With the last week of the work year upon us, I can’t help but think that the older I get, the quicker the years go by. At least on January 1, I’ll be able to make my “new” resolutions to lose 15 lbs. again, break 85 consistently at golf and become a better person. Of course, there’s no chance of the latter, as long as I’m working at HITS. But the season does give us a chance to reflect on the past year musically, and give some well-deserved praise to both labels and individuals… I hinted before that Republic was the Rhythm Label of the Year. The sheer number of releases that Republic has would send most people to the loony bin, but Gary Spangler and Davey Dee manage to just identify the hits and keep the machine rolling smoothly… The Record of the Year goes to “Show Me” by RCA’s Kid Ink f/Chris Brown. Team Nipper also has the #2 record, Chris Brown f/Lil Wayne’s “Loyal.” John Strazza, Inca and Lori G were consistent all year and made the most of their releases.



#3 was Eminem f/Rihanna’s “The Monster.” It feels like that record has been out for about three years now! Other records rounding out the Top 10 include Jason Derulo’s “Talk Dirty” (Warner Bros.), Tinashe f/Schoolboy Q’s “2 On” (RCA), Jeremih f/YG’s “Don’t Tell ‘Em” (Def Jam), Iggy Azalea f/Charli XCX’s “Fancy” (Grand Hustle/Def Jam) and Beyoncé f/Jay Z’s “Drunk In Love” (Columbia)… Speaking of Columbia, Ayelet Schiffman and James White own the #10, 12, 13 and 14 records on the chart; all of those records hit #1 during the course of this year. Here’s the breakdown of how many each label had on the year-end chart: RCA (9), Columbia (6), Republic (6), Def Jam (4), Warner Bros. (4), Interscope (3), and Glassnote (1)…Epic had a strong second half of the year that saw their chart share jump into the Top 10 with records like TeeFlii’s “24 Hours,” Bobby Shmurda’s “Hotboy” and Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass”... Meanwhile, nine records in the Top 40 were by female artists: Katy Perry, Iggy Azalea (2), Tinashe, Beyoncé (2), Ariana Grande and Lorde (2)… All in all, it was a great year for Rhythm radio, as there were a number of surprises like two Grammy nominations for Glassnote’s Childish Gambino. Our format shares a great many artists with Top 40 and Urban radio, so having an artist break from Rhythm is always a strong sign that the format is alive and well. I hope everyone reading this enjoys the time off, whether you’re spending time with family, traveling or just decompressing. With the first quarter comes new acts, major releases and everything in between. Here’s to a great start to 2015! Cheers. – Andy Arnold