Our neighborhood’s official start to the Christmas season begins at the gazebo next to the lake with the main attraction being the arrival of jolly ole St. Nick on the top of a local multimillion dollar fire truck! Your tax dollars at work!

When I was 13 years old, I learned a lesson in gratitude I’ve never forgotten.

“Thank you mighty much” were the words Ed Sargent shouted to every person as they left Hillcrest Food Market in my hometown of Eastland, Texas, a town of 3,000 counting horned toads.

Ed appreciated his customers and everyone walked away with something free. For the grown ups, perhaps it was the Coke machine that wouldn’t take their money. For the kiddos, it was “don’t forget your surprise” as they reached their tiny arms into the large jar of bubble gum.

Last week I confessed. For the first time in my 692 Frost Advisories, I left out the most important part. On purpose.

Last week I shared the brilliant campaign from The Foundation for a Better Life at PassItOn.com:

They shared…

I don’t remember very much that I learned from my first two radio gigs. After all, I was a teenager and my face hadn’t cleared up yet*.

But I do remember learning the Rule of 3 in promos from an early programming mentor Howard Clark. (He had actually worked for several really big radio stations in places like New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. I, however, had only driven by really big stations).

1. Tell them what you’re going to tell them. (That’s a tease, don’tcha know!)
2. Tell them.
3. Tell them what you told them.

I’ve heard Alex Trebek, the most famous host of “Jeopardy,” say that the show’s biggest problem was convincing people that a question could also be the answer.

So… let me ask a question….

What’s our format’s biggest problem?

I’m a small town boy. And grateful for it.

For one I was able to get into radio at a remarkably young age. Before my face cleared up, don’t cha know. I doubt a radio station in Dallas or Chicago or New York would have let me hang around at the age of 15.

I also grew up in the same small town where my mom and dad both grew up. I spent a dozen years of my life in the home my grandfather built in 1939. I went to the same high school both my parents went to. Even had some of the same teachers they had.

Why is this the topic of another Frost Advisory?

A couple of weeks ago I shared the upside of being wrong.

“The good thing about being wrong is that you don’t have to be wrong anymore. When you learn a better solution you can leave the old concepts behind.”

I promised then to share some things about programming that I’ve been wrong about. But I don’t have to be wrong anymore.

This weekend I saw a display at a sporting goods store in Texas designed to move inventory RIGHT HERE/RIGHT NOW. If not, the merchandise would be out of date.

Or to be blunt, the merchandise would be worthless if it sat on the shelf.

This Frost Advisory is intended for programmers and air talent that are far beyond the basics. It is for those who understand why their radio station exists, who they are talking to, and how to develop content that is meaningful and enhances the station’s appeal.

Once you get that stuff, how do you, as an air talent or program director who coaches talent, take it to the next level?

There is a predictable process the growing stations go through. I said GROWING stations.

It’s actually rather freeing. We don’t have to be right all the time.

I knew a general manager that insisted that there had to be a specific numbers of songs in the active library. Not one more, not one less. The program director and I found this was a peculiar topic for drawing a line in the sand, particularly since they did regular music testing and the listeners’ preferences determined that.

We did a little detective work and discovered that he had read an article in Billboard in the 1980s where some consultant had unpacked his snake oil in 5 easy steps to success, or some such foolishness.