Let’s have a little fun this week.  Let’s play “You’re the assistant PD.”

Ask each person on the staff to write down the one thing they would change about your station.  Then collect all the responses and oh so carefully place them in a special file.

I’m often thrust into a discussion about changing something that is fundamental to the station’s success, whether that be the music, an air personality or two, the station branding, or a promotional or marketing campaign.  Just this week I was drawn into a discussion with someone that had a “new” music agenda.  I suggested that we should have a “favorite” music agenda.

In a moment of revelation someone might be so bold as to ask, “what do the listeners think?”

Very often the things that Susie and Edgar in accounting complain about are the very things that make your station successful, not unlike how the McDonalds’ kitchen staff may perceive the routine of cooking Big Macs and Quarter Pounders day after day after day.

It’s not that a good idea can’t come from the people on the staff, it’s just that unless you’re careful those ideas will likely come from the wrong perspective – that of inside the building.  The closer we get seeing how the sausage is made the less likely we are to understand the mouth watering expectation of the one who has just ordered the hot link special.

Roy Williams says, “I am on the inside, looking out, and had been seeing the problem backwards. Mark is on the outside, looking in, and saw the problem clearly.”

So, start handing out the Assistant Program Director awards!  Just make sure your listeners get one, too!