Jim Asker (original) (raw)

Jim oversees the Billboard charts for the country, Christian, gospel and bluegrass genres in all of their various configurations. He also writes weekly on the highlights on those charts. Jim has been at Billboard since 2015, having joined after leaving All Access.com where he oversaw the Nashville office for the radio and music industry website, which was launched in Malibu, Calif. Jim has lived in the Nashville area since departing his career of 20-plus years in radio, mainly as a programmer. He’s originally from upstate New York, having grown up in Utica; a factory town that was once home to over 120,000 people during its prime, to about half of that now. Like many northeast cities Utica was hit hard after losing its manufacturing base, with many of those companies moving south to avoid unions, and then on to China. Jim earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from SUNY/Oswego, and his master’s from Austin Peay State University in Clarkesville, Tenn.