The “leaky bucket.”

That’s PPM-talk for stations losing listeners by tuning away or turning the radio off. The traditional thought is that it is easier to keep listeners than to get them back. And darn logical that is, I reckon’!

But that’s only half the story. Or, should I say, two-thirds.

A recent study of 37 million listening occasions conducted by Coleman Insights and Media Monitors found that…

“Nearly two thirds of radio listening occasions are the result of a consumer turning on the radio, listening to a station and turning the radio off.”

Inside Radio

In a world before computers, my classmates and I would gather by a bulletin board in the school hallway to find out our class assignment.

Did we get the good teacher or the one nobody liked? Did we get the teacher that would allow you to have some fun or the one that was strict? (My fifth grade teacher Mrs. Lay actually invited us to her house to watch the World Series. Those were different times, don’tcha know).

Seeing which teacher we got wasn’t the real goal of checking the bulletin board. No, we wanted to see if we’d be with our friends. I wanted to be with Rodney, David, Buddy, and Julian. And just maybe that pretty girl Marlene.

Happy drivers make better drivers.

A recent campaign by Hyundai Sonata ignored the usual data drivel typical of automobile advertising. Instead, it captured an emotional moment that most of us have experienced while driving: singing along to a song on the radio.

There are sights and smells from our childhood we never forget. I grew up in the home my grandfather built.

I can still remember the sound of the grow ups talking downstairs while I was upstairs pretending to go to sleep. I remember the sound of the grandfather clock at the bottom of the staircase chiming every fifteen minutes and chiming the specific number of times on the hour.

My grandmother also lived in our hometown. The sights and smells of her home are just as vivid.

Writing every week for 648 weeks is not for the faint of heart. That’s every week for 12-½ years for those scoring at home.

I’m often asked, “Where do you get your ideas?”

Fortunately, that’s the easy part. My answer is, “Everywhere.”

In those 648 weeks I’ve also learned where ideas DON’T COME FROM.

I reckon’ the beginning of a new year is a good time to consider how we internalize the values in our organizations.

Andy Stanley suggests, “Just start celebrating what you value. People will value what you celebrate, and they will celebrate what you value.”

I’ve recently been reading “Breakfast with Fred,” the conversations and ideas of Fred Smith, Sr., a mentor for many leaders such as Zig Ziglar, Philip Yancey, John Maxwell and my friend Steve Brown.

If you’ve been reading my Frost Advisories these last 646 weeks you probably know that I believe it is important that a station demonstrate its “Beliefs and Values” position in a meaningful way. It is what I call “putting your flag in the ground.” Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did that to symbolize that America was first on the moon. And we’ve never forgotten it.

The first Christian music station I ever launched over 20 years ago was in Jacksonville, Florida. It was called “The Promise.” Now in its third incarnation that station still regularly recites its flag in the ground: “The Promise promise.”

You may think that what I share next is about “The Free Press.” Well, it’s not. But it is.

Every Christmas for the last several years I’ve thrown a few coins into the Salvation Army bucket at the neighborhood Piggly Wiggly. But not this year. Nope. You see they’ve changed their bell ringer. The guy standing outside the store ringing the bell was different this season, so I decided not to give.

Ludicrous, isn’t it? Obviously, no one would stop donating to the Salvation Army because Bert replaced Ernie ringing the bell.

Then why do we hear these kinds of complaints?

A successful radio station is built on a foundation of consensus. Listeners that have a common sense of worldview, of the purpose of life, of how to treat others. If there is no consensus there is no tribe.

Interestingly, a format is less about a station’s tactics and more about how effectively it reflects the common ground of the tribe.

This is even more crucial in the CCM format. And Christmas is that opportunity!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And sound like it, too.

Hundreds of radio stations around the country are now playing all Christmas music. In the town where I live I counted a dozen or so, many different formats from Christian to rock to country to AC. Even Oldies! (I reckon’ they play Christmas songs that are OLD!)

While stations chase the success of significant audience growth during the holidays, many stations seem to have forgotten why people seek out Christmas music in the first place.