COLLEGE RADIO RECAP WEEK 33

It was a crap week at college radio. It really felt like a lot of stations were just phoning it in. One station has reported the exact same playlist for 3 weeks in a row. Next week will be a full month! Can't wait to find out.

We are looking at historic lows in the number of reporting stations in the summer but we can still look at some fun things on the chart. I thought it might be fun to look how the correlation to a top add equates to the position on the chart.

We will start with the first ADD week of the year and look at the first 10 add weeks. We will only be looking at the top five adds of each week unless there is a huge outlier

Week 1 of the year--Issue 1422

TW	TA	Artist	Recording	Label
1	50	OH WONDER	Oh Wonder	PEAKED AT #10
2	42	KRISP	Sonic Monarch	PEAKED AT #58
3	36	PRINCE	HITNRUN Phase Two	PEAKED AT #12
4	33	REVERSING FALLS	Reversing Falls 2	PEAKED AT #77
5	27	VARIOUS ARTISTS	30th Century Records Compilation, Volume 1	PEAKED AT #108

So easily the top added record ended up on top but the first thing I see is Prince at #3, crazy to think of what kind of bounce he would of seen had this record been later in the  year, much like the David Bowie bounce. 

WEEK 2--ISSUE 1423 

1	106	DAVID BOWIE	Blackstar	PEAKED AT #1
2	70	CAGE THE ELEPHANT	Tell Me I'm Pretty	PEAKED AT #4
3	60	BESNARD LAKES	A Coliseum Complex Museum	PEAKED AT #5
4	56	SPOOK SCHOOL	Try To Be Hopeful	PEAKED AT #9
5	46	WRAY	Hypatia	PEAKED AT #12
6	38	JULIEN BAKER	Sprained Ankle	PEAKED AT #11

Well this one was almost perfect. I included Julien because she did peak above the #5 most added record. No real shocks here. 

WEEK 3--ISSUE 1424 

1	111	HINDS	Leave Me Alone	PEAKED AT  #2
2	61	DRESSY BESSY	Kingsized	PEAKED AT #13
3	49	ADRIAN YOUNGE	Something About April II	PEAKED AT #7
4	47	GANG OF YOUTHS	The Positions	PEAKED AT #31
5	43	MILK LINES	Ceramic	PEAKED AT #18

Oh 2 major discrepancies here.  Interesting that Adrian Younge was able to get top 10 over Dressy Bessy. Even more interesting that Milk lines had a much higher peak than Gang Of Youths. 

WEEK 4--1425 

TW	TA	Artist	Recording	Label
1	106	TY SEGALL	Emotional Mugger	PEAKED AT #1
2	74	SHEARWATER	Jet Plane And Oxbow	PEAKED AT #6
3	71	DAUGHTER	Not To Disappear	PEAKED AT #5
4	50	RINGO DEATHSTARR	Pure Mood	PEAKED AT #16
5	49	ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER	New View	PEAKED AT #17
6	45	BASIA BULAT	Good Advice	PEAKED AT #21
7	42	CHAIRLIFT	Moth	PEAKED AT #25
8	39	NIGHT BEATS	Who Sold My Generation	PEAKED AT #11

For the most part this lines up pretty well. Sure #2 went above #3 at one point but what is up with Night Beats?!  I can only speculate that the mailing was not done in time for ADDS.  

WEEK 5--1426 

1	108	DIIV	Is The Is Are	PEAKED AT #1
2	84	HIGH HIGHS	Cascades	PEAKED AT #13
3	75	MASS GOTHIC	Mass Gothic	PEAKED AT #11
4	53	ST. LUCIA	Matter	PEAKED AT #45
5	48	BENJI HUGHES	Songs In The Key Of Animals	PEAKED AT #29
6	45	RECORD COMPANY	Give It Back To You	PEAKED AT #30

Pretty crazy how much better Benji Huges and Record Company did over St. Lucia. The ADD difference is not that much but still you would think top 30 would be obtainable if the two records below you got it. 

WEEK 6--1427 

TW	TA	Artist	Recording	Label
1	119	WILD NOTHING	Life Of Pause	PEAKED AT #3
2	110	DR. DOG	The Psychedelic Swamp	PEAKED AT #3
3	80	PORCHES	Pool	PEAKED AT #5
4	58	CLOUD CULT	The Seeker	PEAKED AT #16
5	50	SUNFLOWER BEAN	Human Ceremony	PEAKED AT #11
6	49	JUNIOR BOYS	Big Black Coat	PEAKED AT #27
7	44	DEEP SEA DIVER	Secrets	PEAKED AT #19
8	39	BASEMENT	Promise Everything	PEAKED AT #22

I remember this ADD week well as I was working DR. Dog. Crazy that the top 3 adds all went top 5 but nothing really crazy.  I did notice that the number 7 and 8 added records did better than the #6 most added thought that was worth including 

WEEK 7 1428 

TW	TA	Artist	Recording	Label
1	102	RA RA RIOT	Need Your Light	PEAK AT #8
2	73	LILY AND MADELEINE	Keep It Together	PEAK AT #23
3	71	SO PITTED	Neo	PEAK AT #29
4	57	JEZABELS	Synthia	PEAK AT #27
5	57	FLORIST	The Birds Outside Sang	PEAK AT #28

Well you can't get much closer than that.  Nothing too shocking. 

WEEK 8--1429 

TW	TA	Artist	Recording	Label
1	145	ANIMAL COLLECTIVE	Painting With	PEAKED AT #1
2	92	QUILT	Plaza	PEAKED AT #5
3	68	TEEN	Love Yes	PEAKED AT #18
4	56	MOTHERS	When You Walk A Long Distance You Are Tired	PEAKED AT #13
5	55	DEATH BY UNGA BUNGA	Pineapple Pizza	PEAKED AT #14
6	50	GAZEBOS	Die Alone	PEAKED AT #30
7	43	DIRTY NIL	Higher Power	PEAKED AT #36
8	43	MOUNT MORIAH	How To Dance	PEAKED AT #40
9	42	MAVIS STAPLES	Livin' On A High Note	PEAKED AT #15

I think that might be the biggest abnormality we have seen yet. Mavis Staples comes in way behind #5 most added but almost best their peak. There is actually an easy explanation for that. A record like Mavis Staples is powered by the larger AAA stations so for charting purposes it takes less of them to achieve a good result 

WEEK 9--1430

TW	TA	Artist	Recording	Label
1	96	SANTIGOLD	99cents	PEAK AT #2
2	89	YUCK	Stranger Things	PEAK AT #8
3	77	VIOLENT FEMMES	We Can Do Anything	PEAK AT #8
4	67	CHARLES BRADLEY	Changes	PEAK AT #3
5	50	POLICA	United Crushers	PEAK AT #17

WEEK 10--1431 

1	104	THAO AND THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN	A Man Alive	PEAK AT #1
2	96	M. WARD	More Rain	PEAK AT #7
3	65	LA SERA	Music For Listening To Music To	PEAK AT #15
4	51	DAMIEN JURADO	Visions Of Us On The Land	PEAK AT #13
5	47	PRINCE RAMA	Xtreme Now	PEAK AT #38
6	44	NADA SURF	You Know Who You Are	PEAK AT #22

Pretty straightforward. Nada Surf barely got beat out for #5 most added so its easy to say that Prince Rama overachieved on the ADDS side of things. 

So that was fun. For me at least. Overall I think the top 3 ADDS stand up or at the very least you can say it matters when you get #1 most added. Not a single record that got #1 most added was passed on the charts by someone lower in that week. Of course there are exceptions the biggest this year being BADBADNOTGOOD .. Lets look at that week

TW	TA	Artist	Recording	Label
1	73	BLOOD ORANGE	Freetown Sound	PEAK AT #3
2	62	BAT FOR LASHES	The Bride	AT #7 NOW
3	57	BADBADNOTGOOD	IV	PEAK AT #1
4	44	BROODS	Conscious	PEAK AT #20
5	39	LISA PRANK	Adult Teen	PEAK AT #36

It is worth noting that Blood Orange went up from #5 to #4 this week but it had already peaked at #3 previously. Bat for lashes was at #8 for 2 weeks in a row before moving up to #7 and is now at its current peak. It really has been a while since I have seen the #3 most added record get #1 when the 2 adds ahead of it did not get to #1. So that is the biggest outlier so far this year.  But It looks like overall you can still use the ADDS chart as a predictor for future success.

As far as what happened on the charts THIS week. We saw the Avalanches finally take the #1 spot on the chart.  Dinosaur Jr and Thee oh Sees should fight it out for next week!

Thanks for reading lets talk on twitter. 

COLLEGE RADIO RECAP WEEK 32

We are entering the final stretch of summer and for it being summer its actually been pretty exciting out there the past few weeks.  Lets start with ADDS as we finally had a battle in the top 5. Well excluding the #1 most added record we had a battle.

1	106	THEE OH SEES	A Weird Exits	Castle Face
2	69	WILD BEASTS	Boy King	Domino
3	66	FIELD MOUSE	Episodic	Topshelf
4	64	HALEY BONAR	Impossible Dream	Thirty Tigers
5	46	AGES AND AGES	"They Want More" [Single]	Partisan
6	45	AJJ	The Bible 2	SideOneDummy

Thee Oh Sees ran away with #1 most added but it was really close within the rest of the top 5.  

Thee Oh Sees obviously will be the one to watch over the next few weeks, maybe even next week.  This debut would scare the hell out of me if I were pushing for number 1 next week. 

22

-

-

22

1

THEE OH SEES

A Weird Exits

Castle Face

I thought it was pretty crazy that a single got #5 most added but it turns out that CMJ had not changed it over to the full record.  Yet at the same time CMJ was able to make the Live Thee Oh Sees record un-reportable so that those charting that record were forced to chart the new record.  I have no problem with this strategy as I have used it before but more recently,  when we knew who was working there, we have been told that they would no longer do this. So it seems strange.  But it has been done so it gives Thee Oh Sees a real shot to jump to #1 next week. 

So let us move on to the top 200. What a week.  What would it be Avalanches, Julie Ruin, could Badbadnotgood hold on for another week? Would Dinosaur Jr make a huge jump?  IT was pretty close throughout and I honestly thought Avalanches had it but in the end. 

TW	LW	2W	PK	WKS	Artist	Recording	Label
1	2	6	1	5	JULIE RUIN	Hit Reset	Hardly Art
2	3	5	2	5	AVALANCHES	Wildflower	Astralwerks
3	6	41	3	3	DINOSAUR JR.	Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not	Jagjaguwar
4	1	2	1	5	BADBADNOTGOOD	IV	Innovative Leisure
5	5	3	3	6	BLOOD ORANGE	Freetown Sound	Domino
6	4	1	1	8	MITSKI	Puberty 2	Dead Oceans

This is where next week gets REALLY interesting. Obviously Avalanches will continue to push to the top. But Dinosaur Jr is RIGHT there and charging fast, as we see here they are also on top of the Spinitron charts. 

Rank	Spins	Artist	Disk	Genre
1	91	Dinosaur Jr.	Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not	Rock
2	74	The Avalanches	Wildflower	Rock
3	69	BadBadNotGood	IV	Jazz
4	68	Whitney	Light Upon the Lake	Rock
5	66	Deerhoof	The Magic	Rock
6	65	Case/lang/veirs	case/lang/veirs	Americana
7	64	Car Seat Headrest	Teens of Denial	Rock
8	62	The Julie Ruin	Hit Reset	Rock

But how much does this really tell us? Last week Avalanches were on top. It gives us some idea as lots of the same records are up there but the chart windows are different so you will get different results every week. 

So next week should really become a fun race between Dinosaur Jr., The Avalanches and Thee Oh Sees. I am not sure that in the summer Thee Oh Sees can make that big of a jump but I would not be shocked.  What do you guys think? 

In our weekly check in of the CMJ.com website we find that the last article posted is still June 1st. 

The last "Mixtape" is November of last year but for some reason is still featured on the front page. 

The 2015 Marathon is still featured at the top of the front page, I wonder how many stations subscribe to CMJ just for the "Free CMJ BADGE" and how they feel about the possibility of there not being one this year.   On Facebook we see that the last post said to Bear with them. and that was JUNE 29th.  https://www.facebook.com/cmjdotcom/?fref=nf

Thats it for now. How about a little fun. Can anyone guess the OLDEST record on the chart? 

20 weeks now. Click here to find out. 

COLLEGE RADIO RECAP WEEK 31

Sorry for the delay. I am currently in Los Angeles.

Our college radio summer continues to be pretty exciting week to week. We have had 2 non indie promoted #1 records when we had not had any for a long time.  We have had 2 records take #1, fall out of the top spot and retake it.  And this week we have another new number one and shockingly its not Blood Orange or Avalanches.

This week Badbadnotgood took the #1 spot and I feel like this record is a true college radio success story. Sometimes college radio can feel like its pretty easy to predict whats going to happen. Huge hyped band announces record, they get 100's of adds, shoot up the charts and go #1. But its nice to see a record seemingly take the number one spot organically.  Of course the indie deserves a lot of credit for this one as well.

I am not sure though if this record will hold on to the top spot for long there are a bunch of records making the climb to challenge for the top spot.

1	2	3	1	4	BADBADNOTGOOD	IV	Innovative Leisure
2	6	9	2	4	JULIE RUIN	Hit Reset	Hardly Art
3	5	6	3	4	AVALANCHES	Wildflower	Astralwerks
4	1	2	1	7	MITSKI	Puberty 2	Dead Oceans
5	3	4	3	5	BLOOD ORANGE	Freetown Sound	Domino
6	41	-	6	2	DINOSAUR JR.	Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not	Jagjaguwar
7	4	1	1	6	DEERHOOF	The Magic!	Polyvinyl
8	11	12	8	4	BAT FOR LASHES	The Bride	Warner Bros
9	7	5	4	9	WHITNEY	Light Upon The Lake	Secretly Canadian
10	9	11	9	5	DJ SHADOW	The Mountain Will Fall	Mass Appeal

At a certain point it looked like last weeks #1 most added would be as high as top 3 but they still impress coming in at #6.  The biggest surprises to me is the drop of Blood Orange as the hype really seemed to point towards another #1 record for them and the jump of Julie Ruin. I imagine next week should come down to Julie Ruin and Avalanches.  Who you got? ( Dark horse could be Dinosaur Jr. ) 

Adds this week was pretty tight this week. 

1	52	HEATERS	Baptistina	Beyond Beyond Is Beyond
2	51	OWEN	The King Of Whys	Polyvinyl
3	51	DESCENDENTS	Hypercaffium Spazzinate	Epitaph

Seems like the new normal for the number of ADDS lately.  I happen to be working on the Descendents record and was very excited to see it do so well. 

Lets take a look at the Spinitron charts 

1	85	The Avalanches	Wildflower	Rock
2	72	Dinosaur Jr.	Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not	Rock
3	67	BadBadNotGood	IV	Jazz
4	65	The Julie Ruin	Hit Reset	Rock
5	65	Whitney	Light Upon the Lake	Rock
6	64	Deerhoof	The Magic	Rock
7	60	Allen Toussaint	American Tunes	Jazz
8	60	Descendents	Hypercaffium Spazzinate	Rock
9	57	Case/lang/veirs	case/lang/veirs	Americana
10	56	Car Seat Headrest	Teens of Denial	Rock

Avalanches have been up there for a while now but the thing that stands out the most is Dinosaur Jr already at #2. Its nice to see a lot of the same records in the top 10 that we see on the CMJ charts. 

I wanted to also try and continue to give you CMJ updates on a regular basis. Even when there is not much to report.  

Earlier this week I received another email from a concerned station asking what was going on. It is weird that CMJ chooses not to communicate with its members but thats where we are.  So what is going on?  With no word from inside CMJ it's hard to say, we can say for certain that things are not ok. That is why I have started using Spinitron on a more regular basis. Is it a replacement for CMJ, no not yet but maybe it could be. At this point the number of active stations is about the same and could be more for Spinitron by the end of the year.  If I have any hard facts to share or if any former CMJ employees have anything new to share I will be more than happy to pass it on. But for now this is all I can share. 

Thank you for reading! 

College radio recap week 30

Summertime in general is a tougher time to really figure out whats going to happen week to week on the charts. The number of stations reporting goes down thereby giving each station that does report a bit more power.
This summer we are seeing a bigger drop off in stations and of course this means even more impact to each individual station. For example when we see a 10 station gap between stations now its more like a 22-25 station gap would be in the fall. This is important for when we look at the charts today.

Lets take a look at the top 15 this week

1	2	2	1	6	MITSKI	Puberty 2	Dead Oceans --88
2	3	7	2	3	BADBADNOTGOOD	IV	Innovative Leisure--81
3	4	8	3	4	BLOOD ORANGE	Freetown Sound	Domino--76
4	1	1	1	5	DEERHOOF	The Magic!	Polyvinyl--89
5	6	196	5	3	AVALANCHES	Wildflower	Astralwerks--76
6	9	127	6	3	JULIE RUIN	Hit Reset	Hardly Art--79
7	5	4	4	8	WHITNEY	Light Upon The Lake	Secretly Canadian--55
8	7	3	1	12	RADIOHEAD	A Moon Shaped Pool	XL--64
9	11	16	9	4	DJ SHADOW	The Mountain Will Fall	Mass Appeal--53
10	8	11	8	6	CASE/LANG/VEIRS	Case/lang/veirs	Anti--55
11	12	26	11	3	BAT FOR LASHES	The Bride	Warner Bros--52
12	19	18	11	9	CAR SEAT HEADREST	Teens Of Denial	--40
13	10	6	2	8	PAUL SIMON	Stranger To Stranger	Concord--41
14	14	19	14	5	MALE GAZE	King Leer	Castle Face--36
15	15	5	5	8	KILLS	Ash And Ice	Domino--42

We see that Mitski comes back to the #1 spot while Deerhoof drops to #4. All throughout the week I thought that it would come down to Deerhoof and Mitski so I was a bit surprised when Deerhoof dropped all the way to #4.  

I am not surprised that Mitski went back up to #1. As we saw with Radiohead a month ago they went to #1 fell out and came back. Why does this happen? It happens, most likely, because they are the singular focus of that label and there is no outside indie trying to move things around. My guess is that Mitski has remained they same type of priority over the past 4 weeks whereas if an indie were working it you would see the record get #1 and most likely they would move on to the next major priority if there was one.  

You can also see looking above the numbers to the right of each record. Those are how many stations each has. It is a simplistic view of the charts without factoring in weights but most of the time it gives us a generally good idea of where each record will slot in. You only have to look deeper when there is something like Deerhoof dropping and having the most stations. I would then look at the charts and see the records above have bigger stations or higher chart numbers.  

With Deerhoof dropping out of the top spot I think it has a really huge impact for next weeks chart. This is where I start to look at whom is working each record. No indie on Mitski means they could just keep pushing, they have nothing to lose by doing so. They won't be harming any of their other records. Whitney is falling out so thats not a threat for the top and Dinosaur Jr ( this weeks #1 most added record) would be a few weeks away so I assume they keep on pushing. Also as a side note Secretly group is having a nice run here. Looking good. 

So the #2 spot is Badbadnotgood they have steadily moved up each week since they went for adds and seem to be gaining a fair amount of buzz. This seems like a good time to do a comparison to the Spinitron charts 

2	83	The Avalanches	Wildflower	Electronic
3	77	Deerhoof	The Magic	Rock
4	70	Mitski	Puberty 2	Rock
5	66	Badbadnotgood	IV	Jazz
6	66	The Julie Ruin	Hit Reset	Rock
7	62	Blood Orange	Freetown Sound	Rock

( the #1 spot has been removed because it was a heritage artist that got a lot of play due to a death)

As we see here though the top records line up pretty nicely with what is happening at CMJ.   The thing that stands out to me is Avalanches at #1. I am not sure if you can use Spinitron as a predictor of future charts but perhaps if Avalanches can make that jump then we should start to.  Back to Badbadnotgood, they are Cosigns only priority in this top grouping so like Secretly they are in a good position to just keep going the window for them remains open until they get jumped by more than one record, in my opinion.

I think that Deerhoof falling out of the top spot is actually a good thing, if I were working that record at least I would. By them falling out and falling to #4 I am now able to put all my concentration on my other priority in the top 10, The Julie Ruin. Remember The Julie Ruin took #1 most added a few weeks back and as far as I can tell has yet to be the main push so you can see it making that leap from  #6.
 Lastly the other two contenders are Blood orange and Avalanches. Both have the same amount of stations on them. But Avalanches has a significant lead in spins on spinitron and they have the benefit of being one week younger.  As a promoter I have always hated this situation and I do not envy The Syn here.  Two records that seemingly should both get to #1 and if you play it right you can most likely get them both there if you play it wrong you get neither but more than likely you get at least one there. But what one will it be?

It seems like we are bound to have a pretty exciting week at college radio over the next few weeks. The thing about summer though is that what takes a week to happen in the fall sometimes takes 2 or longer in the summer so this could be a slow moving train wreck.

Well thanks for reading lets talk about it on twitter. 

Also there seems to be no update from CMJ regarding Marathon for those of you asking. If you go to the website the last news article was posted June 1'st. In regards to the lawsuit it appears to be in some sort of Mediation but that is still ongoing.  https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/DocumentDisplayServlet?documentId=kyuCJK34fU07itZmtocjZA==&system=prod

At this point any week we have charts is a bonus. This is again why sites like Spinitron will be featured more heavily.

COLLEGE RADIO RECAP WEEK 29

When I last updated Radiohead was still number one and Hot Hot Heat was most added.

Since then we have had  2 new number ones. Mitski, was there for one week becoming only the 2nd record in some time to take #1without the aid of an indie.  Then this weeks and last weeks #1 Deerhoof. 

While I was gone Julie Ruin upset Avalanches for #1 most added. That seems to have corrected itself on the chart this week as Avalanches comes in at #6 while Julie ruin comes in at #9. 

I would say the biggest surprise to me might be Badbadnotgood coming in at  #3 in their 2nd week on the chart.  

I thought when I returned that Blood Orange would be sitting pretty in the top spot of the chart but 3 weeks in they are at #4.  Not bad by any means but If i had to guess what record would dominate I would of picked Blood Orange over Deerhoof for sure.  

But it is summer and there are less than 200 reporters so its really hard to tell whats going to happen on any given week.  

Remember when I did that ADD recap on KILLS... interesting to see that they did what they always do and peaked out at #5 

15

5

5

5

7

KILLS

Ash And Ice

Domino

I just find it fascinating that no matter what some bands have this built in peak. 

Lets do a quick comparison of the Spinitron chart to the CMJ chart.

Rank	Spins	Artist	Disk	Genre
1	87	Deerhoof	The Magic	Rock
2	76	Radiohead	A Moon Shaped Pool	Rock
3	75	Badbadnotgood	IV	Jazz
4	67	Paul Simon	Stranger to Stranger	Rock
5	60	Case/lang/veirs	case/lang/veirs	Americana
6	60	DJ Shadow	The Mountain Will Fall	Electronic
7	60	The Avalanches	Wildflower	Electronic
8	58	Mitski	Puberty 2	Rock
9	56	Allen Toussaint	American Tunes	Jazz
10	55	The Earls of Leicester	Rattle & Roar	Bluegrass

We have a lot of the same records in there. 

Deerhoof is #1 on both charts. 

TW	LW	2W	PK	WKS	Artist	Recording	Label
1	1	2	1	4	DEERHOOF	The Magic!	Polyvinyl
2	2	1	1	5	MITSKI	Puberty 2	Dead Oceans
3	7	-	3	2	BADBADNOTGOOD	IV	Innovative Leisure
4	8	171	4	3	BLOOD ORANGE	Freetown Sound	Domino
5	4	6	4	7	WHITNEY	Light Upon The Lake	Secretly Canadian
6	196	-	6	2	AVALANCHES	Wildflower	Astralwerks
7	3	4	1	11	RADIOHEAD	A Moon Shaped Pool	XL
8	11	9	8	5	CASE/LANG/VEIRS	Case/lang/veirs	Anti
9	127	-	9	2	JULIE RUIN	Hit Reset	Hardly Art
10	6	3	2	7	PAUL SIMON	Stranger To Stranger	Concord

The earls of Leicester cannot be found on the CMJ chart but Allen Toussaint is on there

117

126

179

117

3

ALLEN TOUSSAINT

American Tunes

Nonesuch

Overall you see a lot of the same records. Feel like that can only help in giving Spinitron more of a voice. For those of you that have yet to check it out please do. 

Ok back to catching up on the last two weeks. Find me on twitter.