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Radio Airplay 101: CMJ Magazine
by Bryan Farrish - December 2000
Back to Radio Promotion 101
In the previous articles we focused on the stations themselves. Now, let's focus on a chart...the CMJ
college airplay chart, which is a great place for most new artists and labels to start.
CMJ (www.cmj.com) is the "College Music Journal" or "College Media Journal",
depending on whom you ask. For us, it stands for music. And we are focusing here on the professional *weekly* version
(available by subscription only), not the consumer *monthly* version (which is available on newstands.) You can
get a feel for CMJ by looking at their site, but most of the real material is in the magazine only. Your promoter
should provide you with all the CMJ info you need.
The beauty of CMJ is that is that it lists (on a weekly basis) a huge number of playlists of individual stations
around the U.S.; these lists (being that they are from college, community and NPR stations) actually show music
mostly from new artists. Thus CMJ is subscribed to by most managers, labels, booking agents and music press who
want to be informed of upcoming "trends" in music.
CMJ (and college music in general) is about 75% alternative. Indeed, the first chart we want to look at (and the
main chart in CMJ) is the
alternative "Top 200", which is 200 listings deep of alternative charting
artists (compared to 40 or 50 of other charts). 200 might seem like a lot, but on any given week, over *2000* artists
are *attempting* to chart (and don't.) There are about 1000 college stations which are eligible to send their playlists
to CMJ to be included in the Top 200 chart. About 350 to 600 do it on any given week.
It works like this: A college radio station's programming is made up of many one-hour segments, each one being
programmed by a student who is taking a broadcasting class, or by a volunteer that comes from the local community.
Each student or volunteer presents his/her one-hour playlist to the music director, and the music director then
compiles a "top-30" for that station...the 30 artists that are getting the most airplay from the different
DJs at the station. The "top-30" for that station is then faxed/emailed to CMJ. CMJ then averages all
the individual top-30 charts for that week, and this is what makes up the Top-200 chart for that week (and *that
week only*.) Any top-30 received before or after that week cannot count for that week's Top-200 chart.
The stations that report to the Top-200 range in size from huge to tiny, and as you might imagine, the larger stations
count for more than the smaller ones do. Whether or not you appear on the Top-200 chart or not is dependent upon
how many stations put you on their top-30's *that week*. To make it onto the bottom of the Top-200 chart, you will
need anywhere from 5 to 40 individual top-30's for that week.
A companion to the Top 200 chart is the "Radio 200 Adds" chart. An "add" chart is different
from an "airplay" chart, because an "add" just means a station "added you to the music
library"...it does not mean they gave you any spins (airplay). Getting an add is usually the first step to
getting spins, however.
Another companion to the Top 200 chart is the "Core Radio" chart. This chart only accepts playlists from
the largest 100 or so college stations, so theoretically, having an artist appear on the "core" chart
is worth more than having the artist appear on the "regular" chart. This may or may not be true, and
is fuel for further discussions. Your promoter should be able to shed some light on the value of core stations.
The next chart to look at in CMJ is the "Loud Rock" chart. This is where all your metal and hard rock
shows up. The chart is 40 artists deep, and also has a most-added section that is 5 deep. About 400 stations report
to this chart.
Next up is the "RPM" chart. This is where your techno/electronic stuff is charted. It also 40 deep, with
5 most-added spots. About 350 station report to it.
"Beat Box" is your next largest chart; your rap and hip hop fit here. It is also 40 deep with 5 most-added.
About 300 stations report.
"Jazz" is next, but it is only 25 deep, and has no most-added chart. About 250 report to it. Note that
it is mostly traditional jazz, and not "smooth" jazz.
"New World" is the chart where new-age and world music fit in. It also a smaller chart...25 deep...and
with no adds. It has about 200 reporters.
The last charts are "AAA" and "Latin Alternative", and these are special cases. AAA is Adult
Album Alternative, and is comprised of only about 50 reporting stations. The bad news about this chart is that
it made up of mostly major labels. And as for the Latin chart, it is a brand spanking new chart in CMJ, and therefore
it is still developing.
Next issue:
Specialty and Mixshows on commercial radio stations.
Bryan Farrish
is an independent radio airplay promoter. He can be reached at 818-905-8038 or airplay@radio-media.com |
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