The Frosts were big on hand-me-downs. Sigh!

I was often dressed in my two older brothers’ slacks and shirts. Fortunately, that didn’t happen with my older sister’s clothes, although I do remember the pre-adolescent embarrassment of having to wear my sister’s white sweater in the Christmas parade because I didn’t have a white sweater, and my parents sure weren’t going to buy me a white sweater that I’d never be caught dead in again. (That’s when I learned the coming-of-age reality of girl’s sweaters buttoning on the wrong side.)

On my 16th birthday and the day I received my Texas driver’s license, I received a hand-me-down of my mother’s Oldsmobile Cutless. I was thrilled that I had my own wheels and that it had an awesome Delco radio! (Yep! Radio geek even then). What wasn’t great was that it burned oil like an Arab sheik in a cranky mood. And the wheel alignment consistently pulled right after a few thousand miles.

So I learned.

I had to carry several quarts of oil in the trunk for when the thingamajig ran low. I knew I had to be on alert for when the steering wheel would start pulling after a few thousand miles.

Your station is like that.

Every station has a default setting. I’m all too familiar with this as a visitor to stations on a quarterly or annual basis.

When left alone some stations, particularly the commercial ones, can become cluttered and noisy. Like forcing ten pounds into a five pound bag.

Other stations become slower and one dimensional. This often happens with non-commercial stations that default to structure over emotional connect. (Candidly, that often is just a result of not paying attention).

Successful program directors know the natural default settings for their station and anticipate them. This is often where an outside perspective can be helpful.

“When you’re on the inside, there’s no other perspective but what you see on the inside. When you’re on the outside, you get to look at things a little differently: how you can help, how you can fit in, how you can do certain things differently.”

Daniel Sturridge

I guarantee that your station will eventually stray off course.

Will you have the cans of oil in your trunk to quickly refill the tank?