Having lived in Florida for over 30 years I’ve learned that there four seasons: summer, summer, summer, and hurricane season.

In what has been a rather uneventful hurricane season (no hurricanes developed in the Atlantic before October 1), recently Isaias snuck into the Florida panhandle and southeast as a reminder to keep The Weather Channel at arm’s length.

After all, we might learn something.

Maybe you’ve heard someone say that the church is known more for what it is against than what it is for.

“A business is no longer what it tells customers it is. A business is what customers tell other customers it is.”

In his remarkable book “Know What You’re For”, Jeff Henderson recommends that you consider the gap between these two questions:

What do you want to be known for?

What are you known for? 

With another concert season at hand I thought we could learn something from a teenager named Isaac and his new friend Matthew. I’ve never met Isaac but I did get to witness what is likely one of the highlights of his life.

Awhile back Isaac was able to meet Matthew West prior to a concert and shared his dream of singing on stage with Matthew. While some might have viewed that as small talk with an artist, Matthew saw it as another opportunity to share a fan’s story. A few hours later Isaac was on stage singing, “Truth Be Told” with Matthew West.

In his showcasing a fan Matthew demonstrated a technique that I refer to as making big things little and little things big.

If you and I made a list of things that make a radio station ordinary we’d probably come up with the same list.

That’s the thing about ordinary. There is no surprise. There is no delight.

Consistency is good.

Predictability is not.

I was driving down the freeway this weekend, and I saw a car with a sticker in the window that read “Proud parent of a U.S. Marine.”

Being the patriotic sort, I gave the driver a thumbs up as I passed to show my support! She glanced my way, then just as quickly turned away assuming, no doubt, that I was wacky in traffic nutbucket.

Suffice it to say that the “Proud parent of a U.S. Marine” sticker was on her car but it wasn’t on her mind. It makes sense, really. We’re busy.

Your radio station is like that.

I can sometimes predict how a Frost Advisory will land. Sometimes it can be soothing to the ear, like a gentle breeze on an autumn day. (Pardon the mixed metaphor). Other times it can create discomfort with a frantic e-mail forwarding from GM to PD to air staff to chief engineer to receptionist with an accompanying “What do you make of this #?@#& tomfoolery?”

Frost Advisory #838 will be the latter.

I was driving to see my mechanic when I heard the news on the radio about Dolly Parton. I sat in the lobby for an hour or so and everyone… everyone that came in the shop talked about Dolly.

Some observations:

It’s a curious thing. A few understand it, but most do not. In over 25 years in the format I’ve never been a part of an interview where a potential program director or air talent was even asked if they knew what the format was about.

Coming from a background in mainstream radio I didn’t really understand what our format was about either. I thought the format was about the music we play, the deejays, the promotions and doing radio stuff. After all, that’s radio, right? I had to undergo a process of learning that our format is about something much more important. I learned it from listening to our listeners.

Back to school time is everywhere. In the stores with sales. On the streets with school buses. There are even tax free days for Back to School. It’s not an official holiday like Christmas, Ground Hog Day, or Millard Fillmore’s birthday, but it is just as evident.

Back to school affects everyone’s schedule, even those that don’t go to school. (Can’t say that about ole’ Millard’s birthday.)

When the great artist and sculptor Michelangelo was asked how he created his famous 17-foot-tall statue of David he responded, “It was easy. I just took away everything that didn’t look like David.”

That profound simplicity could be a nifty way to approach fine tuning your radio station.

If people come to your station to be encouraged just take away the stuff that doesn’t do that.