It’s easy.

It’s easy to let grass grow and have weeds in your yard. It’s easy to go to the driving range and be a bad golfer. It’s easy to not exercise and get flabby.

It’s easy to have a bad radio station.

We would all be flying Wells Fargo Airlines if they had thought they were in transportation instead of the stage coach business. The same could be said of many once great companies like Polaroid and Blockbuster. Netflix started by mailing DVDs.

“What product category are you in? It’s bigger than you think.”

Seth Godin

Say it isn’t so!

My cousin, the brilliant surgeon, told me of the time that a hospital board member barged into the operating room during a gall bladder surgery and told him they should remove the patient’s kidney. After all he had done the Google search, you see.

It’s a joke, of course, but…

When I was a kid I can remember staring at the bulletin board in the hallway eager to see what the next few months would be like. Each teacher posted a list of the kids that would be in her class the upcoming year. Frankly, I wasn’t that concerned about which teacher I was assigned. No, I was more concerned with whether I’d be with my friends; Rodney, David, Buddy, and Julian. And maybe even that I’d have a chance to be around that pretty girl Marlene.

As I write this 850 people have been rescued in the Central Texas floods. This isn’t just a random news story to me. It’s personal.

My sister and cousins went to summer camp there, and I have been there numerous times as the little brother. We have home movies from there. It’s a real place with real people with real lives.

We forget, don’t we?

It’s a funny thing. With these weekly Frost Advisories, I try to share insights about programming basics (how the sausage is made stuff, don’tcha know), while also challenging the more seasoned to strive for The Big Idea to transform a station and a listener’s mood, perspective, and life. Some get this while many have never thought about it. In my career, I’ve been at either place in different seasons.

Just this week I was evaluating a station that sounded like it was nothing more than a sequencing of elements. Like the automation system was programming the station. One element played, then another. Then something else came on and another element played. No design. No emotional spectrum. No meaningful content.

It was like an audio version of Whack-a-mole. Hit it and move on.

Wow!

That’s how many people react to this photo. Particularly women.

Quick! Name a TV dad that is portrayed as a positive role model! How ’bout in movies?

They say that 85% of men in prison grew up in fatherless homes. Role models can change the trajectory of a life. My dad certainly did for me. “Remember who you are and what you represent” from his beautiful baritone voice still echoes in my soul.

And now a little story…

In my other life I do some baseball announcing during Spring Training for the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins. I’m the guy that comes on loudly on the loud speakers and tells you not to smoke, run, or have any fun, by golly! And I do it in both English and Spanish because they’ll pay me twice as much. No fumar, por favor!

At some point in Spring Training the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Philadelphia Phillies come to town. These games are sold out months and months in advance.

So why am I sharing this little story?

It’s interesting what you can see when you change perspectives. In a recent coaching session with a very talented team show I decided to move away from nuts and bolts, planning and execution and go to a 35,000 foot perspective and discuss the show’s strengths and weaknesses. Clever, don’tcha think? Mrs. Mahan in high school drama would be proud of me.

While this exercise of identifying strengths and weaknesses can be a common one for program directors and big time consultants, this time I heard an answer I’d never heard before.