So I guesse I never really noticed but aperantly we have a “TOP 30" list at the station. Not that I want to start some shit or anything but this is a top 30 list according to who? CMJ?Is there a TOP 30 formula? FRITO PLEASE! First of all I find it a bit (I don’t know what word I am trying to use...I’ll just use...) Shitty that we would use someone elses list to identify “THIS WEEK TOP 30 SONGS IS BRAUGHT TO YOU BY CMJ, THE ATHORITY IN COLLEGE MUSIC!” (said in the voice of an energetic cormercial radio anouncer).Secondly and most importantly I believe it goes against OUR station’s mission statement to provide alternative programing. In what way is the “TOP 30" a representation of our station and our community?

Where is the top thirty song for German folk category?
I want to know what was this weeks top hit in Norteno Music.
Hey Hey Hey smoke weed everyday where is my reggae?
I thought Hip Hop was popular...where it be at on da mother
fuckin’ list yo?
Excuse me but I was not able to find the number 1 song in the
black metal charts so for this week only I may not be able kill
lambs and worship my lord and savior, Satan.
“Wow, I totally know what is out there for the
indy/rock/alternative/experimental category in fact over 20 songs
if not all in this weeks list follow that category (believe me I
checked). I am just amazed at how many Indy Rockers we have in
cleveland in fact it seems they make up about 90% of our listening
audience right?

WRONG! If the station where to actually reflect our community it would be one large tower of babel( haha get it? Tower of Babel...Rhodes.... Tower...wcsb is in...sigh....never mind).
Personally I don’t have anything against the bands in “the list” some of them I have in my personal collection, but it should be reserved for the shows who play that type of genre only, not as a representation of the whole station. I also find CMJ to be Rolling Stone’s rough draft for its following issue. CMJ as a whole has been pretty lame remeber the last two years when Cleveland hosted their festivals?
Maybe I am confused and I ignore the fact that CMJ stands for College Music Journal and their main audience is consequently college students who listen to college radio and who may or may not only hear this type of music at a college radio station. I am aware that WCSB is located and funded by a university but I truly believe by the above defenition we are not college radio, we are a community radio station dedicating on serving our community.

“Talk among yourselves....here is a topic...tuperware can ya ever get the tomato sauce out?”

I'm a former WCSB music director, so I can easily explain this...

The Top 30 list is OUR Top 30 list. It's compiled by the music director every week, and then submitted to CMJ for publication. That stuff is on the Top 30 list because WE play it on OUR STATION. When a CD is put into the pushbox (the shelves where we keep new releases), we put a grid sticker on the CDs, which DJs are supposed to mark whenever they play a new CD. The music director looks at the grid stickers on the CDs each week to count how many times a new CD has been played.

So, that is actually our Top 30, and CMJ is merely the outlet where it gets published. Understand that music labels, promotional companies, and other people who might send CDs will look in CMJ to see what's getting played on that station so they can have an idea if a CD that they might want to send us will get played on the station.

Now, you are right that not every genre is represented in the Top 30. I don't know how our current music director does it, but when I was music director, I just counted the stuff in the rock and electronic/experimental pushboxes because most of the shows at that time played either rock or electronic/experimental, so it represented a decent cross-section of everything that was getting played. And keep in mind that a CD has to be played by multiple shows for it to chart. Something played on the German show wouldn't chart because only the German show would play it.

Oh, and what you probably don't know is that there are also separate CMJ charts for metal, electronic, Latin, and other genres. So, we do have ways of counting other genres, too. I don't know which of those charts we report to now, but we did do metal, electronic, and Latin when I was music director.

All in all, I hate to say it, but the Top 30 and other charts are more for the benefit of industry people than listeners. Like I said, it gives people an idea of what might get played on our station and whether or not they might want to send a particular CD to us.

So, while you might not agree with all that, I hope I've at least made things more clear.

P.S. I read somewhere that if you spray non-stick cooking spray in a container before you put a tomato-based product in it, it won't get stained. But I haven't tried that for myself.

well that was informative...Thank you.
Well I guess my next question would be then how can we make a top 30 chart that is more representative of the station for the listeners rather thatn one that is not acurate and benifits the industry?

P.S. Yeah that didn't work for me...still got stains thanks though

if were doing a represenative top 30 of the station, then id better start saving my playlists again to submit to this chart. or have listener feedback somehow. online voting/comment box while youre broadcasting live?

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carnage asada [U GNARLIN?]
thursday night 11p-1a


you will miss me when im gone. you will miss my hateful song.

that's cool...I just think it would be even better if we all contributed...I know is alot of work and no body wants to do it but it would fun having a list with a metal song after a reggae song after a german song and so forth on a compiled list.... what ever I dream on.

Xpat has some great ideas....a few small problems (not including time) Some peeps do not do or half ass playlists, if they're legible. As far as requests, I get a lot of the same....one drunk calls w/ 25 per night, usually the same, No$ just want s to talk (that'd be #1 every week), or often for us late-nighters, no calls.
Chim chim e-mails us (those who report to him--"Loud Rock") and I try to announce it @ some point each week. Oh, and the only peeps who read CMJ seems to be...CMJ. College students, especially here, listen to crap--many don't even know we exist, or at least know OF us but cannot remember the frequency, or bitch that there's nothing they like (which is Indie rock, of which we have 17 shows......)

Rockstar Mode
Late Sat./ early Sun.
2-7 am EDT

Where is this list posted? Is it only on CMJ?

I'm assuming that if I've never done a set list and turned it in that my plays have never been recorded... I have them all archived, though!

"our" Top 30 is the actual wcsb web site