“Where do you put the fear when you choose to innovate? The fear is there, but you have to find a place to put it.” –  Seth Godin

I remember sitting on the floor in the house in Portland with a bunch of friends watching TV, absolutely mesmerized. Disney’s Fantasia was playing, and no one was talking. Usually we were talking with each other, making fun of what was in, or telling dumb grade school kid jokes. You didn’t have money for a lot of movies in a military family, so TV, even a black and white one, was where you went.

Fantasia made a huge impact on me, and later I realized why. It was beyond the usual creativity you’d find in Cinderella, it was innovative!

People tend to put innovation and creativity in the same box, but they shouldn’t. Innovation is when you come up with something new – like Fantasia. Creativity is when you put a new spin on something existing. So, while all true innovations are creative, all creativity isn’t innovative.

I hear a lot of radio people talking about how innovative their station is when it’s either creative, or in that third, unmentionable category, unremarkable.

We’re afraid to take a chance any more. Radio doesn’t seem to be looking for the crazy people, those outliers who are different from everyone else. In fact those people frighten some of the “modern” breed of broadcasters looking for the normal people who are compliant and submissive… in other words, unremarkable.

Content will win in the end, but only if it’s innovative, creative, or at least remarkable.