“You’re off the air,” the caller alerted me. We had no air monitor at my first radio station so we depended on listeners to let us know. I’M NOT MAKING THIS UP, as Dave Barry would say. It happened so regularly that anytime I heard the phone ring in the outer office my Pavlovian response was to immediately peek to see if the carrier was on. Our little 500-watt radio station probably had more watts than listeners but fortunately a few of them cared enough to call.

Does anyone care? Are we doing enough? Is it making a difference?

It’s tempting to think that our tools define who we are. The carpenter is defined by his hammer; the accountant by his spread sheets, the radio station by its wacky deejays and 40-minute music sweeps. (BTW, almost all programming discussions default to how we use our tools.)

So, what did you do with your extra hour?

Although most of us were in beddie-bye, we all experienced the 2 AM hour on Sunday TWICE as we rolled back our clocks an hour from Daylight Saving Time.

Was the second 2 AM hour just like the first?

Was Tuesday’s show just like Monday’s show?

Was today’s show just like last year’s show?

It was one of those neighborhood association things and I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to debate the great pothole scandal of 2019 (and get some chocolate chip cookies).

I looked around the room and didn’t recognize one person. No one introduced themselves. After an awkward few minutes it dawned on me that I was in the wrong place. And worse, they had no cookies.

How do you make someone feel welcome?

That’s easy if you’re inviting new neighbors. You prepare low risk munchies, (the anchovy and liver dip will have to wait till you know them better), you get name tags for the guests, and you make sure to introduce everyone as they arrive. (“These are the Joneses. They live in the house on the corner with the overgrown shrubs.”)

In other words…

You want to make them feel welcome as quickly as possible.

WYSIATI

Our minds crave simplicity.

What are THOSE stations doing? Let’s do that!

We only know what we know. Nothing beyond that.

“WYSIATI… What you see is all there is.

“The confidence that individuals have in their beliefs depends mostly on the quality of the story they can tell about what they see, even if they see little…

You will often find that knowing little makes it easier to fit what you know into a coherent pattern.”

Daniel Kahneman, “Thinking Fast and Slow”

We learn to talk by imitating our parents. It’s so instinctive that we hardly notice that Mommy is referring to herself in the third person (“Give it to Mommy”), inverting the perspective so the child learn will learn to say it correctly.

Your station’s tribe has a language.

Music is the language of your tribe.

But not in the way you may think.

“Before recording technology existed, you could not separate music from its social context.”

David Byrne

It was an innocent enough question, I thought.

My friend Val and I were talking about life at his new job. “What has most surprised you?” I inquired.

He then began to cite some things that I couldn’t have predicted. He saw things through new eyes; a fresh perspective, not yet tainted by personalities, biases, and heuristics.

“The longer you’ve served where you are and the longer you’ve done what you are currently doing, the more difficult if will be for you to see your environments with the objectivity need to make the changes that need to be made. The shorter version: Time in erodes awareness of.”

Andy Stanley, “Deep and Wide”

I know of a station that was excited to show to show off their promotional van’s new colorful logo design. After one such event I asked the promotions person if those at the event were aware of the station. She replied,

“No. They think I’m selling fish.”

This may be the most simple Frost Advisory you’ve ever read. But simplest doesn’t mean easiest.

I’ve learned that every bad radio station has three things in common:

1. They take too long to do stuff
2. The stuff they do isn’t very interesting or meaningful
3. They take too long to do stuff

I reckon’ you see this played out in your radio station every day.

That meeting you just attended will inevitably result in doing more stuff.

That music meeting? You’ll play more stuff.

That promotions meetings? More stuff.

Our systems are set up to habitually add more stuff, but we almost never talk about taking stuff away. Like barnacles on a ship our radio station begins to slow to a one share. (That’s fewer people hearing our stuff that takes too long).

Your radio station didn’t create the music; the artists, composers, and producers did.

Your radio station didn’t distribute the music; the record company, the music store, or iTunes did.

If you base your station’s success on things that aren’t yours to begin with, you’re in for a bumpy ride unless you have no competitor.

“There are countless factories vying to sell generic products to the companies that own the customer relationship. Perhaps 90% (sometimes 100%) of the profit goes to companies that make the sale, not the ones who actually made the product.”

Seth Godin

So, what does your station own?

“Here’s the story of a lovely lady…”

Those seven words from a TV show more than 40 years ago instantly trigger a song in our heads and a time in our lives.

The press release promotes it as “the biggest show HGTV has ever done,” and it is no wonder. It is the most familiar project they’ve ever done.

Every new thing, whether a TV show, a restaurant, or a new radio format (that’s us to most listeners), is faced with a fundamental challenge; how to create passion for something that is unfamiliar.

HGTV has solved that problem.

“The Brady Bunch house might be the most famous home in all of television. From its faded tan exterior to its kitschy interiors, it’s absolutely iconic. Now, HGTV is making it real. The network’s new series, A Very Brady Renovation, partners all six of the original Brady Bunch children with HGTV all-stars…”

They say it is easy to parent someone else’s kids. It’s not so easy to parent your own.

It’s a great privilege for me to be inside many of the most successful stations in the country throughout the year. One of my favorite sessions to do is what I call “Bring your Best” where we order Whataburgers and Yoo-hoos for the entire air staff and bring them together for one huge coaching session.

Sure, it’s a little awkward at first, (after all, no songwriter wants to hear you didn’t like his new song), but I’ve found it quickly transforms into a team of like-minded people working together on their craft. Frankly, some of the best times of our lives have been when we’re a part of a team effort for a singular purpose.