The ratings arrive. Our emotions react. There is running up and down the hallways and gnashing of teeth!

DO SOMETHING!

I’ve heard some pretty wacky ways that people have reacted to ratings. Moving the deejays’ shifts around, playing music from another format, and implementing formatics that make the station sound less distinctive and more generic.

“I’M NOT MAKING THIS UP,” as Dave Barry would say.

Making programming decisions based solely upon ratings is like driving with a GPS that shows only where you’ve been.

It’s a thing in my family. We play cards and board games and stuff. Vacations are planned with that fierce evening competition in mind.

The problem with these games is that you only really know what is right before you.

You only know the card that has just been played, or the next move, but NOT what the eventual impact it will have on the outcome of the game.

Programming a station can sometimes feel that way.

Something remarkable happened 75 years ago that few find relevant today. Unless you are a history buff. Unless you had a parent or grandparent in the military. Unless your parents got married 9 days after D-Day (which mine did). Unless you were able to see the stories of D-Day through the lens of today.

That is exactly what The Atlantic offered its readers. They took images gathered 70+ years ago at Normandy and photographed the very same locations as they appear today. It’s stunning when you look through the lens of how things look today.

What if one simple change changed everything?

Weight loss. Self confidence.

Attitude. Growing relationships. Dwelling less on negative.

Relating.

How can we get people to talk about us?

My friend Jim is a Cubs fan. He talks about the Cubs every time we’re together. The Cubs aren’t paying him to do this. In fact, the Cubs probably don’t know he is doing it.

He talks about the Cubs because they are inherently interesting.

Memorial Day is often considered the official kick off to summer. But more importantly, it is a time set aside to remember those who gave their lives for our country.

Perhaps this time of remembrance is a good time for us to reflect on how we’d like our stations remembered.

If you and I made a list of things that make a radio station ordinary we’d likely come up with the same list.

That’s the thing about ordinary. There is no surprise. There is no delight.

Consistency is good.

               Predict  abil ity is not.   

Consistency allows fulfilling expectations, delivering on promises, being dependable.

Predictability does things the same way, defaults to monotonous patterns, and ignores the transformative power of creativity.

“While a speaker… arranges his words into understandable sentences, the listener … anticipates and discounts the predictable.”

Roy Williams

Predictable is why we no longer see a billboard we’ve passed for weeks. It’s the reason our mind starts to wander when Uncle Virgil tells the same story over and over. It’s the reason ordinary radio stations can’t capture our attention, much less our hearts.

Did you see it too?

Hundreds of millionaire professionals willingly gave up a tool of their trade and replaced it will something that on any other day, in any other circumstance, would subject them to ridicule and harassment from their co-workers.

They wore pink.

Sunday was a special Mother’s Day at ballparks across the country as Major League Baseball joined forces to raise money for breast cancer research. The players demonstrated their support by wearing pink wrist bands and using pink bats. Some wore pink batting helmets and pink caps.

Think about this… if someone had tried to convince Major League ballplayers to wear pink just for the sake of wearing pink… it would have never happened.

Do you want your radio station to grow? Do you want new listeners, new fans, new donors?

To grow means that we reach new people. Yet we play music they’ve never heard. Are we sending mixed signals?

The great ones make it look so easy.

While watching the recent Masters tournament my wife turned to me and said, “He looks like you.” She’s trying to give my golf game some much needed inspiration by pointing out the resemblance between Tiger Woods’ golf swing and mine. Yeah, right!

I arrived at Easter Sunday church during a torrential Florida downpour. Streets were flooding and the church parking lot looked like it could host a water ski tournament.

As I jumped out of my car and headed for the church building I was greeted by a friendly young man in rain gear carrying an umbrella. He greeted me with a paradoxical sunny disposition and walked me from my car to the covered walk way. He then ran off to greet the next apprehensive still-dry visitor.