Pardon the interruption!

At my request some stations recently asked listeners what they were usually doing while listening to the radio.

The responses ranged from driving, to driving, to driving.

Others said…

“All of my usual stuff – I have it on throughout the day at home, and in the car. I also like to listen to it before I go to sleep… it is good to fall asleep to so that I have beautiful thoughts to dream with”

“Cleaning the house. making food for my husband and me, driving anywhere”

“We listen in the morning while getting breakfast ready and my daughter gets ready for school. I listen in the car. I have it on
while doing most things around the house.”

“Cleaning, cooking, or getting ready to go out. My 11-year-old likes to listen before bedtime.”

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There’s a financial talk show on a small AM radio station where I live that I occasionally listen to. It’s terrible radio, but the guys are smart, cough a lot, and give insightful advice. Besides, they’ve helped me make a gazillion imaginary dollars in the stock market.

The trouble is they don’t understand radio and way too much of the show is comprised with inside references (the office neck tie policy), dropped phone calls (“is the caller there? Hello? Please turn down your radio!”), actually reading articles out loud from the Wall Street Journal (BORING!), or making references to things they said thirty minutes ago (“Do I have to repeat this again?”).

Well, Friday – Good Friday – topped it all!

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It’s funny what sticks in our minds. We can remember an unkind word from Marlene Breedlove in the fifth grade but have a harder time recalling something nice said last week.

The guys in the white lab coats say there is a reason for this. I’m told that a negative experience is immediately stored in our brain’s long term memory, while a positive experience needs to rattle around for more than twelve seconds before checking in to that part of the brain.

The reason for this dates back to the prehistoric days at the rock quarry so that Fred and Barney would know when a tarantula was about to sneak up on them!

“Fight or flight” is the plot of any well-written cartoon, don’tchaknow! We remember the negative stuff and we want to immediately kill the tarantula!

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This is programming tip #200. Yee haw! I’ve written one of these every week for almost four years! Neato! Nifty!

That, my friends, is an example of inside thinking. Nobody really cares that this is programming tip #200 except me. And even I don’t think it’s as important as whether my Golden Retriever puppy has been taken for a walk recently.

Inside thinking is the default of every station, because we’re all inside!

A television station in my town has marketing campaign based on their 25 years on the air. It includes various notables of their network congratulating them and lauding that they are “the best station in town!” One network celebrity (whose initials are Jimmy Fallon) says, “it’s the best station in town, and the best station in any town.” I’M NOT MAKING THIS UP, as Dave Barry would say.

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