Over decades of radio, including working with literally hundreds of stations in all different formats, I’ve found that there’s one thing every truly great station has, and the ones that aren’t great don’t have:  Everybody cares.

In a station where everybody cares, no sloppy Production is done (or left for someone else to do), attention to detail is a “given,” and bad or uncooperative attitudes are simply not tolerated.  You find high-profile, high-level talent, but no prima donnas.  Everyone is clear on what the Strategy of the station is, and that strategy is carried out on every level, from the person answering the phones to the General Manager.

That may sound pretty obvious, but if it’s so “obvious,” why don’t more stations have it?

Here’s the deciding factor:  if even ONE person DOESN’T care, that poison gas will eventually affect the whole staff.

Example: a person who voicetracks a show when he or she could have done it live leads to another jock, who puts in MORE effort, feeling unappreciated – especially if the one with a better work ethic is making less money.  And then the dominoes start to fall.  Resentment sets in, grudges are held, communication stops – and in the communication BUSINESS, that’s a killer.

I walk into stations sometimes where you can’t HEAR the station at all.  No audio coming from speakers in the hallways, deathly quiet offices, no “buzz” about what’s happening on the air.  This drives me crazy.  If YOU don’t care enough to listen to your own station, why should anyone else?

Just this past week, a PD of a major market station told me that her afternoon jock had scheduled a doctor’s appointment for one of his kids DURING HIS AIR SHIFT – which is only THREE hours – and voice-tracked his show that day.  This should not be tolerated.  Those three hours should be blocked out as untouchable by anything else.  So that station is doomed.  Dead Man Walking.

Disclaimer:  Yes, I realize that there are exceptions, and I’m not urging you to violate HR concerns.  Your kid woke up sick, and that was the only time you could get him in to see the doctor, or a single parent scenario not giving you any options.  But this wasn’t one of those instances.  This was just someone electing – with other options available – to knock out his show when there was alarming weather coming in and Traffic complications that it would cause, and he should have been on live.

So from a coaching standpoint, here’s the bottom line:  simply CARE.

Infuse the other air talents around you to care – about their performance on the air, their Production, their interest in comparing notes and listening to each other and always trying to get better.  And make that your default setting, with NO exceptions.

Because in the end, winners and losers are often decided by who cares the most.