I was in a conversation recently with a new PD about a radio station we’ve all heard of. “What do you think of them?” he asked me. Perhaps assuming I would respond with a critique of their music mix, deejays, liners, and contests, instead I responded with…

“They don’t have a brand.”

A brand is WHAT people think of WHEN they think of you. It’s the position you occupy in their minds that allows them to recognize and recall with “That’s the station that…”

On last week’s show I shared how staring at the The Weather Channel for several days as a hurricane approaches your state can be a great teaching lesson for your radio station if you pay attention.

In this week’s Frost Advisory, I’ll dig a little deeper while it’s freshly on your mind.

The power of winning moments. While it’s important to minimize things that result in listeners tuning away, playing defense isn’t the same as winning. The Weather Channel uses graphics, camera angles (literally), on-the-scene reporters, and live action video to keep viewers coming back for what Mr. and Mrs. Nielsen would call ‘listening occasions.’ We all want to know WHAT’S THE LATEST?

Having lived in Florida for almost thirty years I’ve learned that there four seasons: summer, summer, summer, and hurricane season.

It’s been said that the only colors that change in Florida are the colors of the license plates. As Ian develops into a hurricane up Florida’s west coast and into the Gulf, I figured if I’m going to stare all afternoon at the Weather Channel’s Cone of Uncertainty maybe there was something to be learned from them about programming.

A brown-eyed five-year-old looked in my eyes and said, “I don’t want to be alone.” This wasn’t in response to being left in aisle 7 at Costco for less than ten seconds. This wasn’t a response to some other recent event in his life. This was a reaction to the human condition: we don’t want to be alone.

The people in the white coats have a name for it. It’s called “monophobia.”

“Monophobia is the fear of being alone. This catch-all term includes several discrete fears which may or may not share a common cause, like the fear of:

• Being apart from a particular person
• Being home alone
• Feeling isolated or ignored
• Living alone
• Loneliness
• Solitude

verywellmind.com

You’ve likely been a part of this kind of conversation in your station’s hallways.

“The client wants us to give away vacuum cleaners or we won’t get the buy.”

“The morning show will give clues for 30 days. Listeners go to the website and submit their guesses, and anyone that gets all 30 correct will be a finalist…”

Jeepers! The fact that there are even 629 of these Frost Advisories (every week for over a dozen years) might suggest that there is a lot to this programming stuff. I reckon’ that’s so, and I love discussing higher concepts with smart people, but I also know there are some simple truths.

A simple truth is that there are only two distinct elements to programming a radio station.

Music and words

These are the only tools we have to impact lives, achieve ratings, to make revenue goals, or to hang gold records in the lobby to show visitors that we are really, really a neat station.

It is said that Michelangelo is the greatest influence on western art in the last 500 years. As a devoutly religious man, most of his sculptures, paintings, architecture works, and poetry were in service to the church. His most famous painting depicts the book of Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. Centuries later lines of tourists still form to see his work because of its excellence.

His most famous sculpture is of David as a young warrior. When asked how he was able to create his masterpiece, he responded simply,

“I just took away everything that didn’t look like David.”

Back to school time is everywhere. In the stores with sales. On our neighborhood streets with school buses. There are even tax-free days for Back to School. It’s not an official holiday like Christmas, Ground Hog Day, or Millard Fillmore’s birthday, but it is just as evident.

Back to school affects everyone’s schedule, even those that don’t go to school. That’s Common Ground. (Can’t say that about ole’ Millard’s birthday.)

“The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.”

Tom Bodett

So, let’s go back to school and discuss what really matters in transforming your station’s programming.

This week’s Frost Advisory is about something that we all inherently know. But as we approach another political season, understanding your listeners’ worldview will help you avoid potential potholes. After all, I live in the same county as Mar-a-Lago. You can thank me later.

Sure, we understand that targeting is important, but there is more to it than just demo, gender, ethnicity, and shoe size.

“To see things in the same way it helps to be standing in the same place looking in the same direction at the same thing.”

Roy Williams or unknown author or someone else

What’s coming out of the speakers?

Mostly I’m invited into a radio station with the thought that I might impact what’s coming out of the speakers. And while it’s true that excellence in programming can fuel a station’s growth and impact, there is an aspect of that transformation that can be easily overlooked.