Have you ever missed something that was right before you? A changing traffic light? A quickly moving thunderstorm? A Labor Day sale at the 24-hour dental floss store?

“Life has a peculiar feel when you look back on it that it doesn’t have when you’re actually living it. It’s as though the whole thing were designed to be understood in hindsight, as though you’ll never know the meaning of your experiences until you’ve had enough of them to provide reference.”

Donald Miller

524 weeks ago I penned Frost Advisory #1, a fairly presumptuous title considering I had no idea if I could come up with #2, much less 524 of them.

In case you missed it, writing every week for 52 weeks over the span of 10 years is 520. This is Frost Advisory #524.

For years my pal and mentor Alan Mason had insisted that I start writing. I’m not sure whether he thought I had something worth saying or he figured that would keep me quiet for a few hours. Frankly, after reading Alan’s stuff for years I was just flat out intimidated. It felt like Robert Frost telling me, “You should write poetry!,” or Donald Trump saying, “You should tweet!”

The process of writing every week for over ten years has challenged me to think through strategic concepts, consider new ideas, and to look for real life applications. It has forced me to challenge my own biases and experiences, and to attempt to communicate, whether to the novice or the expert, how these ideas can transform a radio station.

In other words, it has forced me to think about what I really think.

“I never know what I think about something until I read what I’ve written on it.”

William Faulkner, winner of the Nobel Prize

There’s a pandemic going on. Perhaps you’ve heard about it.

It’s affected almost every area of our lives, from what we wear and where we go, to our work, to school, to church, to getting together with Fred and Ethel for a game of Pinocle, to attending sporting events.

While it’s true that the pandemic has forced the major league baseball season to be played in front of NO living, breathing fans that does NOT mean there are no fans.

“Every medium carries within itself inherent limitations, and every artist also comes with limitations. True creativity is not the outflow of a world without boundaries. The creative act is the genius of unleashing untapped potential and unseen beauty with the constraints and boundaries of the medium from which we choose to create. Creativity not only happens within boundaries and limitations, but in fact it is dependent on those limitations.”

Erwin McManus, “The Artisan Soul”

If you watch a major league game, you’ll see the stands littered with cardboard cutouts. There are season ticket holders, there are celebrities, and at Petco Park in San Diego, true to their brand identity, there is a section of cardboard cutouts made up of strictly pets.

Wow!

That’s how most people react when I show them this photo. Particularly women.

So, you may ask, what does this have to do with a moving company?

Well, nothing… if that moving company sees itself as only a bunch of sweaty guys who lug people’s stuff from here to there… if it sees itself as nothing more than having a functional relationship with its customers.

We’re living in unprecedented times. COVID-19. Lockdowns. Racial unrest. Will our kids be going back to school?

If you simply look at each isolated event you could reason that your station isn’t about those things. Not if you think of your station as just unfamiliar music by artists people don’t know.

It depends on your perspective.

I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news.

The good news? Our format is a lifestyle format. The bad news? Our format is a lifestyle format.

This old pandemic has revealed a perspective on the latter.

When there is…

no more driving to and from work…

no more being at work while having your kids in school…

no more driving to and from church on Sundays…

…key opportunities for listening go away.

Having said that, many Christian music stations are performing quite nicely through the pandemic, at least from a ratings perspective (and donor support, as well).

I have a theory about that.

“Second verse, same as the first.” Herman’s Hermits

Over these last several months these weekly Frost Advisories have had a few recurring themes. For one thing, it doesn’t look like the pandemic is going to be over anytime soon. For another, we need to be thinking about not just getting through the day-to-day grind but also what we are learning through it.

What are we learning about how to encourage during a national emergency? What are we learning about creating a shared experience where people don’t feel isolated? What are we learning about being human and relating to what people are going through?

The worst version of our format is “nice Christian people talking about nice Christian things to nice Christian people.”

The best version of our format is like a friend who sticks with you through life’s ups and downs and is an encourager every step of the way.

In execution, the first option is any day anywhere. The second option is right here right now.

When a station focuses on “right here right now” it forces the elimination of all generics. No more platitudes. No more “hang in theres.”

COVID-19 isn’t going away, at least anytime soon. Our normal in March is not the normal in July and may not be our normal in October.

Our focus needs to be now. Because “now” is the one thing we most have in common; yes, even more than our beliefs or our values.

You can’t make me! Because I’m a Republican/a Democrat/a Texan, a hard working self-made man/someone that can’t be pushed around/a free thinker!

I find the “controversy” over wearing a face mask to be peculiar. Why? Because from my perspective, MY world view, it makes perfect sense to wear one. It’s only a minor inconvenience, if that, it’s a great conversation starter at the grocery store and the gym (about the only places I can go), and it covers up my big nose.

244 years ago our country was born with a Declaration of Independence, and a subsequent Bill of Rights for all citizens to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But as Believers, we know that with those rights comes responsibility.

Your radio station has the right to do anything you want. Even the right to be mediocre if you so choose. Many Christian stations are just that as a result of a mishmash programming lineup comprised largely by unfamiliar songs by unknown artists.

But with every right comes a responsibility.

If you’ve been following along over the last several weeks you may have noticed that my Frost Advisories have focused on the challenges our stations are facing during this season of the coronavirus and racial tensions across the country.

I’ve commented on training talent, on connecting with the local African-American community, on finding the right camera angle for our format that is designed to encourage, and about sharing stories that give insight and create empathy.