When Jim Asker steps down Aug. 15 as the Billboard senior country/Christian/gospel charts manager, it will represent a bittersweet end to an eventful decade.
Asker moves into the next chapter of his journey in media after stepping into the role under improbable — and difficult —conditions. He would oversee day-to-day chart machinations during a challenging adjustment period for Nashville’s music community when country consumers fully embraced the digital age and the business faced related struggles that are reflected in the ebb and flow of Billboard’s weekly lists.
“He was able to navigate that shift in many ways,” Billboard executive vp of charts and data development Silvio Pietroluongo says, “including the change of our genre album charts, such as Top Country Albums, from being purely sales-based to an album-consumption methodology blending sales and streaming in 2017.”
The job became available following the unexpected death of Asker’s predecessor, Wade Jessen, who had handled the role for 20 years. Asker was aware of Jessen’s stature in the business, but was able to turn the position into his own playground, bringing a dark humor to a taxing occupation that never allows a full day away from work.
“It’s three-quarters sarcasm,” says EM.Co senior vp of promotion Jack Purcell of Asker’s wit. “Then right behind that grumpy sarcasm, there’s always that big, boisterous laugh. I can imagine some of the young kids coming in are probably afraid to call Jim, but I think he always looks out for everybody.”
Asker brought valuable skills to his Billboard era, sharpened by a unique history. Determining at age 9 that he wanted to go into radio, he served as WJMC Long Island, N.Y., PD, winning several program director of the year awards and taking a seat on the Country Radio Broadcasters board of directors. He taught communication classes at three Tennessee community colleges — Columbia State, Motlow State and Nashville State — and he worked as the editor for former broadcasting trade All Access.
A bout with stage four non-Hodgkins cancer could have ended it there. But cancer was a setback, not an end. Despite a prediction that he had just two weeks to live, Asker fought through it and became a champion for the cause in a very unexpected way.
“When life gives you lemons,” he once wrote, “run a marathon.”
Asker ran 15 of them, raising tens of thousands of dollars through his running group, Team in Training, for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
“Jim is the pied piper,” media personality Suzanne Alexander says. “Before you knew it, everybody was joining Team in Training. In fact, it was hilarious because Jim is notorious for going into a Starbucks and sitting down and parking himself there to write or to do his charts. He would inevitably get to know the staff, and even the staff at Starbucks would be running for Team in Training.”
The Familie partner Royce Risser ran his first marathon with Asker in 1999. They did some training runs together ahead of the event, then endured 85-degree heat on the San Diego course. Asker pulled back when Risser struggled physically.
“He was fine,” Risser recalls. “I cramped up at mile 15 on both my hamstrings and quads. It was brutal, but Jimmy stuck with me the whole time.”
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When the Billboard chart job opened, Asker was pleasantly surprised to get another chance in the business.
“When he went to Billboard, I really think that that was what he wanted,” Risser says. “He loved writing, he loved being involved with radio again, but he always gave a really good, fair look at radio stations on the panel, off the panel. He took that really seriously.”
It wasn’t just the radio component that drew him. Asker was aware that the chart — and his honest, accurate work on it — held ramifications for the entire business.
“Jim would always look at it from every angle possible,” Purcell says. “I don’t think he was just looking at it by the numbers and being stoic about it. He cared about the music, cared about the artists, cared about every chart position and what it potentially meant — positive or negative — for that artist’s career. Every position on that chart resonates with Jim Asker. There’s been that level of care and attention in it.”
Pietroluongo immediately sensed the integrity that Asker would bring to the position. During the job interview in 2015, Pietroluongo mentioned a Country Radio Seminar event several years prior when they had bonded over dinner.
“He quickly responded that he had no recollection of that at all,” Pietroluongo says. “Most people would just pretend that they remembered to please their potential new boss, but that response truly showed the essence of Jim; as someone honest and true to himself and a person I could trust to handle the delicate industry communication balance of that role.”
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Asker’s honest answers didn’t make everyone happy — they couldn’t be if he was truly doing the job — but they earned him respect, especially because he didn’t shy away from confrontations.
“We’re all going to feel this loss,” Alexander says. “He was accessible. I mean, in his business, sometimes you hesitate to make a call. You feel like you’re being pushy. Jim was the guy that you can just call.”
While Asker’s last full-time date with Billboard will be Aug. 15, he will remain in a part-time role for several weeks as his successor is determined. He plans to return to teaching at Columbia State and to earn a third degree. He filled big shoes when he joined the team in 2015. He leaves big ones for the next country chart manager.
“He’s a gentleman and a good friend,” Pietroluongo says, “and his Billboard family wishes him nothing but the best in his post-Billboard career.”
