“You can do anything… once”, boomed my dad’s voice to his mischievous adolescent son.

Those words served as a life lesson of accountability.  But, you know what?  Those words were also true.  I COULD do anything… once.

So can your station.

Making programming decisions based strictly upon what you’ve already done is like driving while looking in the rear view mirror.  It won’t get you anywhere but where you’ve already been.

As I write this a popular Orlando barbecue restaurant is opening its usually closed doors on Sunday to raise money for the shooting victims.  Well, guess what?  They’ve never done that before.  It’s interesting how even opposite behaviors – being closed on Sundays and opening this particular Sunday – are ways to demonstrate a core value of their business – giving back to the community.

In other words, the more they innovate the more they are able to fulfill their mission.

Resisting a new idea because “it doesn’t sound like my station” is the cry of the rear view mirror driver.  I also know those that innovated once but that innovation became their own “we’ve always done it this way”, and refused to innovate beyond it.

The programming lesson learned this Father’s Day is that you can do anything… once!  It’s called innovation!

“If you leave a white post alone it will soon be a black post.  If you particularly want it to be white you must be always painting it again; that is, you must be always having a revolution.  Briefly, if you want the old white post you must have a new white post.”
~G. K. Chesterton