“Opinions are like noses”, the saying goes. “Everyone has one.”
I like her voice! She sounds nasal! He’s funny. He thinks he’s funny.
Subjective opinions are inevitable in an industry tethered to music and art. The question is… how do we keep subjectivity from driving our most important decisions, since subjectivity almost always results in the crankiest or highest ranking having their way.
Continue reading
A station group I visited recently shared with me remarkable stories of changed lives, impact in their community, and their vision to reach people far beyond the boundaries of their current signals.
However, in listening to their stations I heard none of these things. I literally heard the trivial (in the form of ‘trivia’) more than I heard stories that demonstrated what the stations stand for.
Successful stations understand and embrace what makes them meaningful and preferable. They then efficiently demonstrate those values in ways that resonate emotionally with their listeners.
Efficiency and meaningfulness are two sides of the same coin. One does not exclude the other. Successful stations develop disciplines for each.
I was intrigued by the old cowboy. He stood underneath the shade of a large oak tree on a sidewalk in the Fort Worth Stockyards willingly receiving five dollar bills from moms and dads, grandmas and granddads so that their kiddos could sit for a moment on the back of a long-retired longhorn steer. What followed was two minutes of smiles, laughter, waving and cameras clicking capturing the joy on the faces of these young ‘uns. A splendid time was had by all.
I did the math.
$5 every two minutes. That’s $150 an hour.
A remarkable moment in my favorite movie “Field of Dreams” is the soliloquy from the brilliant actor James Earl Jones:
John Frost, Alan Mason, and David Sams (executive producer of Keep The Faith) pictured with broadcasting legend Bud Paxson (founder of Home Shopping Network, Paxson Communications, and PAX-TV), a man whose influence was life-changing in our careers.
If only the words we use were compassionate words… and not distant newscaster words.
In our format, what if we only used the words of a friend, not those of a scolding teacher, or a detached observer.
I literally heard these words on a radio station this week:
“Extricated the lone occupant…”
…which, I guess, means that someone’s daughter or son, or brother or sister, or husband or wife was trapped in their car when heroes (someone’s daughter or son, or brother or sister, or husband or wife) came to their rescue, something those heroes do almost every day for someone’s daughter or son, or brother or sister, or husband or wife.
Instead of instructing and scolding, I wonder how many more people would listen if if our stations were known for the caring and loving people on the air.
What if the key to your station’s impact was contained in these simple words:
“Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” Romans 12:15
“My friend told me to call because you called out the name of my daughter. I’ve never listened to your station before!”
Stations that play the Family Name Game® understand the power of a name. A community of voices introducing traffic or weather, birthdays, anniversaries, can all be used effectively to create word-of-mouth. (They can also be used ineffectively adding clutter).
Coca-Cola’s new campaign invites you to #ShareaCoke with the someone whose name is on the label. This a ‘trigger’, something designed in that creates a reason to act.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. The sign on the door said CLOSED. Our favorite Mexican food restaurant back home has closed its doors.
It would be easy to assume that the food went downhill, the service got worse, and the mariachis started singing “La Bamba” off key. But none of those things happened.
The restaurant stayed the same, but everything around them changed. Ironically, it was a victim of being in a neighborhood that was booming. Apartments and office buildings sprouted up all around hiding the restaurant from ravenous fajita-hunting motorists. Trendy new restaurants made what was hidden easily forgettable.
The same thing can happen to your radio station.
It felt really weird. The seat was uncomfortably close to the steering wheel. She couldn’t see out of the rear-view mirror.
It felt weird because my daughter Daisy was sitting in MY car. It was designed for my comfort, not hers.
That’s the problem in attracting new listeners to your station. We are comfortable with it, but it can feel weird to them at first particularly if they have some preconceived notions about this “Christian radio thing”.
Thanks to my pal Kevin Avery at The Fish in Atlanta for his creative musing on success.
Kevin and his talented pal Taylor’s morning show just so happens to be #1 in Women 25-54 in Atlanta, a very competitive radio market of 4.5 million people! So, maybe Kevin knows something worth hearing (‘cept #4, perhaps!)
The 10 Commandments of John Frost!
10) Thou shalt take the first exit!
9) Thou shalt give the listener ‘hugs’!
8) Thou shalt get to the point!
7) Thou shalt reflect back the listeners values!
6) Thou shalt love children!
5) Thou shalt love childrens’ mommas!
4) Thou shalt talk baseball with me whenever I visit!
3) Thou shalt tattoo the values pyramid on the inside of thou’s eyeballs!
2) Thou shalt be relevant!
1) Thou shalt be enthused about being in the best format in the world!
Most people in your town have never heard of your radio station.
That’s hard for us to grasp because we’re involved with our station every day, and almost everyone we bump into knows where we work. But our world is not their world.
I’ve written in previous Frost Advisories about social proof, the grown-up term for peer pressure. Jonah Berger’s remarkable new book “Contagious: Why Things Catch On” discusses “The Power of Observability”; the easier something is to see, the more people talk about it.
Consider how the kind of car your neighbor drives is far more likely to affect your buying decision than does the toothpaste he uses. One is visible, the other is not.
It has always baffled me why Christian music stations seem content to be invisible. We have the greatest reason to reach people (see: The Great Commission), we have the most tribal format (our audience gathers without us even asking them to), and the format is about the things people care about most.