Every format seems to have a default setting – what it reverts to without proper care and feeding. Some can sound cluttered, others can be inconsistent.

I’ve found that the CCM format has the tendency to default to sameness. Songs can sound alike. Air talent can sound instructive rather than inspirational. Sometimes it can sound like nothing more than…

…nice Christian people talking to nice Christian people about nice Christian things.

I’ve never met Isaac but I did get to witness what is likely one of the highlights of his life.

A few months ago Isaac was able to meet Matthew West prior to a concert and shared his dream of singing on stage with Matthew. While some might have viewed that as small talk with an artist, Matthew saw it as another opportunity to share a fan’s story. A few hours later Isaac was on stage singing “Truth Be Told” with Matthew West.

In his showcasing a fan Matthew demonstrated a technique that I’ve referred to as making big things little and little things big.

A sea of red, it has been described. For the past 25 years in my other life I’ve served as the public address announcer for the St. Louis Cardinals’ spring training. That means for the month of March I’m surrounded by visitors from the Midwest and beyond that embrace the identify of Cardinal Nation. I know many of their names. And yes, they wear red.

A brand is much more than just a combination of attributes.

Attributes are the elements that any station can do. Songs, deejays, contests, information elements like traffic and weather. A brand is bigger than that.

I was driving along minding my own business when the announcement came on the radio for “The National Bereavement Conference 2024.”

“Egad!” I thought. Were they talking about an amazing get together of caring people that come alongside those whose lives are forever changed due to the loss of a loving spouse? You’d never know it by what sounded like the label to a file folder.

There is no promotion so brilliant that it can’t be made utterly ineffective through the presentation of data, such as a list of dates and times.

Don’t worry! I’m not going to ask how many times you play “Easter Parade” by Judy Garland and Fred Astaire.

Easter, from a programming perspective, is not like Christmas with 27 different versions of “Mary, Did You Know?” that we can play.

But the principle is the same.

A brown-eyed five-year-old looked in my eyes and said, “I don’t want to be alone.”

This wasn’t in response to being left in aisle 7 at Costco for less than ten seconds. This wasn’t a response to some other recent event in his life. This was a reaction to the human condition: we don’t want to be alone.

The people in the white coats have a name for it. It’s called “monophobia.”

Remember chemistry class? Memorizing the table of elements. Learning about atoms.

A peek through the microscope at the periodic table of your radio station would reveal only two elements. MUSIC and WORDS.

Our format can be either…

…a bunch of songs that people don’t know by artists they’ve never heard of…

or…

… stories and songs about the most important things in our lives.

The former results in a station with a one share. The latter results in a station that has the potential to be a market leader.

Have you ever wondered why health clubs, weight loss products, or stop smoking schemes seem to advertise most at the beginning of a new year?

Folks in white lab coats say there is a psychological reason for it. (Perhaps you’d like to take notes)

“When we enter a new time period our relationship with our past self is weakened and it becomes a little bit easier to change our behaviour … If you want to disrupt a habit , target your messaging to the start of new time periods.”

Richard Shotton, “The Illusion of Choice”

On last week’s show, I shared that the beginning of a new year is a good time to review the basics.

At my church, the pastor takes the first two Sundays of each year to restate the purpose and vision of the church. Fitness clubs and diet plans often base their marketing on people’s desire to return to the basics and embrace new habits.

So… let’s go back to the basics.