“You won’t believe what’s in the paper!”, I called out to my wife in the other room.  There it was – on the front page, something that wouldn’t have caught my eye even a day before.

Relevance.  It’s the most important factor in communicating to your tribe.  If they don’t care, if it’s not in their sphere of interests you don’t have a chance of holding their attention because there is no common ground.

“Consumers don’t care about radio per se.  They care about content.  They care about relevance.  And they care about the brands they have grown to love.” Mark Ramsey

Relevance is the common ground on which relationships can grow. In essence, building relationships is what all successful radio stations do.

Consider having monthly brainstorming meetings with your air talent to talk about what’s RELEVANT in your listener’s life.  Yes, our format is about things that are timeless, such as dealing with adversity, forgiveness, nurturing relationships, and our journey of faith.

But there are also things that are relevant because they are today; like back to school, trips to grandma’s for Thanksgiving, and the release of Star Wars.

What is relevant because it always is? What is relevant because it is today?

Air talent that combine relevance (in general) with relevance that is today will be particularly ear-catching.

Oh, by the way, if you have a kid’s birthday party coming up I highly recommend Garden’s Mirasol Park.  We were there just yesterday for our nephew’s party.  It’s the first time I have seen a playground that has workout equipment for the parents.  How cool is that?

Maybe they’ll write about it in the newspaper!

So, what’s the deal with Kryptonite? (Even my spell checker knows what it is.)  The Complete Deluxe Unabridged Marvel Comics Dictionary (yes! I have one!) says, “Kryptonite is the name given to shards of matter cast off from the planet Krypton after its destruction.”

Jeepers! This is going to be one high-falootin’ Frost Advisory, alright!

Have you ever noticed that superheroes aren’t perfect? Superman has Kryptonite, and Batman is really just Bruce Wayne who really can’t fly and has no super powers.  What’s the deal with that?

Every superhero has a flaw.  Every major character on a TV show has an imperfection. (Think Kramer entering a room, Barney and his bullet, and Gilligan’s incompetence).  And yet, we somehow insist that talent on Christian radio be perfect.  Holy Façade, Batman!

That’s what’s wrong with talent on Christian radio?

Perfection.

We don’t trust perfection because we all know perfection is a facade. If none other than Superman, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, has imperfections why shouldn’t we?

Your listeners want real.

I once worked at a radio station that started to get complaints about the way the lady on the morning show laughed.  It was a distinctive and, if I may say so myself, rather loud laugh. She couldn’t help it.  That was just HER laugh.

Faced with that situation I’m sure that many programmers or managers would tell her, “Stop laughing! We’re getting complaints!”

Instead my bosses did the opposite! They created tee shirts with the caption, “I laughed with Toni in the morning!”  She became a star, and much beloved because she was REAL!  She had a tribe!

As you develop the talent on your station find the Kryptonite, the chink in the armor, the thing that makes them human, and build upon it.

Then, be real.

And if influence is what your radio station is ultimately about, being real can lead to trust.

“We resist being influenced by people we don’t know or don’t trust.  We are open to the influence of those whom we trust or whom we perceive have our best interests at heart.  Trust requires common ground.  Trust requires empathy.” Andy Stanley

A once obscure and meaningless reference in a movie sequel has spurred tee shirt sales, conspiracy theories, and a seize-the-moment marketing campaign by Pepsi.

How can you get people to willingly pay $20.15 for a bottle of pop?  Simply connect the mythical date Marty McFly arrived in the future to the mythical soda Pepsi Perfect.

This marketing campaign is fueled by a real psychological phenomena called Baader-Meinhof, which states that whatever you notice grows in importance.

“It’s caused by two psychological processes. The first, selective attention, kicks in when you’re struck by a new word, thing, or idea; after that, you unconsciously keep an eye out for it, and as a result find it surprisingly often.  The second process, confirmation bias, reassures you that each sighting is further proof of your impression that the thing has gained overnight omnipresence.”  Pacific Standard

You’re shopping for a red convertible with leopardskin seat covers and you begin to see them everywhere.   You want a tattoo of the Donald on your trump and you begin to notice tattoo parlors on every street corner on Palm Beach.

In my journeys I regularly overhear conversations at radio stations about things we deem important simply because we notice them.  We then invest attention and they become more important still.  I could list some of them here but you’d call me a liar and say rude things about me.

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”  Albert Einstein

They could have just advertised the movie. The equivalent of “here’s what it’s about, give us your money, go to the theaters!” Our radio stations do that all the time!

Instead, gave us a way to put ourselves in the movie.

As we try to come up with ideas about how to get our listeners to do what we want them to do, perhaps we can learn a thing or two from this campaign. “Create a character” isn’t about the movie. It’s about YOU!

Roy Williams says, “We buy what we buy to remind ourselves – and tell the world around us – who we are… We’re attracted to reflections of ourselves.”

Thousands of these cartoons will be posted on line or sent to friends and not once was anyone asked to promote the movie. And yet they did.

“It’s not what a product does that matters to us so much, it’s how we socialize around it that matters.” Hugh MacLeod

I met a guy at the health club this afternoon and now he’s my best friend ever.  Just like that!

Silly, of course. We all know that relationships don’t happen instantly. I reckon’ some of the deepest relationships in your life are those you’ve had the longest.

“Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously”  2 Corinthians 9:6 NIV

The ratings are down! What happened? The fundraiser was off! What’s wrong?

“People are drawn to black and white opinions because they are simple, not because they are true.  Truth demands serious effort and thought.”  Donald Miller

This weekend’s super moon lunar eclipse doesn’t just appear spontaneously.  There are numerous distinct phases; seasons, in a sense.  If we considered only the brief moment of the maximum eclipse at 10:48 pm (analogous to the snapshot of weekly ratings, perhaps?), we’d fail to notice that the partial eclipse began an hour and a half before.  Or more importantly, that the seemingly simple occurrence of the Earth’s shadow passing across the moon was a result of a much more amazing and miraculous trajectory.  God’s bigger plan, don’tchaknow!

Many radio stations operate as if there is no bigger plan, viewing their success (and worse, making their decisions) based only in terms of that singular 10:48pm moment in time fundraiser or ratings report card.

We ran this contest and didn’t see the results in the next weekly ratings!

We went all Christmas music and didn’t see an increase in listenership right away.

“There’s always a delay between planting and harvest. When you plant a seed in the ground, do you get an ear of corn the next day?  Of course not.  You plant in one season, and you harvest in another.”  Rick Warren

The success of your radio station will be determined by sowing the seeds of sound strategic principles and building relationships.  And relationships, counter to the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately navel gazing of weekly or monthly ratings, take time.

“A farmer has four sacks of seed in his barn and he looks at his empty field.  He doesn’t complain, ‘There’s no crop!  I wish there was a crop!’  He just goes out and starts planting seed.

When you have a need, plant a seed.” Rick Warren

I recently attended a church in another city that is very strategic about the things it does, the things it doesn’t do, and how it communicates.  As a result, more and more people are being drawn to that church resulting in additional services, building facilities, and three satellite campuses.

Most Christian radio stations aren’t growing their audiences at all. In fact, it is the format with more stations and fewer listeners than any other format, according to our buddies at Nielsen.

Growing stations are ones that are purposeful about everything they do. Here’s a suggestion on how you can evaluate your station.

Understand who you’re trying to communicate with.  John Maxwell says, “People are not persuaded by what they hear. They are persuaded by what they understand.”

The pastor at that church would never consider giving a message to preschoolers the same way as he does to seniors.  Nor would he consider communicating in the same way to the college crowd as to those in elementary school.

To be an effective communicator or an effective radio station you must understand who you are talking to.

Most stations get the “target demo” thing, but I’m suggesting it is also important to understand the life cycle of how people listen to your radio station.

Let’s pretend that your station has three main types of listeners -new listeners, casual longer term listeners, and fans.

New listeners are like window shoppers.  They aren’t very familiar with the music and may have a vague sense of what your station is about.  They don’t get the secret handshake.

Casual listeners tune to your station from time to time, perhaps when they are in a particular mood, but for some reason haven’t yet bonded with your station.  They don’t get the secret handshake either.  (Detect a trend?)

Your fans love the music and are the ones most likely to give you their opinions and get involved with station events or concerts. Since these are the only people we ever hear from we tend to make our programming decisions, particularly when we react to complaints, assuming that everyone thinks this way.  (Not even these folks get the secret handshake! ‘Reckon that’s why it’s called ‘secret’).

If you think about the scope of things on your station, it is a relatively simple exercise to determine which programming elements would most appeal to which group of listeners.  If your radio station isn’t growing its audience it is likely because your station isn’t consistent with the programming elements and presentation style that would most appeal to new listeners.

“If you do something remarkable, something new and something important, not everyone will understand it (at first).  Your work is for someone, not everyone.

Unless you’re surrounded only by someones, you will almost certainly encounter everyone.  And when you do, they will jeer.

That’s how you’ll know you might be onto something.” Seth Godin

Batten the hatches! Here comes another complaint!

When we hear criticism about our station we often react in a way that is absolute. There is a complaint about song and we are tempted to pull it from the playlist. A criticism of an air talent results in a scolding e-mail to NEVER DO THAT AGAIN. A general manager once told me me he had so over-reacted to every complaint that his station had little worth listening to anymore.

Consider this.

Rather than react in absolutes where SOMETHING MUST BE DONE RIGHT THIS MINUTE, consider the complaint as if a customer in a restaurant had just asked for more salt. They are simply telling you how they would like prefer their food; not anyone else’s food – THEIR food. They are not suggesting that the restaurant should go out of business.

If you consider every element of your programming as seasoning in the context of an entire meal then it is easier to understand why some people prefer Tabasco, some ask for no onions, and others want a baked potato with nothing on it. None are absolute condemnations of the restaurant but are instead a result of the reality that those in a group still have individual tastes.

If something is so distinct that people actually notice and react to it, it could be one of the most useful tools in building a unique brand.

“When people care about a brand or a cause or an idea, it’s likely that have other things in common. And the caring causes them to invest attention. Once they’ve done that, they can’t help but notice that others don’t see things the way they do. We ignore the great unwashed and reserve our disdain for those like us, that care like us, but don’t see things as we do.

The really good news is that the tribe cares. If you don’t have that, you’ve got nothing of value. In fact, the squabbling among people who care is the first sign you’re on to something.” Seth Godin

More salt, anyone?

On last week’s show I shared that there are two kinds of people in radio stations; those that fear change, and those that thrive on it.

But change is happening all the time whether we notice or not.   10,000,001 chromosomes fall off an average 49 year old man’s head every time he brushes his teeth.*

The old Yankee Stadium was opened in 1923 and was immediately nicknamed “The House That Ruth Built” because of the Babe’s popularity.  Yankee Stadium hosted 33 World Series and became an icon of sports arenas all over the world.

In 2009, the wrecking ball destroyed this beloved ballpark.  But a funny thing.   There were no protests, petitions or picket signs.  Few rants on social media about the passing of a legacy.

How could this be?

“The most ineffective way to begin a conversation about change is to talk about what needs to change.”

Few were upset because the Yankees immediately directed everyone’s attention to what was to be via a high tech 3-D website where fans could actually experience the beautiful new ballpark before it was even built.

Fans could go online and see the upper deck frieze replicated from the old stadium, the monuments in center field, and the view of the subway trains beyond the right field bleachers.

In other words, fans could experience the good things from the old ballparks, but with comfier seats, roomier concourses, concession stands with more (and more expensive) goodies, and, eeh gad!, toilets that actually flushed!   They could also rent one of 33 new luxury suites at more than $100,000 per season, thank you mighty much!

“You should never begin a conversation about change by addressing where you are now.  You should ways begin with where you want to be.  When you begin a conversation about change by discussing what needs to change you generally begin with something that someone is emotionally invest in.  That’s a recipe for failure.” Andy Stanley

“There is an inexorable link between an organization’s vision and it’s appetite for improvement.” Andy Stanley

What vision of the future are you casting to your team?

* Darn spell checker.  Please substitute ‘follicles’ and ‘hair’.