It seemed an innocent enough question. My friend Kevin (not his real name) had just become the program director of an already successful Christian music station. One day over fajitas and guacamole he turns to me and asks, “What is most important for me to know about success in this format?”

Two days and numerous servings of chips and salsa later we were still quacking.

His question was a good one. It made me think. It made me want to write some stuff down.

I told him that the most successful stations are designed to appeal beyond just the existing small group of Christian music fans. You may have noticed that people who aren’t necessarily football fans watch the Super Bowl.

It’s that kind of thing. I’m sure that Matthew West is a fine fellow but giving away tickets to his concert doesn’t matter if people don’t know who he is. And no one tuning in for the first time knows who he is.

Most stations don’t understand this. Most stations have less than a three share.

Our conversation continued.

Your station is hosting a Third Day concert. Mac Powell has just uttered his last, “Yeah”, and your station’s best air talent takes center stage as the applause is subsiding.

Her first words reveal how in tune she is to the moment.

She may exclaim approval for the band, inviting the crowd to join in. Or she may insensitively launch into, “A priest, a rabbi, and a nun walk into a bar….”, making others wonder if they have just shared the same experience.

In its most basic form a music radio station has just two components – 1) the music, and 2) everything else. Music is designed to do one thing. Everything else is designed for something else.

Some of that something else is to connect to what’s happening NOW in the listener’s life.

Will I be late for work?

What will the medical tests show?

Why doesn’t she love me?

I don’t feel like a good parent right now.

Chick-fil-A‘s “Every Life Has a Story” communicates the impact of envisioning your customer (listener) as a complete person, with a life and a story, not just someone who represents money to you.

We’ve all heard the stories. “And then a song came on the radio…” connects to the deepest place in a life journey and the comfort from listening that song at that time on your station.

When THAT connection is made (and it is made far more than we know), think of the impact if it didn’t STOP when the talent began talking. What if there wasn’t a purposely emotional-less song tag separating the music and talent? What if the talent wasn’t trying to get past all the station business they have to do to get to the stuff they want to do?

Maybe someday we’ll sound like we were having the very same experience as the listener.

When that day comes it will transform the format.

It’s the essence of programming. Each element needs to add value.

For a music station it begins with the music. That means that every song you play has to ADD value. The songs that add the greatest value are the songs that have the most value; the ones that are most loved.

For everything else it is about the value of that which interrupts the music. On one hand we can argue that if people come to us for music we should never interrupt it. On the other hand if we don’t add value beyond the music there is no reason to choose our station above Pandora, Spotify, or Slacker.

Successful radio is, and always has been, about a meaningful shared listening experience.

“Success is a by-product of creating value. Happiness is a by-product of creating value. Significance is a by-product of creating value. Fulfillment is a by-product of creating value.”

My friend Carol couldn’t stay away any longer. Her retirement lasted only a season before she was back among her friends and the shared experience of a place she loves – the ballpark. Although she gets paid a little something my guess is that she would do it for free.

“To spend so much time in a space that fills night after night with tens of thousands of fans who love a team deeply, and to grow up surrounded by people who, at every pay level, love where they work, was beautiful.” – Emilie Miller

Value isn’t determined by the amount of money you’re paid, it is created by how much you give, according to Chick-fil-A marketing guru David Salyers in his book “Remarkable”. No one knows that better than those who give of their time without getting paid.

My wife volunteers at the hospital where she used to get paid. Although a licensed medical professional, she now spends her time helping patients and their families, and assisting the nurses when needed. She feels like she’s using her gifts to really make a difference. So does everyone else she works with.

“Volunteers are not paid – not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless.”

While certainly no one gets into Christian radio for the money the spirit of a volunteer sets people apart from those who view it as “just a job”.

Twenty years ago my friend Randy began as a volunteer because they couldn’t afford to pay him. The morning they signed on the air he had been up all night dealing with last minute technical problem. All that before going to work at his real job. Just yesterday Randy had emergency quintuple bypass surgery. Randy’s passion is undeniable, and his hospital room will soon be filled with his co-workers that share that passion.

How many people at your station have that kind of passion?

Too many hallways and cubicles are quiet, not one radio on. Talent go on the air unprepared and untrained, wasting precious opportunities to touch people’s lives. Stations remain essentially invisible in their communities because investing to reach people is not a priority. My friend Jim Hoge​ is intolerant of that attitude, investing well into six figures every year through marketing and major events at two of the world’s most public places – Walt Disney World and Sea World.

How many people are so devoted to your station’s mission that they would still want to be involved if the paycheck went away?

If the spirit of a volunteer can be found at a ballpark and a hospital, perhaps it could be just as evident at a Christian radio station.

“A civilization flourishes when people plant trees under which they will never sit.” Greek Proverb

It’s a fundamental question that we seldom ask – what are the main reasons people tune to our station?

If you don’t know, ask them. If you think it’s not important enough to ask them (see: research) at least put your ear to the ground and hear the rumblings. It’s likely that you’ll hear some reoccurring themes.

If trivia, celebrity birthdays, obituaries, children’s radio theatre, and the Southern Gospel hour aren’t why people tune to your station, you may have a problem.

The more you do the main things for which your listeners come to you the more successful you’ll be.

Or you could just do like Arby’s and think that people come to you for fish.

Glenn Beck is a huge Billy Joel fan. He has all his albums. He’s seen him five times.

Here’s what Glenn had to say about a recent concert experience:

“Left Billy Joel early. Disappointed. Was it the fact that he was 90 minutes in before he played one of his real hits? Maybe but all his music is good. Was it that he meandered and seemed to talk to the band more than the audience? … Was it that with all of those things I wished I were home with my wife and kids instead? Yep. There are too many demands on our time and things are way too expensive to stay for someone who, as good as he is, seems to be phoning it in. … Michael Bublé loves his audience, loves to perform, and once you stop liking the audience you should stop performing,” Glenn said. “I didn’t feel any gratitude, any affinity for me at all.”

Sure, it’s easy to look down our noses at the Piano Man and chide him for his uninspired performance, but perhaps we should first look at the log in our own eye…

…to see if we’re no better when one of our talent does a break that is rambling and ill-prepared? (Many stations have more people listening at that very moment than are at a typical Christian music concert).

…if we’re no better when a listener shows up at our concert tent (if we have one at all) and are treated like a stranger or an inconvenience.

…if we’re no better when a potential donor can’t get their calls answered (This has really happened at a station I worked with!)

…if we’re no better when we question the station’s ratings when we’ve not made it a priority to invite people to tune in.

It’s worth saying again. Once you stop liking the audience you should stop performing.

*Inspired by my talented friend Brian Yeager.

Glenn Beck’s post on glennbeck.com

It’s not common sense to warn someone about using common sense.

But that’s the point.

Successful principles of business, leadership, or programming aren’t common. They are the exception. Otherwise, all stations would have high ratings, there would be no leadership challenges, and we’d all have dated the prettiest girl in town.

There are 11,000 business books printed each year. I looked it up. If these principles were merely common sense there would be no demand for these publications.

Recently I had the privilege of sitting with leadership guru John Maxwell when Bill Hybels interviewed former GE CEO Jack Welch for the Willow Creek leadership summit. Nothing he said was common sense. Every morsel of wisdom was counterintuitive and eye opening. He used himself as an example:

“I was never the smartest guy in the room. From the first person I hired, I was never the smartest guy in the room. And that’s a big deal. And if you’re going to be a leader – if you’re a leader and you’re the smartest guy in the world – in the room, you’ve got real problems.” Jack Welch

Successful principles can seem out of whack or counter-intuitive. Leading is about serving. Programming to reach a wider audience is about focusing narrowly.

I’m told there are stations where cranky e-mail writing listeners, board members or family relatives that influence programming decisions without ever having programmed a radio station. After all, it’s just common sense.

Today you will likely face a decision about your radio station where it would make sense to use common sense. Before you react, I suggest you look for a similar situation and try to learn from that success story. Develop a culture that values, not resists, expertise and experience that may not be common.

After all, who would want a surgeon who simply strived for consensus from those who had never performed a surgery?

“While other car companies are showing you what matters to them, we want to know who matters most to you.”

“The Greatest Interception Ever”, Volvo’s advertising campaign during, but not in, the Super Bowl sheds light on a powerful marketing concept for your station.

“Tweet the name of someone who matters to you with #VolvoContest when you see any car commercial during the game. Tell us why they matter and you could win them a brand new Volvo XC60.”

Their viral marketing taps into beliefs and values that just so happens to be at the heart of your radio station: celebrating family and friends, and reaching out to help others.

Beliefs and Values is not about sounding religious, it’s about connecting.

Your station doesn’t need to buy a Super Bowl commercial either. Just tap into the hearts of the compassionate, caring people that listen to Christian music radio, and then provide them a way to make their actions public.

While other radio stations are talking about what matters to them, maybe we should be talking about what matters to our listeners.

*Inspired by yet another stimulating conversation with Mike Moran, Mike Blakemore, and Chad Davis.

They call it “the leaky bucket.”

When PPM metered measurement was birthed, many analytical programmers embraced this philosophy by scampering to remove everything between the songs that might cause tune out. The result was song-to-song segues and little human connection. While no one could argue against eliminating tune outs, this “spotlight effect” * on TUNE OUTS left many stations void of any station branding to convey its unique benefits, and no human connection.

Stations became more like Pandora but without their customized music mix. Stations were left with little of what radio does best (a listening experience based on shared values and experiences) but without the capability of offering what only Pandora can.

In other words, radio listening became the worst of both worlds.

Perhaps you’ve heard of the Super Bowl. USA Today’s Ad Meter website allows us to see the Super Bowl commercials (even in advance of the game) and vote on our favorites. Just for the heck of it I Googled “vote for best Super Bowl commercials” and got 50,900,000 results.

I reckon some folks must actually like commercials, to the cost of 4.5 million dollars for 30 seconds.

Now listen, I realize there’s a difference in a commercial from Honest Fred’s Used Cars in Mule Shoe to ones like you see during Sunday’s game, but…

…the Super Bowl is proof that people don’t dislike all commercials, they dislike bad or irrelevant commercials.

Listeners don’t dislike all talk, they dislike boring and irrelevant talk.

When we shift the spotlight from side to side we are able to illumine the appropriate programming response to talk that may cause tune out is not to eliminate talk, but rather to create talk that is relevant, compelling and enhances the radio station’s value.

The response to imaging that may cause tune out is not to eliminate imaging, but rather to create compelling imaging that tells the radio station’s story and connects it to the listener’s life. (Better yet, to tell the listener’s story and connect it to why the station exists).

Like the Super Bowl commercials do.

But that takes work. And I’m told that having a great radio station is a hard work.

* “We are quick to jump to conclusions because we give too much weight to the information that is right in front of us, while failing to consider the information that’s just offstage. It’s called “the spotlight effect.” The spotlight only lights one spot. Everything outside it is obscured. When we begin to shift the spotlight from side to side the situation starts to look very different. And that, in essence, is the core difficulty in decision making. What’s in the spotlight will rarely be everything we need to make a good decision, but we won’t always remember to shift the light. Sometimes, in fact, we’ll forget there’s a spotlight at all, dwelling so long in the tiny circle of light that we forget there’s a broader landscape beyond it.” Chip and Dan Heath, “Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work”

**Obviously dosage and precision are critical. “Abusus non tollit usum” – the abuse of a thing does not invalidate the proper use of a thing.

Your radio station is comprised of only two things, in its most basic structure. The music, and everything-else.

Strategically, the music serves one purpose and the everything-else serves another. Successful radio stations understand this (and program for it). The others have no idea what I’m talking about.

This Frost Advisory is about the everything-else, which I’ll define as a continuum that stretches from the purpose of the radio station to what is relevant to the listener’s life. The everything-else has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Guess which is most important. Guess which we pay the least attention.

When our girls were little we loved to tell each other riddles and jokes. If fact, one of their favorite books at bedtime was one that carried over from my childhood, “1001 Riddles for Children.”

My younger daughter Carly declared one day that she had discovered six little words that could make any joke funny. No matter how the joke started, no matter if anyone laughed, no matter how badly the joke bombed all you had to do, she said, was to end with these SIX LITTLE WORDS and everyone would howl.

The end of the joke, the end of the movie, the end of the book, and yes, the end of a content break on your radio station determines whether listeners are delighted, dismayed, or disappointed.

Donald Miller puts it this way,

“So soon you will be in that part of the book where you are holding the bulk of the pages in your left hand, and only a thin wisp of the story in your right. You will know by the page count, not by the narrative, that the Author is wrapping things up. You begin to mourn its ending, and want to pace yourself slowly toward its closure, knowing the last lines will speak of something beautiful, of the end of something long and earned, and you hope the thing closes out like last breaths, like whispers about how much and who the characters have come to love, and how authentic the sentiments feel when they have earned a hundred pages of qualification.”

I was planning to dig a little deeper this week at the CMB regional summit in Houston….

….and then I found five dollars!