The scoreboard can tell us a lot.  We look to see the inning or the quarter.  Perhaps to see who’s at bat or who’s ahead.  Sometimes the errors or the fouls.  But no one considers the scoreboard important enough to take its picture.

Unless of course…

…you see yourself on it!

Your station is like that.

The music is nice, but Spotify and Mortify have it in major doses.  Traffic reports?  It’s on the 4’s, the 10’s and the 12’s up and down the dial.  Weather?  I have an app for that.

No, your radio station has to offer something else.  Something unique.  Something your listeners value.  Something that screams, “That’s me!”

Listeners may push the button because of a song they don’t like or irrelevant chit chat…

But people don’t push the button on their values.

*Inspired by my talented friends Kevin Isaacs and Dave Arthur.

Odd, isn’t it?  In a format that MATTERS more than any other, we spend so much of our time talking about stuff that doesn’t.

Recently I’ve heard…

The tour dates and future music projects of an artist I’ve never heard of.

The details of a traffic problem that I wasn’t in.

A contest where if I text them the thing (twenty words or less) and I’ll be put in a drawing with all the other people that have texted them the thing (twenty words or less) and they’ll do a random drawing at 7:20 in a few weeks with Flip and Flap of the Flip and Flap Morning Show to determine the finalist that will be in the subsequent drawing for the thing.  Jeepers!  Who wrote your promo?  The IRS?

A company’s sales accomplishments with no connection of how it mattered to their customers.

Deejays that talk incessantly about things that happened in their lives that listeners can’t relate to.  Newscasts with stories that sound newsy but aren’t relevant.  Stations that position themselves with mindless slogans that are all about the station, not about what is meaningful to the listener.

Here is a challenge for the new year:

Listen to another radio station in the format for one hour and write down the things you hear that don’t matter.  You’ll be amazed!  (This exercise is impossible to do with your own radio station because it’s too familiar to you.)

When Michelangelo was asked how he created the statue of David, he supposedly responded, “I just took away everything that didn’t look like David.”

So, if you want your radio station to matter… you can start by simply taking away everything that doesn’t.

As the new year begins it’s easy to get bogged down in the multitude of details of programming a radio station; the politics, the personalities, and the to-do list that never seems to get to-done.  And yet, there are the more advanced concepts of focus and targeting, serving your core listener, developing the talent, connecting emotionally, and developing a meaningful brand.

But at its core good programming is relatively simple.
Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi began every training camp with these words, “Gentlemen, this is a football!”, which underscores the importance of knowing the basics.

Here are the programming basics:

• Play the music your listeners love.
• Talk about things they are interested in.
• Don’t waste their time.

If you’re a GM make sure your PD is accountable in these areas.   If you’re a PD, use this to prioritize.

If you kick off 2016 by getting these things right, then you’re in a better position to begin working on the other stuff that can make your station remarkable!

Happy New Year!

I reckon’ the Christmas season brings out the best in our format.  More people tune in than at any other time of the year.  When done well, this can be a station’s much-discussed “next level”.

Over the last several weeks I have heard some amazing stories and songs.

I heard the story of a single mom of three kids who had work two jobs and clean houses at night to make ends meet.  Listeners generously gave her kids a Christmas they couldn’t afford for themselves and pulled together to have HER house cleaned, as well.  (A big deal.  Ask any female listener.)

Stories and songs.

I heard the story of a family on the verge of being evicted from their home due to the dad losing his job and mounting medical bills from one child’s injury from a car accident and another child’s epilepsy.  The station, its listeners and clients stepped in to make up the difference on their overdue bills so they wouldn’t lose their home, and blessed them with a Christmas tree and gifts for all the kids.

Stories and songs.

Perhaps most the most amazing I heard was told by the daughter of a Vietnam vet that had a leg amputation.  Wayne pitched in with a wheel chair.  Sheri offered up a wheel chair ramp, and another donated a motorized scooter.  But the most amazing thing to hear was the generosity of a company that made prosthetics offering this Vietnam vet the ability to walk again.

Stories and songs.

Our format can be so much more than the ubiquitous 52 minute music sweeps, the best mix of this and that, and traffic and weather together on the 10s.

So, for the coming New Year, it is my hope that those in our format adopt this New Year’s Resolution:  To create radio stations that matter.

After all…

It doesn’t matter what we say if what we say doesn’t matter.

So, what do you think about Donald Trump?

My guess is your response is something other than tepid.  Love him or hate him but you can’t ignore him.

“He identifies what the base feels and thinks, and then gives it expression.” Kathleen Parker.

This particular political writer’s comment was in the context of a criticism, but there is something to be said for giving expression to what your base feels and thinks.

When was the last time your station got the kind of response Donald Trump is getting?  In other words, when was the last time your station gave expression to what your listeners feel and think that it resulted in a standing ovation?

My talented friends at The Fish in Atlanta recently granted a Christmas Wish to Dee, “a victim of a marriage gone wrong.  She escaped with three kids and nothing more than the clothes on her back” read my friend Taylor Scott.  The station had over a hundred thousand views within the first few hours on Facebook and YouTube.  That, my friends, is a social media standing ovation!

Why?  Because it tapped into what their audience feels and thinks.  Compassion and lending a helping hand are core values reflected by the station.

Who’d da thunk it?  Maybe Christian radio can learn a thing or two from Donald Trump.