Many Congrats to Garrett Capone and everyone at Crush Music for guiding "Records" to #1 this week at Alternative! It's the 9th #1 hit for this Hall of Fame (in my opinion) band. The stats are nuts as they also have 15 Top 5 and 22 Top 10 singles. The band's biggest spun song is "Say It Ain't So" and their biggest streaming song is "Island In The Sun"
MY DECEMBER TO REMEMBER: Part 2
“I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)”
12/9: I know everyone’s been awaiting Part Two of my crazy December, so buckle in! I got back from Denver on the 7th and I had one day to regroup before I set off for a couple more of The 1975 shows in Chicago and Milwaukee. It’s always a guess as to when the best time is to travel east, especially in the winter months. I usually choose an early morning flight, so I left the house at 4:45am for a 7am flight.
I’ve been telling anyone who’d listen to go see The 1975’s concert. A couple of friends took me up on the offer and met me in Chicago. It’s always great to hang with Oedipus. Yes, the Hall of Fame Boston legend from WBCN! Lenny Diana, who programs WTTS-Indianapolis and WGBJ-Ft. Wayne, also joined! Lenny came back to Indianapolis last year and is killing it. I insisted before the show we stop at Mr. Beef, the home of Hulu’s The Bear. The 1975 concert was part of Q101’s Chicago Twisted Xmas, put together by the station’s PD, Troy Hanson. I’ve been fortunate over the years to be involved with some of Troy’s shows and he does a magnificent job with his events! Troy’s staff are amazing; Dan Pursel and Jeannine Moose Lombardo deserve a shout-out for the perfect setup. We were at the Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom, which meant two things: we were going to see the band in a smaller venue and the set design (a focal point of the tour) would not be possible as it won’t fit into the building. It didn’t matter. I’ve seen some special concerts, but this one went to a different level. The energy was so electric that it’s hard to describe in words.
12/10: Shockingly enough, the next day was the easiest of all my travels. I actually got to the gym in the morning and then drove to Milwaukee that afternoon for WLUM’s 16th BIG SNOW SHOW with The 1975. The show was at The Rave/Eagles Club and was similar in size to last night. It’s always a good sign when you pull up in the afternoon and there are 2,000 people already waiting to get in. The station is programmed by Michelle Rutkowski, who does such a fabulous job. We’ve done some special events over the years, but once again, this was a different level. I didn’t think it was possible to match the electricity from the night before, but it truly did. It was an hour and forty minutes of concert perfection. These were truly the two best radio concerts I’ve ever been a part of (and that’s saying something). I also met Max, who programs WWWX in nearby Appleton. He said to me a couple of times throughout the night how amazing it all was.
I decided to change my flights as I heard a storm was brewing (of course, it was) so I drove back to Chicago after the show and spent a few hours at the Hilton O’Hare to get on an early morning flight back to L.A. Turns out it was good decision, unlike what happened the rest of the month!
Karen Glauber calls me the Clark Griswold of family travel. It’s hard to disagree with her. Over the years, I’ve taken the family on some pretty cool adventures, which requires a lot of moving around. It can get goofy at times but with the job I have, I like to squeeze in as much as I can into a small window. I call these window-shop vacations.
12/16: I decided to take everyone to Europe. We did a couple of these before the pandemic. They were amazing. I also figured this is probably going to be the last time to do this as my kids are now young adults and they will soon be going in different directions. We started in Berlin. I wasn’t planning to go there, but I got an incredible deal on Norse Atlantic Airways and that’s where they fly to. Hot tip—once you’re in Europe, there are so many discount airlines and its rather inexpensive and easy to move around. The highlight for us were the Xmas markets. Germany is famous for their Xmas markets and the ones we went to didn’t disappoint.
12/17: My wife Kelly has always wanted to go to Copenhagen. December probably isn’t the best time to go as a tourist, but that’s when we could. It was a 45-minute flight from Berlin, so we went for it. We stayed in the Nyhavn district, and it was amazing. One of the best cities we’ve been to. The people are tall and beautiful. It was more Xmas markets, incredible window shopping and a visit to the Tivoli Gardens!
12/18: I’ve been getting more into the bucket list thing in recent years. Naples has been on my list for a while, but I’vebut never quite figured out the itinerary. On this trip, I was determined to get to L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele. I can only describe Naples as true chaos. It’s New York City on steroids. Founded in 1870, Da Michele is one of the oldest pizzerias in the world. It was worth it. The pizza was perfect, and it was $5.
12/19: About 20 years ago, Kelly and I took a trip to Sorrento, about an hour south of Naples. We loved it then and loved it even more this time! Sorrento is beautiful. It’s a coastal town that has sweeping water views and a café-lined square.
12/20: We have done the Route 1 drive from Santa Barbara to San Francisco a few times over the years. It’s pretty special. What matches that drive? The Amalfi Coast. We did the drive from Sorrento through Positano and ended up having lunch in the town of Amalfi. It’s as good as it gets. It’s a lot of twists and turns on a one lane road, but by far the most beautiful drive imaginable.
12/21: I probably didn’t need to throw Venice into the mix, but it’s my favorite city and if I’m in the area, I’m going to make a day of it. It’s my fourth time visiting, and it still blows me away every time. I know some people like to go to Orlando every year, but for me, there’s nothing quite like Venice.
12/22: When you’re traveling on a budget, finding low-cost flights is a must. There was a catch on this trip. The family has been watching me live and die with the Buffalo Bills for as long as I can remember. I’m from Rochester and that’s my team. It so happens the Bills were playing in Chicago on Xmas Eve. What seemed like a good idea in September turned out to be a gigantic mistake. I found a flight through Dublin to Chicago that would get us there in time for the game. In Italy, we started hearing about a generational storm running through Chicago. Pro tip: Iceland Air doesn’t care if they’re flying you into a blizzard. Who would have thought the weather in Iceland in December would be better than Chicago?
12/23: Flying into Chicago, it was -20° with high winds. We landed at 5pm. It was uneventful until we left the baggage area and saw true chaos at O’ Hare. It was so cold; the trams couldn’t work and there was at least a 3-4 hour wait just to get a bus to take you anywhere inside the airport. Somehow in the hour, my daughter gets an Uber to take us to the rental car center two miles away. It was the best $50 we’ve spent. I’ve never felt cold weather quite like this. We get the last car and stop at Dick’s to load up on more winter gear for the game—did I mention the game was outside? We get to the hotel room at 11pm (coming from Europe with no sleep) and of course, the heater is broken—which they don’t tell us when we checked in. We had to find a new hotel at 1am. Not a good start to this leg of the trip.
12/24: The sun comes out and its now 10°, which makes it somewhat possible to sit through a football game. We keep checking on our flight, as we have one at 9pm flight on Southwest, and we’re learning about the cancellations starting to happen. Surprisingly, our flight was still listed on time. The game is great, and we survived the cold weather. It reminded me a lot of spending countless amount hours playing hockey as a kid on the frozen ponds in my hometown.
We decide to head to Midway early just in case. We stop at a nearby Fridays and learn our flight was cancelled. We rush out to get to the airport, but I realize a few minutes later I left my cell phone at the table. I get back and it’s gone. It was stolen in a matter of three minutes in an empty restaurant on Xmas eve. We’re doing everything we can to block the phone, change all my passwords and, at the same time, find out what’s up with the flight. We get to the airport and it’s everything you’ve read about. The lines were several hours long and there were hundreds and hundreds of bags just sitting there. We eventually find out the earliest they could get us back to L.A. was six days later. So, what do you do? I looked at my wife and said, “I guess we should start to drive West.” Looking back, it was quite stupid considering we were driving overnight in zero-degree weather in the middle of nowhere. We load up on candy and caffeine and hit the road.
12/25: Doing an all-night drive starts out with a lot of adrenaline. It fades quickly. You also can’t think about the fact that you’re 2,200 miles from home. Kelly and I take turns every couple of hours going through Iowa and Nebraska. It felt like we were in Nebraska forever. The hardest hour of any late-night thing is the 4-5am hour. My daughter played DJ and since the month was fueled by The 1975 concerts, we re-lived it by singing their songs at the top of our lungs, including my fave, “I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes).” That was the fuel we needed.
The daylight showed up and so did Colorado. We’re now living on Love Truck Stops as that was the only thing open since it was Xmas. And let me tell you, that’s not what you want to be eating on the road. At the time, we didn’t know how bad the Southwest problem really was, but we couldn’t find flights in any of the cities we passed through. We kept driving and finally at 5pm, we found the first open restaurant in Utah—Arby’s. It gave us enough energy to make it to Las Vegas at 8pm…25 hours later. We were seeing triple at this point, so we stayed the night. We found a flight the next morning but didn’t trust it, so we decided to drive the last five hours home. That flight ended up getting canceled five hours later.
12/27 and beyond: The rental car and gas cost $2,000 to get us home, but what other options did we have? As we read in the coming days, there were many of us faced with the same decisions to make. I’m happy to report Southwest reimbursed us for almost all of our expense—except the Arby’s dinner—and gave us $1,500 in flight credits for future travel. My phone ended up being stolen by an employee who was caught on one of their security cameras. I just got reimbursed for that as well. It really was a December to remember.
MY DECEMBER TO REMEMBER: Part 1
27 cities, six countries and over 2,500 miles of driving!
12/2: As an aging record executive, I get the fountain of youth from my girls when it comes to music, who are 21 and 19. I’ve been rather impressed with their ability to hear songs before they become popular. When they found out I was going to Seattle to see The 1975 and hang with one of the best people and programmers, KNDD’s Christy Taylor, they insisted they come with me. The afternoon was great, but it was all just a prelude to the show. If you haven’t seen The 1975 live, I suggest you do when they come back to the states. It’s one of the best concerts I have ever seen (and that’s saying something). The show was sold out with over 7,000 in attendance. It was a night of dream demos if you’re chasing 21 to 34-year-olds. The 1975 also has the best-looking audience around. Speaking of audience, it was surprising to see the number of guys at the concert considering everyone tells me their fanbase leans toward more women. All in all, it was a perfect night and my girls got to hang with Christy, which they thought was rad as the stories were amazing.
12/3-12/4: I always giggle when my friends get to meet some rock stars every now and then as they tell me I have the coolest gig! We had an early wake up call to make our 7am flight on Saturday and I’m not sure why we even went to bed considering that didn’t happen until after 1am. It’s not easy calming down after a night of incredible music. The Southwest flight (more on them in Part 2) got delayed as we were connecting in San Jose. We missed our connection by three minutes. Southwest was nice enough (not) to hold the flight and then re-booked us for another connection three hours later and we ended up getting home at 2pm. I had a quick turnaround because of my red eye to Orlando that night. I’m not a big fan of late-night flights but I didn’t see a better option for me as I was on my way to 97X-Tampa’s Next Big Thing. Why did I fly into Orlando when I needed to get to Tampa? Well, it was the best option and it’s only about a 75 mile drive out.
I landed at 7am and needed to be at the show by11am, so I found a LA Fitness nearby and took advantage of my membership to regroup there. 97X has been putting on Xmas shows for 20 years. The station’s Jenna Kesneck and Dan Connelly do an amazing job with them. It’s also a great chance to see a lot of bands in one day. I got there in time to see Arista’s Beach Weather, who are having an incredible run with “Sex, Drugs, Etc…” The band has a lot of promise and I look forward to watching them grow. I saw The Maine for the first time (they’re quite good, by the way) and RCA’s half•alive, who put on a great live show. I also got to see The Orchard’s lovelytheband for the first time in a while and hang with a good friend Scott Burton. If you don’t know Scott, he’s a guy I would have work my records any day of the week. The effort and care he puts into his projects is second to none. I didn’t get the chance to see Phoenix while they were in L.A. so it was a treat to see them in Tampa as well. Surprisingly enough, it was their first time in the city after such a distinguished career. Many congrats to the band’s label Glassnote and Michael Starr, who currently have a #1 at AAA with their latest single, “Tonight,” and their second Top 10 hit at Alternative. The band brings it. They are so good live.
At this point, I’ve been up for 36 hours so I head to the hotel but stop nearby at an Outback Steakhouse and hang with some Dallas Cowboys fans for a bit at the bar. When you’re on the road, you always want to try to eat clean if possible and it was the only game in town at that point.
12/5: I have an early morning flight to Tulsa via Austin. I’m on my way to see another good friend Josh Venable, who programs KMYZ-Tulsa. It was Josh’s Xmas show with the Silversun Pickups, Wilderado and Cafune. If you’re a fan of music, then you know about Cain’s Ballroom. It’s a legendary club that holds around 1600 people. I believe every band has come through that market and club. It’s one of the best places to see a show. It’s no wonder why Tulsa is probably the best secondary market we have in the format. To make an Alt station work, you need a partner—KMYZ and Cain’s are in sync.
I always like to see who goes to these shows and on this night, I was rather impressed because it ranged from kids around the age of 10 to 50-year-olds. And no less, it was a sold-out show on a Monday night! That’s a tribute to Josh. He has an uncanny ability to make an Alt station for truly everyone. As always, Silversun put on a great show, but it was really cool seeing Wilderado in their hometown. I’ve seen the band a couple times now, but this was a special night for them. It’s great to see their latest single “Surefire” on its way to the Top 10! I guess it was an early night for me ending at 11pm (haha), but not much food is available on a Monday in Tulsa so it was a granola bar and some dry cereal.
12/6: I have another early morning flight to catch back up with The 1975’s tour in Denver. The band is doing an Xmas show with KTCL, programmed by Nerf. Karen Glauber and I have a unique history with Nerf. He was the first to play AJR at Alternative and as well KONGOS, who both went #1 at the format. In both cases, he did predict to me the songs would lead to greatness well before anyone else actually said it.
It’s a Tuesday, so I get to the hotel around noon and finish up the week with the add day. It always slows down at the end of the year so not much was happening. I picked up my son at the airport because he decided to fly into to Denver to see The 1975 after he heard how epic it was from my girls. I didn’t think it was possible for the show to be as good as Seattle was, but indeed it was. I also had the treasure to hang with Shawn Rock, who programs a wonderful station, KRXP in Colorado Springs. Shawn brought a few of her friends one who are 1975 super fans. It’s always really cool to hang with super fans—especially for this band. You get this inside look that’s truly fascinating. We say our goodbyes and look for food in Denver at midnight on a Tuesday. That’s not an easy thing, but we end up finding a Wendy’s. I’m living the dream at this point. My son needed to get back to L.A. as soon as possible so I agree to take the 520am flight back home. That was stupid. Just stupid. I made it back home at 11am. Oh, by the way, my son did say his sisters were right. The band was amazing!
Stay tuned for Part 2.
Lisa Sonkin and her team at Columbia get an 11th week at #1 with blink-182’s “EDGING.” With no other changes to the Top 10, Bright Antenna’s Wilderado hits the Top 15 with “Surefire” and BoyWithUke’s “Sick of U” f/Oliver Tree, guided by Amanda Dobbins and Drew Hauser at Republic, enters the Top 20.
Death Cab for Cutie’s “Pepper” was this week’s Most Added record! Other winners include Bright Antenna’s Wilderado with “Surefire” and BoyWithUke’s “Sick of U” f/Oliver Tree, led by Republic’s Amanda Dobbins and Drew Hauser. RCA’s Gary Gorman also had a nice week on the add board with half•alive’s “Did I Make You Up?”
Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “The Drummer,” led by Warner’s Team Rob Goldklang, share Most Added honors this week with Metallica’s “Lux Aeterna” (Blackened/QPrime). Other winners include Palaye Royale’s “Lifeless Stars,” guided by Virgin/Sumerian’s Marisa DiFrisco.
Columbia’s Team Lisa Sonkin keeps the chart domination rolling with blink-182’s “EDGING” as the track gets a fifth week at #1. Crush Music’s Garett Capone and Capitol’s Dan Connelly have Weezer’s “Records” and TALK’s “Run Away to Mars” entrenched in the Top 5. The Orchard’s Scott Burton is enjoying a Top 10 run with lovelytheband’s “Sail Away.” Also scoring Top 10 hits this week are Dirty Hit’s The 1975 with “I’m In Love With You”—and they’re currently on a sold-out U.S. Tour—as well as Arista’s Nick Petropoulos with Måneskin’s “The Loneliest.”
Rob Goldklang and the Warner team earn Most Added honors this week with Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “The Drummer.” Other winners include Måneksin’s “The Loneliest,” headed up by Arista’s Nick Petropoulos, RCA’s Gary Gorman with half.alive’s “Did I Make You Up?” and Secretly’s Mark Czarra with Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Burning.”
