know how a record got the position they did.  Really goes to show how every station matters. This week there were 7 reporters who's chart did not count because the repeated a band on the chart. I am not sure to this day why a station can even submit the chart when it is going to be invalid or why they don't reach out to the station to get them to change it.  I would gladly wait another hour for charts to come up right instead of having them come up fast.

On to the rest of the charts. As I mentioned we saw a lot of stagnation. The top debut on the chart does not come in until 46 with Baptist Generals and the biggest move comes from BIBIO jumping from 158 to #20.  In looking at the top 10 or even the top 20 I don't see anything new challenging for the #1 spot next week. I think we will see the same thing we saw this week, it coming down to Vampire Weekend and Phoenix. I don't see how She and Him, Mikal Cronnin, !!!, Yeah Yeah Yeahs make a move, and I thought at one time they could all press for #1.  The number one add of the week was The National blowing everyone out of the water. They come in at #82 whereas  last week Vampire Weekend came in at #41. So I think they will jump into the top 10 but wont be a major contender for #1 for another few weeks.

This weekend I head to Las Vegas for the 15th annual Punk Rock Bowling Tournament and Festival 
Pirate! has been going for years now and we compete in the Bowling tournament. 3 years ago we came in 9th place out of 250 teams and this year we will look to take the crown. Wish us luck! With it being Memorial day as well next week might not see a recap we shall see how badly vegas treats me.

                                                   Here is our trophy from that year.

Be sure to hit me up if you have any questions or want me to look into something involving college radio.  And be sure to follow me on twitter @theanimalarrg

THIS WEEK IN COLLEGE RADIO. CMJ ISSUE 1295

I knew it was coming. You can try and prepare as much as you can but really what can you do? I have mentioned for the last few weeks that the drop off was coming and I pointed to this week as the week to watch.
If you remember last week there were 314 stations that reported to CMJ this week we drop all the way down to 268 stations! A drop of almost 50 stations! We knew it was coming but you can never know what stations are not going to report the same as we don't know what stations will come back next week. These transition weeks are certainly hard to deal with and they make the ever elusive window for a record to go #1 even harder to gauge.  The end of spring is always hard not only because of the exams, and people leaving for break or graduating but also because record labels tend to try and get the bigger records out before summertime. ( the same thing happens in October when the bigger profile records come out to impact at Christmas)  With all of this happening at the same time you get a lot of big records that won't get the number one spot.

Last week we saw Thee Oh Sees take it for the 2nd week in a row and early on there was a real shot they could make it 3. At certain points this week Iron and Wine, Thee Oh Sees, The Knife, Phoenix, Junip, Kurt Vile and Flaming Lips all looked like they were in striking distance of the #1 spot. In the end Iron and Wine won out with Thee Oh sees in 2nd, The Knife in 3rd and Phoenix in 4th.
So going forward, knowing everything I mentioned above, it becomes harder to know what really will happen on the charts. I doubt we will get back up to 300 until Fall and if the last few years are any indication we should see another big drop next week. The last few years it has bottomed out around 220 reporters with it usually coming in anywhere from 260-240 but we will have no idea which 200+ will be reporting.   I thought going into this week that it would come down to Iron and Wine, The Knife or Phoenix and was a little surprised to see Thee oh Sees only fall to 2 and Phoenix only Jump to 4.  What happens next not only depends on how people view their chances.

I think the only records in the top 10 you really take out of the running completely are Thee Oh sees, as records don't fall to #2 and jump back to #1 very often. Kurt Vile, James Blake and Black Angels as you don't see records that have been out for 5 or more weeks make a real run at the top spot.
If this were 3 weeks ago I would have no doubt in my mind in declaring that Phoenix would be your next #1, the same way I thought Thee Oh sees would take it a few weeks ago.   So that leaves The Flaming Lips,  Junip,  The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Knife as the remaining records that have a shot, along with Iron and Wine of course retaining the spot. But I don't think they will but it all depends on if the priority shifts to Yeah Yeah Yeahs.   The Flaming lips a perennial #1 band you can't really count out made some big moves this week in terms of # of stations and is in a good position with who is working it to continue making a move.  Junip and The Knife I sort of view as an either or proposition. You have gone so far with The Knife and things are so close that how could you not continue to push for the top spot on the other hand if you do that do you miss your window on Junip? While the records are VERY different, every station matters and when every station matters for your record can you afford to have a station saying they only have room for one mute band? It sounds absurd but it does happen.   So yeah I have no idea really as to what will happen this week but my guess would be Phoenix for #1 next week.

This week on ADDS we saw She and Him come in at #1 most added with 105 adds. They won by almost 20 adds and as we see summer start to creep in I think we will see more runaway ADD weeks as there will be less huge records to deal with. Or perhaps that will lead to closer ADD charts. I think most weeks will have an Alpha type add that gets most of the love and then everything else will be close but it will be interesting to see. Also what about She and Him? Is that a #1 contender or does !!! have more of a shot having been last weeks #1 most added.  Its hard to tell and I think it depends on what comes out next week. In 3 weeks when She and Him would be in a position to make a move Phoenix, Junip and Yeah Yeah Yeahs will be out there for 6 weeks and will be falling.

In other charting news !!! had a great week and comes in with the biggest move of the week from #190 to #15!  Daughter comes in at #29 as the biggest debut of the week.  There are currently 11 former #1 records on the chart and 6 #2 records.  The oldest of the #1s still on there is Tame Impala with an impressive 28 weeks, that is actually the longest tenured record currently on the chart.  This week we had 32 debuts back to what our average had been before last week.

The next few weeks are also crazy for me as I head to Philadelphia for the AAA Non-commention  So if you are going hit me up. Then the next week I will be in Vegas for PUNKROCKBOWLING  So I cannot promise there will be recaps over the next few weeks but I will try to post something here for those of you that like it. To those people I also say thanks for reading!  If you have any questions or comments or want to talk about the world of college radio please hit me up on twitter @theanimalarrg 

This week in College Radio! CMJ issue 1294.

Welcome to This week in college radio, it is a weird time of year. Its a sad time as I learn some of my favorite Music Directors are moving on to  Program Director or Station Manager ( I promise you will be bored Sara/KLSU) or even graduating. It is always a bummer to lose some really fun people. When I was Music Director of my station I once left to become Station Manager. I HATED it so much that I eventually switched back to Music Director. A word of advice. It is the BEST JOB at the station
It is also an exciting time of year because that Music  Director that never had time to return an email and only reported 2 over the course of 12 weeks is GONE!!! OUT OF HERE!!!! A new person that might actually like music and talking to people will be taking over and breathe some fresh air into the college radio world. So its a weird time.  Sad to see some of you go and excited for the chance that some stations might improve.  The Music Director has so much impact on what a station gets from us as promoters. If you report every week and communicate with me I could care less if you love or hate my records. My job is to get feedback and if you give it to me I am pretty happy. Of course I want my records to do well and I strive to that to happen but if you don't report and don't communicate you don't even get the chance to love or hate my records!
 A good example is from WUNH. For a long time they had been passed around Pirate with no luck so we stopped sending records.  Then one day a new MD came in. Decided he wanted more records and started talking to people and the perception of that station has changed completely at least for us.

Ok on to the charts this week. It seems like forever since we have had a repeat #1 and Thee Oh Sees do just that this week! Remember last week when it seemed like they just snuck in there... well they absolutely dominated this week with 56% of the stations up from 51% last week.  When last week was such a squeaker I thought this week would be too but Thee Oh Sees look to be rolling. #2 this week is The Knife comes in at 52% of the stations so within striking distance of that #1 spot.  A big surprise this week are The Strokes hanging out at #3, I expect them to fall fast, well I expected them to this past week too so what do I know.  Also within striking distance of #1 are Iron and Wine at #4, Kurt Vile continues to push ahead coming in at #5. Phoenix making the big move from 70 and last weeks add week to #6. The Flaming lips make a big move from #20 to #9 and Junip comes in at #12 from #62.  James Blake also went up but with all of these other records and only a 2 spot jump this week they are sure to be passed next week.

So what happens now? With so much change over at radio via stations shutting down, new MDs, and just general excitement over it being summer time it is so hard to predict. I could make an argument for The Knife, Iron and Wine or Phoenix being next weeks #1. I don't think it will be Thee Oh see's            ( although I thought that last week)  and here is why.  You have the same company working both Thee Oh Sees and Iron and wine. They see Phoenix there charging ahead really fast. so the idea is to get Iron and wine to #1 before they do and to do that you have to slow down your own record somehow. Then again you could be happy just keeping Thee Oh sees at #1 for a while knowing how hard it is to switch them over. I can tell you I would try to get more #1's If that is the case that leaves the door open for The Knife.  I do have a feeling though these next few weeks it is going to be harder to get ahold of stations and get rotation moving around so perhaps that favors a long run where we have the same stations in the top 5 for weeks.  This is the most unpredictable it has been in some time.  

In ADDS this week !!! takes the #1 spot by ONE over Sub Pop band Still Corners.  The biggest move of the week comes from THERMALS jumping an impressive 120 spots! The highest debut comes from Major Lazer at #34. The #1 debut used to mean a lot more to me but now it seems that the bigger artists all debut on the add week instead of the next week. I often wonder how this happens since most of these stations only have the record for few days ( not all but most)  I can see it happening when there is a single out there or the record gets mailed really early but it happens almost every week. This weeks #1 most added !!! debuted at #190, giving them a shot at the biggest move of the week I suppose but the debut just sounds more impressive to me.  Only 24 debuts this week a pretty big drop from our
normal.

Thanks for reading. If you have any insight you would like to add please hit me up I would love to share other opinions on what is going on at College radio in addition to my own.