We would all be flying Wells Fargo Airlines if they had thought they were in transportation instead of the stage coach business. The same could be said of many once great companies like Polaroid and Blockbuster. Netflix started by mailing DVDs.
Continue reading“What product category are you in? It’s bigger than you think.”
Seth Godin
One thing stands out immediately when I listen to someone – that person’s timing. (And the station’s timing, too.) Waiting for that ‘last logical moment’ to start talking, or to hit the next element when a song ends, for example.
Yes, we’ve all grown used to cue tones – but who’s creating them? Sometimes I wonder if we’ll ever hear the ending of a song again without some Imaging piece crashing in or the air talent talking over it.
Say it isn’t so!
My cousin, the brilliant surgeon, told me of the time that a hospital board member barged into the operating room during a gall bladder surgery and told him they should remove the patient’s kidney. After all he had done the Google search, you see.
It’s a joke, of course, but…
Continue readingIn the last tip, I mentioned Bob Dylan. To cut to the chase, think about his song “Like a Rolling Stone.” Even if you take away the imagery and the storyline, one lyric rises to the surface over and over as Dylan starts each chorus asking, “How does it feel?”
And THAT is what you should be thinking of as you shape your Content each day. How did this thing that happened FEEL?
Without a discernible feeling, an identifiable emotion, it’s just a bunch of factoids. Incidents, maybe opinions. But what did it FEEL like?
If you can’t answer that, the idea is an incomplete thought.
When I was a kid I can remember staring at the bulletin board in the hallway eager to see what the next few months would be like. Each teacher posted a list of the kids that would be in her class the upcoming year. Frankly, I wasn’t that concerned about which teacher I was assigned. No, I was more concerned with whether I’d be with my friends; Rodney, David, Buddy, and Julian. And maybe even that I’d have a chance to be around that pretty girl Marlene.
Continue readingThere was a time when it was in vogue to be overly audacious, tricking people with prank phone calls, embarrassing people, making fun of them, etc.
I thought it really sucked, because to me, it seemed kind of cruel. I didn’t – and still don’t – get why it would be okay to demean the listener, or use that person as a “prop” for something that you wouldn’t do to a friend or coworker. Continue reading
As I write this 850 people have been rescued in the Central Texas floods. This isn’t just a random news story to me. It’s personal.
My sister and cousins went to summer camp there, and I have been there numerous times as the little brother. We have home movies from there. It’s a real place with real people with real lives.
We forget, don’t we?
Continue readingOnce you get to a certain level, you face two issues – (1) How to be consistent in your performance, and (2) How to measure your Content.
Here’s the litmus test: is what you’re doing something that I can hear somewhere else? If so, there’s work to do.
It’s a funny thing. With these weekly Frost Advisories, I try to share insights about programming basics (how the sausage is made stuff, don’tcha know), while also challenging the more seasoned to strive for The Big Idea to transform a station and a listener’s mood, perspective, and life. Some get this while many have never thought about it. In my career, I’ve been at either place in different seasons.
Just this week I was evaluating a station that sounded like it was nothing more than a sequencing of elements. Like the automation system was programming the station. One element played, then another. Then something else came on and another element played. No design. No emotional spectrum. No meaningful content.
It was like an audio version of Whack-a-mole. Hit it and move on.
Continue readingShockingly, many, many times over the years, I’ve found that an alarming number of air talents never, or hardly ever, listen to their own shows.
Here’s why it’s important: You need to hear yourself as others hear you. That’s how we improve.
If you simply listen while you’re checking your email, or updating your social media, you’ll subconsciously hear when you sound rushed, or like you don’t really care about something, or if you make grammatical errors that undermine the points you’re trying to make.
Listening to your own show just once a week can and will make a dramatic difference in how sharp you stay, or how quickly you change a weak area.
