It’s easy to wonder why radio stations sometimes decay, or never really become top stations.  This needn’t happen.  Bill Young, PD of KILT in Houston for many years, was a major influence on me and countless others who worked for him.

Before it became okay to own a zillion stations, Bill had an AM and an FM that were both hugely successful for one reason: he filled the hallways with the most talented people he could find.  Then he let them do what they do: create great radio, great Production, great Promotions, and come up with great ideas that challenged the “We’ve always done it this way” prison.

My friend “Brother Jon” Rivers, a great Top 40 jock who then became probably the best-known personality and Programmer in Contemporary Christian radio at KLTY in Dallas, put it this way: “If you hire enough really talented people, you eventually reach ‘critical mass,’ where the station EXPLODES – in a good way.  It gets so good in every area that success is just a byproduct.”  That’s the Big Goal.

If your station isn’t this way, I would recommend doing everything you can to change it.  Hire the brightest minds.  If budget is a challenge, hire young, less experienced people and let them grow under this umbrella.

I’m not one of those “everything was better in the old days” people, but in radio, that certainly can sometimes be true.  ALWAYS look for the creative “spark” when you make a hire.