Have you ever wondered why health clubs, weight loss products, or stop smoking schemes seem to advertise most at the beginning of a new year?

Folks in white lab coats say there is a psychological reason for it. (Perhaps you’d like to take notes)

“When we enter a new time period our relationship with our past self is weakened and it becomes a little bit easier to change our behaviour … If you want to disrupt a habit , target your messaging to the start of new time periods.”

Richard Shotton, “The Illusion of Choice”

It’s that kind of high-fallootin’ logic that nudged me to think that the start of a new year is a good time for my weekly Frost Advisory to review some basics. (Be sure to check out the previous Frost Advisory #702 and Frost Advisory #703 for more fresh starts).

One of the quickest ways to focus your radio station is the simple rule of…

RELEVANT then INTERESTING

Choosing only content that is relevant to your listener forces the talent to put the listener ahead of themselves. This profound realignment of priorities changes the paradigm from what is interesting to the talent to what is relevant to the listener. In other words, this puts you in the position of serving your listener’s interests and expectations, quite an appropriate mindset, I’d say, for a Christian radio station.

Hearing irrelevant content on the air is the result of air talent first looking for things that are “interesting” and then trying to make them relevant (if at all).

That is how one ends up hearing things like Shirley Temple’s birthday, National Pickle Week, and what I did on my summer vacation. Without an objective filter of relevance to the listener, the talent resorts to becoming sort of a content assembly line, paying little attention to whether what they say enhances the listener’s experience or fulfills their expectations of the station.

Yes, these are the basics. But maybe it’s time for a fresh start.

“I’m told that the hardest part of being a teaching golf pro isn’t helping adult golfers develop a good swing. It’s getting them to stop using a bad one.”

Seth Godin