My talented friend Lisa Barry shared with me a lesson she learned from a lady who does sign language in church.

“In order to ‘sign’ a song about Passover, she has to start with Jerusalem, so she signs that first even though it’s not in the song yet. THEN, she signs Jesus, which is her index finger sweeping across in front of her. So the song makes sense with Jesus walking into Jerusalem. Even though in the song Jerusalem comes second.

With sign language you have to start with the ‘what’ because otherwise, there’s no context to what you’re about to say. You start with the ‘what’ and then you can give them the ‘who’ and ‘what’s happening’.”

Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of many popular TV shows in the 60s and 70s including “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Brady Bunch,” told a remarkable story of ‘what.’

When he initially took the pilot for Gilligan’s Island to CBS it was rejected. The execs told Sherwood that viewers would never understand why such an odd assortment of characters; a movie starlet in a long dress, an eccentric rich couple, a geeky scientist and a tomboy; were stranded on a desert island together. “I’ll show you,” Sherwood responded defiantly, so he went home and wrote the now famous theme song that explained the show’s ‘what’ in only sixty seconds.

“Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale…”

Even the best stations in the format have to fight the assumption that everyone knows the ‘what.’

“…If the journey begins with the assumption that everybody here know what we are doing, you will eventually have an audience of people who already know what you are doing … Where you consistently begin and what you consistently assume determine who consistently shows up. Why? Because your assumptions create the common ground for the journey.”

Andy Stanley, “Deep and Wide”

What does your station stand for?

What is its purpose and its vision?

How does your station’s ‘what’ reflect what your listeners value?