Twenty years ago my friend Alan suggested that I write. Five years ago I took him up on his suggestion. Some of us are slow to take wise counsel.

Exactly 260 weeks ago I began punching away at these musings on programming strategies, perspectives, and stories I’ve picked up along the road. Over the course of five years I think maybe writing about ‘the #1 reason stations aren’t successful’ is pretty important. Who knows? I may even step on a few egos. Unless of course you don’t have one.

Frankly, I’ve found THAT to be the essence of…(drum roll)… the #1 reason stations aren’t successful.

Ego.

Now, before you throw me off the bus, let’s remember that Ego simply means a self-centered perspective. The challenge is when ‘ego’ takes on such exaggerated sense of importance that other points of view or counsel are not welcome in the room.

“When I find the ego in the organization, I’ve found the problem.” Fred Smith

Over four decades ago I began my radio journey at a tiny 500 watt AM radio station in my hometown in Texas. Jay was my first radio mentor who taught me how to cue up a record, to watch my levels (no processing and no air monitor), and how to pronounce “ewe”. (For you city folk, it’s pronounced “you”).

My burgeoning radio career was then nurtured by Dave, Bill, Dwight and Bob; then Bill again (he hired me back). Then I took a big step forward as I learned from Howard and Larry, then on to the big leagues with Ed, Tim, and Mr. Hyland. A few years later I was transported into programming strategy lab of Randy, Al and Alan, a magical point at which the programming veil was lifted and I first saw clearly. That’s when Tommy coerced me to call Bill and Jenny Sue, who propelled me off on a wild adventure with a very tall fellow named Bud, who simply changed my life. That’s when I feel like my programming acumen was put on steroids with daily mentoring by Alan, Tommy, Rick, Tom, Walter, Jim, and Jay. Then David and Joe walked into my life and I entered yet another dimension of learning. I was then connected to Ty and Mike, reconnected with Tommy; then to Jim and Dean and Lisa Jean, Joe and Jim, Bob and Ralph, and Mike and Mike. Even that long list leaves me ten years shy of the most recent influences in my life.

If I had written Frost Advisory #260 before being influenced by these people, it wouldn’t be worth reading.

“Everything I know I learned from someone else.” Tom Watson

I heard a friend of mine recently say the biggest influences in his career were from thirty years ago. If you’re doing the math, Ronald Reagan was president, and you and I had not yet spell-checked our very first e-mail. How sad, I thought. How sad that his ego has shut out three decades worth of learning, experience and expertise. They say that there’s a difference between thirty years of experience and one year of experience thirty times.

“The unsuccessful person is burdened by learning, and prefers to walk down familiar paths. Their distaste for learning stunts their growth and limits their influence.” John C. Maxwell

Now don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m told the word ‘idiot’ comes from the Greek word “idio”, which means one who is self-centered and excludes himself from the ideas of others.

Next week I’ll delve into Ego’s ugly stepsister – Trust. And we’ll kick around some ways to, dare I say, not be an idiot.

http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_why_good_leaders_make_you_feel_safe

Over the last several weeks I’ve attempted to bring out in the open the top ten reasons Christian music stations aren’t successful. While there are certainly a number of ways to measure success having lots of people listening certainly is a step in the right direction.

(Drum roll) It’s time for the #2 reason stations aren’t successful…

The very people who would enjoy your station don’t know you’re there.

In his book “Linchpin” Seth Godin tells of an author who has passion is for his craft, but no real passion for spreading his ideas. “And if his ideas don’t spread, no gift is received. When an artist stops work before his art is received, his work is unfulfilled.” It’s that if-a-tree-falls-in-the-forest thing.

The way I see it Christian music radio is the only faith-based art form that is still in the public square. In Michelangelo’s day all art was Christian. Not so now. Christian TV is laughable. Christian bookstores and movies are still a niche, although it’s encouraging to see the recent success of faith-based films. But there are a handful of Christian music stations with larger audiences than the AC, country, or rock stations in their market. That was once unheard of. Consider the implications if we really had a passion for letting people know that we were on the air!

In the landmark research study “Why Christians Don’t Listen to Christian Radio?”, 40% of those who said they liked the music indicated they didn’t know of a station that played it.

My friend Alan (not his real name) tells me about one company that considers $1 spent on growth more important than $1 spend on maintaining. Spending that $1 on growth is non-negotiable to them, rather than the first thing that gets sliced from the budget, a practice common at most stations.

When Jesus commanded to go make disciples of all nations, I don’t recall him adding “if it’s in the budget.”

For the last several weeks I’ve been making a down-right nuisance of myself by bringing out into the open the top 10 reasons radio stations aren’t successful. It’s remarkable the response I’ve received! “How’d you know?”, “You must have been eavesdropping on some of our meetings!”

Here’s #3 on the countdown:

Many general managers, program directors and board of directors simply don’t understand what makes the format successful in the first place.

Consider this:

Of the 1,075 Christian radio stations in the USA, only half a dozen have at least 400,000 listeners. (There are 17 stations in Seattle alone that have at least that). I reckon’ less than twice that rank in the top five in their market.

While there are certainly many ways to define success, if one views the format as just a bunch of Christian songs by a bunch of Christian singers with a bunch of Christian disc jockeys saying a bunch of Christian stuff they won’t have many listeners.

To be really successful a station must understand a bigger idea that transcends the nuts and bolts of most programming conversations.

People don’t listen primarily because of who you are; they listen because of who they are!

When you understand that, the rest is just details.*

(*There’s lots and lots and lots to the details, but I really needed a pithy ending!)

For the last several weeks I’ve been digging into the most common challenges radio stations face in becoming successful. Now it’s time to count down the final four. Drum roll, please.

#4 – Inside thinking

We go to a restaurant. We instantly see what needs to be changed. The people at the restaurant can’t see it at all.

We check into a hotel. We instantly see that the very doors to enter the lobby are too cumbersome for anyone with luggage! Well, who in the world would bring luggage to a hotel?

When my daughter Carly was younger we would be out together and someone would inevitably say, “You look so much alike.” What a stranger could see instantly we struggled to see at all.

So it is for your radio station.

There are important things about your station you’ll be the last to see because you’re simply too close to it.

The importance of perceptual research or trusted outside counsel cannot be overstated. If you have neither, consider this idea.

Last week I was with my new friend David Salyers, head marketing guy at Chick-fil-A, and regular contributor to Keep The Faith. While showing us around The Hatch (the entire building devoted to hatching new ideas) he shared numerous remarkable concepts that drive their success!

The Hatch includes a mock up restaurant where they attempt to address “Points of Pain”; where the customer must overcome an inconvenience or an irritant to have a satisfying experience. What a great idea, I thought!

What are your station’s “Points of Pain”?

Is it the unfamiliar music you play that keeps your listener from hearing their favorites? (Everyone’s favorite radio station is the station that plays their favorite music).

Is it endless deejay banter that interrupts and interferes with their enjoyment of the music?

If you’re lacking an objective outside perspective on your station, consider asking your listeners.

After all, the only place to read the label is from outside the bottle.

It was a remarkable thing to see!

Hundreds of millionaire athletes willingly giving up a tool of their trade and replacing it with something that on any other day, in any other circumstance, would subject them to ridicule and harassment from their teammates and fans.

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. In Milwaukee they Pinked Out their ballpark using social media to direct fans to turn over a card on their seat at a specific moment during the game! #PinkOutMillerPark

If someone had tried to get major league ballplayers to wear pink just for the sake of wearing pink the players would have laughed at the idea.

But wearing pink, the tactic, wasn’t the point. Mom was the point. Something bigger was the point. That something bigger is called strategy. Strategy is what drives emotion.

What’s “the idea” behind your radio station? Can that idea form a story that people want to be a part of?

Or are you trying to force your listeners use a pink bat?

I’m told that these weekly Frost Advisories are the most widely read programming thing around in the format these days. My guess is that this one will top them all as people see their own situation and secretly pass along to their teammates with a “See, I told you so!”

Buckle your seat belt!

#10 – Success is never defined

It’s easy to think yourself successful as long as that remains vague and without form.

“One reason we’re able to believe that we’re better-than-average leaders and drivers and spouses and team players (and radio stations) is that we’re defining those terms in ways that flatter us. The ambiguity in terms like “leader” or “team player” enables our illusion. That’s why it’s so much harder for us to fancy ourselves better-than-average pole vaulters.” Chip and Dan Heath, “Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard.”

#9 – Lack of vision

This year is the same as last year is the same as next year. If you don’t know where you’re going any road will lead you there.

“Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing the time. Action with Vision is making a positive difference.” Jack Welch

#8 – Fear of change

We crave familiarity. We’ll even borrow someone else’s if necessary. “What do you like here?” we ask at a new restaurant. The most familiar is always the status quo, which is deadly for change.

“The unsuccessful person is burdened by learning, and prefers to walk down familiar paths. Their distaste for learning stunts their growth and limits their influence.” – John Maxwell

Stay tuned next week for more.

A music radio station consists of two basic things: the music, and everything that isn’t the music.

The music fulfills one need; the everything else fills another.

I think of content as that non-music element that “adds value” to a music station. Frankly, that’s quite different than what we hear most; blabbering that interrupts the music.

My friend Brant (not his real name) is a very well-known radio pro. I’ve heard him to do content that is as profound as anything I’ve heard from someone who wasn’t a real preacher. But that’s not what makes him special. What puts him at the top of his field is that he can do that AND say something so funny that milk squirts out my nose!

It’s the “AND” that sets him apart.

The problem with most Christian radio stations is not that they’re all that bad, it’s that everything is the same note. There is no “AND”.

Image what your favorite song would sound like if it had only one note; same lyrics but no chorus, no middle eight, no key change. It would still be the same song, in a sense, but it would no longer have the very dynamic range that made it your favorite.

I reckon’ God did this right. He could have made a rainbow with only one color, a giant yellow arch in the sky following a thunderstorm. But that would have been McDonalds. Instead He used red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

What colors of the rainbow is your station missing?

This Frost Advisory is a personal tirade. I’ll apologize in advance.

Now lazy disc jockeys have another excuse to be lazy.

I was recently listening to a very well known radio station when I heard the talent talk about Facebook – for three connective breaks.

He saw THIS on Facebook, he saw another talent post THIS on Facebook, and he saw an artist post THIS on Facebook!

On one hand the internet is a terrific resource for stations to connect with their fans.

On the other hand it has become an excuse for talent to be ordinary; no unique perspective, no special connection to the listener’s life, just the deejay equivalent of “This Day in History”. (National Belly Button Lint Day, don’tcha’ know!)

Let’s go back to the basics:

A talent’s purpose is to add value to the music environment; an emcee, if you will, of a shared listening experience.

Referring to something you’ve seen on Facebook is like referring to getting into your car before driving to the Grand Canyon. It’s not the point.

If there is a story from Facebook worth telling, then tell that story. But it’s always about the story, it’s not about Facebook!

P.S. Please forward this to every air talent you know. And tell them you saw it on Facebook!

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.

No “we’re glad you’re here” speech from the pulpit that morning would have conveyed that sentiment as much as the man with the umbrella in the parking lot. That church that day demonstrated with actions far more effectively than any words that I was welcome there.

There is no format I’ve ever done that is more difficult to program to reach large numbers of people, must less be top rated in the market. To be successful we have to navigate the most controversial subject ever known – religion – yet still be relevant and meaningful within the context of the squeaky clean radio.

No matter what your station does someone will have a problem with it. You know this to be true based upon opinions among your own staff.

One of the major challenges in growing the Contemporary Christian format is that there are no natural on ramps. People are either “on the highway” and know the music, or off the highway and don’t know Big Daddy Weave from Hercules and the Chicken Fat People.

Many stations compound the problem without even realizing it by programming to only those who already love the music as much as the staff.

To grow your radio station you must run out to the new listener with an umbrella and say, “Welcome!” Meet them in their muddy parking lot, understand their need, and show them in ways they understand how your station meets their need.

Only when they are nice and dry inside do you even think about preaching to them. Or better yet instead of preaching maybe you’ll simply have a conversation as though you’ve been friends for years.

John Maxwell said, “People will not always remember what you said. They will not always remember what you did. But they will always remember how you made them feel.”

Unless you’re willing to make the effort to run through the pouring rain with an umbrella to make them feel welcome you will never get the chance to speak into their lives.