If your station is playing Christmas music I’ve got good news and bad news.

The good news is that if you do it well you’ll eliminate your station’s biggest barrier for growth – playing music that is unfamiliar to a new audience.

The bad news is new listeners don’t understand what your station is about. They don’t have your perspective. They don’t understand the relationship of Ken and Barbie on the morning show, they don’t understand who for King and Country is and why they are doing concerts at a drive-in movie theatre, they don’t understand that your station plays Christmas music every year, and they don’t understand why you’re asking for money. (I once heard a general manager insist that new listeners loved fundraisers. No, he loved fundraisers, and his perspective impacted the station’s ability to be attractive to new listeners).

Do you know why Disney cast members wear tags with their name and hometown?

Frankly, Disney knows that you don’t care where they’re from – unless you’re also from there, or from near there, or have just been there, or have always wanted to go there, or wonder how they got from there to here. Disney knows that the name tag simply begins a conversation that can begin a relationship which can change the experience. And experience is what they are all about.

We’ve chatted a lot over these 536 Frost Advisories about how to grow your station. Growth is the fruit of adopting common ground; of making the unfamiliar familiar.

Many Christian stations serve only the Christian sub-culture talking primarily to churchgoing folks with a heavy emphasis on religious or spiritual content. Other stations desire to reach a broader audience which is often described as “spiritual, but not necessarily religious.” Those stations strive to be culturally relevant and talk like friends in the room. But that doesn’t mean that you talk about just anything.

Take this infamous day in history, November 22, 1963, as an example.

“Why are you playing Christmas music on Election Day?”

The complaints pour in.

“Why are you playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving?”

Think about it. If I’m driving around in my car and I tune in to your radio station in the middle of November and hear Burl Ives instead of Matthew West, I could be confused. Unless I understand “the why.”

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And what you do serves as proof of why you do it.”

Simon Sinek, “Start with Why”

On Election Day our station votes for comfort and joy. In this political season our station is an escape from the negative headlines.

As you’re reading this you’ve probably seen people celebrating in the streets over the results of the election. But you also know that challenges are going to be filed in court this week related to possible voting irregularities.

So, who won the election?

More specifically for our little radio family… did your station “win” during this election?

That can only be answered, obviously, if we DEFINE the win.

These are curious times. Perhaps you’ve noticed.

“Everyone is upset about something today. As a result, a growing dearth of kindness is apparent in our marketplace interactions, most notably in our media and political discussions and debates. A spirit of unforgiveness has been unleashed in our land, and it’s consuming us.”

Joe Battaglia, noted author and Yankee fan

Recently our niece shared how much she loved the Hallmark channel’s “Christmas in July.” She said, “I’m just looking for anything with a happy ending.”

Tuesday morning is coming. Election day is near.

There is an election coming up next week. Perhaps you’ve heard something about it. It’s been in all the papers.

Perhaps you’ve heard from a listener wondering why you’re talking about Donald Trump or Joe Biden. Maybe you’ve received a friendly e-mail from someone questioning your personal salvation because your station aired political commercials for You-Know-Who!

Maybe its even more personal that than. Maybe you’ve unfriended “friends” on Facebook for their political rants. (I know I have). Maybe there have even been conversations at your dinner table that have resulted in awkward pauses, or worse, name-calling-finger-pointing-and-gnashing-of-teeth.

What’s going on here?

When I was growing up we actually had a favorite gas station. I can only imagine the reaction from Gen Xers and Millennials.

It was Obie and Doc’s and we had “traded” (as my dad would say) with them for years. Friendly. Full service. Check the oil. Check with wiper fluid. No cash? No problem; put in on my tab. We never considered going to another gas station unless we went out of town.

That sounds so foreign today with gas stations and oil company brands seemingly racing for the generic. What’s the difference between a Shell and a Mobil? Sorry, Exxon/Mobil. The ubiquitous nature of gas stations makes even location (“closest to me”) no longer as significant as is which side of the intersection is it on. (There is a Shell station near me that recently went out of business because its NE corner was not as convenient to traffic flow as the NW corner where the BP now thrives).

While Shell, BP and Exxon/Mobil all arm wrestle for low price and convenience, there is another company that has embraced a different strategy. It is described in “Blue Ocean Shift” by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, as “shifting away from the red ocean of competition to a blue ocean of differentiation and low cost.”

When I first heard these words I was stunned.

As an old radio dog who has been a part of launching several new formats I wondered how could this really smart guy say something so implausible?

The speaker elaborated on his point for those of us trying to catch up.

“Successful formats are based upon consensus. Consensus is created through familiarity.

No familiarity? No consensus. No format.”

Several of us began to squirm awkwardly in our chairs. Either our expert is off his rocker, or we’re feeling like freshman students in a graduate class.

“Think of the last new format that has come along,” the group was challenged. After an awkward pause someone guessed, “The Jack format?”

The Frosts were big on hand-me-downs. Sigh!

I was often dressed in my two older brothers’ slacks and shirts. Fortunately, that didn’t happen with my older sister’s clothes, although I do remember the pre-adolescent embarrassment of having to wear my sister’s white sweater in the Christmas parade because I didn’t have a white sweater, and my parents sure weren’t going to buy me a white sweater that I’d never be caught dead in again. (That’s when I learned the coming-of-age reality of girl’s sweaters buttoning on the wrong side.)

On my 16th birthday and the day I received my Texas driver’s license, I received a hand-me-down of my mother’s Oldsmobile Cutless. I was thrilled that I had my own wheels and that it had an awesome Delco radio! (Yep! Radio geek even then). What wasn’t great was that it burned oil like an Arab sheik in a cranky mood. And the wheel alignment consistently pulled right after a few thousand miles.

So I learned.

I had to carry several quarts of oil in the trunk for when the thingamajig ran low. I knew I had to be on alert for when the steering wheel would start pulling after a few thousand miles.

Your station is like that.

“But what do I talk about?” a struggling air talent asks while clutching the front page of the local newspaper or “This Day in History” with the dreaded celebrity birthdays.

“Burl Ives would have been 111 today.” (I really heard this!)

Air talent have to be reminded that their content needs to add value to the station’s music design. Non-music elements will either push listeners away or bring them closer. It’s not filler, it has to add value.

Here are some ideas: