Robert Osborne passed away last month.  One could say he was just a senior citizen who did nothing more than fill the time between old black and white movies.  They would be wrong.

“It’s always the personality between the content that makes the experience of the brand larger than its parts.  True in radio.  True on Turner Classic Movies: TCM”
~Mark Ramsey

The upcoming annual TCM Classic Film Festival in Los Angeles is dedicated to him.  Proof of the power of personality.  Proof of the power of an experience.

“I get stopped on the street all the time,” he said in an interview with The New York Times in 2014.  “People say: ‘You got me through cancer last year.  You got me past unemployment.  You take me away from my troubles.’  Exactly what movies did in the ’30s and ’40s.”

“Mr. Osborne appealed as much to moviemakers as he did to moviegoers… He got us excited and reawakened to the greatest stories ever told with the most charismatic stars in the world.”
~Stephen Spielberg

You have a choice.  Your radio station can be nothing more than generic liners and promos delivered by passionless deejays, or it could be what Mr. Spielberg infers, a compelling design of interesting people sharing a passion for the things your listeners love.

“A concert isn’t merely about the music, is it?  And a restaurant isn’t about the food.  It’s about joy and connection and excitement.”
~Seth Godin

At TCM Bob Osborne was about what their fans were passionate about.  The personalities on your radio station should be, too.

“Why can’t there be a TV show that the whole family can sit down and enjoy together?”

Melissa Gilbert, who you know as Half-pint on “Little House on the Prairie,” responds to that question on NBC’s 90th anniversary special by saying, “Have you watched ‘This Is Us’?”

“I didn’t watch the show when it first came on air… but I kept hearing about it,” said the note from my talented friend Sara Carnes of The Fish in Cleveland.

“I heard ladies at work talking in the bathroom about what happened the night before, I saw screen shots on Snapchat from my friends talking it, Facebook posts, etc… people (mostly women) just raving about how incredible this show was they were watching.  Finally, after a few months I told me husband…  Ok, everyone is talking about how awesome this show is we gotta watch it.  Well… we sat down and watched one episode and couldn’t stop.”

Methinks there is a programming lesson for us here.

“Recognizable and relatable characters.”  [Your listeners should be able to relate to your on-air talent.  Not just passively consume, but relate.  What if “Me, too!,” was the listener’s reaction to every break?]

“Hope is a good thing… No matter how often these characters get rocked or how dark some of the story turns are, there’s still that strong element of hope that’s an essential part of this show’s DNA – a reassuring sense of inextinguishable optimism during difficult times.”

“United we watch: …At a time when the country feels divided, this feels like the type of network show of yore that we watched together.
~”10 Reasons Why ‘This Is Us’ Has Emerged as a Hit for NBC,” by Mark Dawidziak, The Plain Dealer

“Wow, every single one of these reasons relates to us in what we do at the station too.  This is how we win,” Sara says.

“This is us!” could be what your listeners say about your station!

It’s the simplest idea.  But it is an idea missing from every bad radio station.

TODAY

No one reads yesterday’s news.  No one watches yesterday’s game.  No one talks about yesterday’s plans.  (Even when we talk about what happened yesterday we talk about it from the 24 hours later perspective of today).

But here’s the catch;  TODAY has to be designed in.  TODAY doesn’t happen by accident.  In fact, the generic – any time, any place – is precisely what happens by accident.

My talented friend Keith Stevens of KTIS recently said to me, “I can’t track today.  The sun is out!”  That perspective comes from Keith’s understanding of TODAY… that when the sun comes out during a frigid Minnesota winter it changes how people feel, and he wants his station to reflect that.

Today creates common ground.  It is the neighborhood that allows us to be neighbors.

So, there he was on national TV.  A man who has been described by some as impulsive, combative, and egocentric.

But there he was.  And Tuesday night he had millions of us in tears.

“Trump became president of the United States in that moment.  Period.”
~CNN contributor Van Jones

“The most stirring moment of Trump’s speech – and his presidency – came when he spoke directly to Carryn Owens, the widow of Navy Chief William ‘Ryan’ Owens, who was killed in the military raid in Yemen that Trump ordered shortly after taking office.

“Trump led a 2-minute, 11-second standing ovation as Carryn Owens stood, crying and clasping her hands.”

So… what can we radio folks learn from this?

In your news they are not “consumers,” “taxpayers,” or “citizens,” they are real people who spend real money on real stuff.  And sometimes they are just scraping by.

In your traffic reports they are not “motorists,” they are real people who have real jobs and have to get to work and school on time.  And sometimes they are late.

In your promos they are not “contestants,” they are real people whose lives might be made just be a little bit better because they relate to your station.  But sometimes the line is busy.

Here’s the big idea:

Beginning tomorrow exorcise all generic references to real people.

Instead, go tell the important story…

“Focus on the one, not the many.”
~Mother Theresa