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.

On last week’s show I shared how our minds crave simplicity. Our ego seduces us to consider things close to us as more important than things more distant.

I’m often brought into conversations about a dip in the ratings or a fundraiser falling short of the goals. (Rarely do we have these conversations when things are humming along). The quick answers are always telling.

First, they are always simple. “We’re playing too much Praise and Worship.” “We’re playing too little Praise and Worship.” “We need more variety.” “My neighbor doesn’t listen anymore.”

Rita in accounting will inevitably react with, “We’re not playing enough tobyMac.” Or too much.

Her name was Jane. She was the first girl I ever asked out on a date. She said no.

I convinced myself that it was because of the big zit on my forehead. Or that I wasn’t the quarterback on the football team. I found out later it was because she and her family went out of town.

We think we’re pretty important, don’t we?

It’s tempting to think our station fans’ (P1s’) behavior is a direct result of our programming tactics. I’ve hear otherwise reasonable people exclaim that ratings went up because of the new jingles, ratings went down because we didn’t hit the spot breaks within the bow tie, or question our ratings because we didn’t have a specific number of songs on our playlist. I’M NOT MAKING THIS UP, as Dave Barry would say. (See Frost Advisory #221-Up Is Good And Down Is Bad)

It’s the question I ask of every air talent somewhere in the coaching process.

And it’s not because I want them to talk about themselves. It’s because I want them to relate to their listeners as real human beings, not as deejays just sharing information.

The more human you are the more people will relate to you.

Jeepers! The fact that there are even 621 of these Frost Advisories (every week for pert near 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.

The celebration of our nation’s 246st birthday is a powerful lesson of focus, common ground, and emotion.

Over the last several decades in my other life, I’ve served as a semi-professional public address announcer for major league spring training and minor league baseball. That’s lots and lots and lots of dizzy bat races, seventh inning stretches, and National Anthem performances.

Do you know what I enjoy most? It’s when my voice is the cue for veterans and active service members to rise and be acknowledged for their sacrifice for our country. There is no applause that is louder.

What does that mean for your radio station?

A recent conversation with a program director new to the format reminded me of an idea that I wished I had understood two decades ago coming from a world of mainstream radio.  

People don’t tune to your station because of what YOU are, they tune to your station because of who THEY are.

“Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself.”

Donald Miller, “Blue Like Jazz”

Sir Paul McCartney has just had his 80th birthday! And he celebrated by doing what he loves; touring and playing music like he’s done for more than 60 of those 80 years.

If it seems curious that a Frost Advisory would be about a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer becoming an octogenarian, stick with me.

In my travels I’ve found almost all discussions about programming revolve around things close to us; the music and deejays, the promotions and contests, the clocks and service elements. While these elements are important to the station’s design, they are not transformative. Why? Because those things are all about us. And the closer things are to us the more important they seem. To us.

The great brands (and stations) go beyond the nuts and bolts of design and reach into their listeners’ lives.

As a follow up to this year’s Momentum, my friend Joe Paulo shared a video with every member of the newly formed Hope Media Group communicating the vision for the organization moving forward “while the ink is literally still drying on the merger.”

Joe cited the perspective of ten years ago when no one could have imagined a merger between then KSBJ-centered ministries in Houston and the WAY-FM ministries of Nashville and Colorado Springs.

While citing specific metrics the organization will be using to measure growth and impact, Joe was careful to qualify, “It’s going to be in ways that we don’t even know today because we get to create…”