Earlier this week I dug out an old CMJ chart and started the process of recreating the Sunday nights of my first year at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point when I and my more enlightened dorm-mates would gather around the radio to listen to our station, 90FM-WWSP, to find out the most played tracks on college radio nationwide. And now, as they say, on with the countdown… 35. Marc Almond, “Jacky” Marc Almond started his career as one half of the influential New Wave duo Soft Cell. This song came from Tenement Symphony, still his highest-charting album back … Continue reading College Countdown: Winter 1991, 35-31

I had a Sunday night ritual my first semester of college. I gather with several neighbors in my residence hall, and we’d listen to the student run radio station, WWSP-90FM beginning at 6:00 p.m. The program at that time was The College Count-Up. The esteemed host (and future horror blogging titan) took the weekly “Top Cuts” chart published by CMJ, the trade publication targeted at college radio, and tracked through the songs receiving the most airplay nationwide on the left side of the dial. At that time, he cheekily turned the Casey Kasem/Rick Dees practice of counting backwards around, beginning … Continue reading College Countdown: Winter 1991, 40-36