“Kindness seems like such a radical idea today.”

As negativity, finger pointing, and spit wad throwing reach new levels in politics, and in traditional and social media, we can sense a growing desire for a breath of fresh air.

Just this week Bloomberg news reported, “Freaked Out Americans Desperately Seek to Escape the News.”

I know people who have turned off certain TV cable news channels (me, included).  I know radio stations that have turned off the TV news in their studio due to incessant negativity and turned on HGTV.

The movie “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” is a smash hit, bringing in $4.1 million in just three weeks.

Director Morgan Neville said, “Mr. Rogers tried to teach us how to behave in a community and a society together, and the value of civility and the value of honoring this relationship with each other.

And we live in times that don’t honor that at all.”

If you think your radio station is only about songs and deejays and unfamiliar music, you’ll never understand how to connect with what people are feeling today.

Fred Rogers was a man who believed in inherent goodness and preached the idea that everyone was special, just the way they are.

“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” is “a much-needed emotional tonic for troubled times.”

Sounds like a good idea for a radio station, too.

The call comes in.  “Let me speak to the manager!”  There is only one thing this conversation can be about.

Someone isn’t happy.

As I became interested in broadcasting as a teenager I became hooked on a local Dallas TV show called, “Let Me Speak to the Manager,” a behind the scenes look at how TV was  programmed.

The show was unique in that it actually aired complaints from viewers, unheard of back in the day.  They even discussed stuff that aired on the other TV stations and networks.  Egad!

In fact, I can remember being told NOT to talk about ANYTHING on TV (you know like the presidential election, World Series, or Super Bowl) for fear that our listeners would turn off the radio that very moment and turn on their TV.  I’M NOT MAKING THIS UP, as Dave Barry would say.

In my travels I run across many different kinds of programmers, managers, and air talent.

Some have many years of experience; others have one year of experience many times.

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He’s a bum!

Why didn’t he take out the pitcher?

This guy can’t hit!

Why didn’t he leave the pitcher in?

Bunt!  Bunt!

Steal!  Steal!

Swing!  Swing!

The wacky sports fan always knows what his team shoulda done!  The Monday morning quarterback is always right.  It helps when you know the outcome of the game on Sunday.

Read the blog comments after a 4-game losing streak.  Ouch!

Read the blogs after a 10-game losing streak!  Ouch!  Ouch!

“Every time we lose a game I’ve either left the pitcher in too long or taken him out too early.”

A wacky sports fan always values the recent over the long term.  They comment on THAT at bat, THAT bad pitch, THAT bumble by the fielder.

I reckon’ we can expect that kind of second guessing from the bleachers, but it is far more serious when it comes from the programmer or manager’s office.
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I hear there are more “religious” radio stations in the United States than any other format category.  Unfortunately those religious stations combined have fewer listeners than any other.  The reason for that is quite simple.

A radio station cannot grow its audience unless it is designed to grow its audience.  To grow a station one must think beyond songs and deejays and sweepers.  One must think strategically.  Eh, gad!

A strategy is a plan that incorporates big picture concepts such as:

Why does the radio station exist?

Who are our listeners?  What do they desire and expect from our station?

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Common ground.  We talk a lot about it in our little format, and that’s a good thing.

Who’s your target demo?  How many kids?  What’s their favorite TV show?  Where do they go on summer vacation?

All good stuff we need to embrace.

“To move an audience, especially a diverse audience, from where they are to where you want them to be requires common ground.  If you want me to follow you on a journey, you have to come get me.  The journey must begin where I am, not where you are or where you think I should be.”

But there is a common ground that we seldom consider and about which few books are written.

The power of NOW.

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We can cling so tightly to the things we know that we don’t go beyond and learn how to apply it.

“The less people know, the more stubbornly they know it.”

Consider this…

• Knowledge is knowing the facts.
• Understanding is the ability to glean meaning from those facts.  Often that involves seeing things in context, perhaps relating to circumstances, best practices, or strategy.
• Wisdom is knowing what to do with that knowledge.

A 16-year-old may have enough knowledge to drive the car but you wouldn’t just toss them the keys and say, “Have a good weekend!”
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What do we say?

More people have been killed at schools so far in 2018 than have been killed while serving in the U.S. Military, so says the Washington Post.

Remember back when baseball and football games on TV were interrupted by some nut case running onto the field?

Then something changed.  The folks in charge of the telecasts decided to quit pointing the cameras at them.  The incidents stopped.

I don’t speak as a psychologist or counselor, as one from law enforcement, or even as a journalist.  I speak as a broadcaster that understands that our stations have impact and a responsibility.

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I heard someone play the violin this morning in church.  I love the violin, but for a different reason than most.  I love the violin because my mother played the violin.

“Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself.  It is if they are showing you the way.”

“Each person has a different set of biases and values and assumptions, and those world views are influenced by their parents, their schools, the places they live and the experiences they’ve had to date.  Their world view is the lens they use to determine whether or not they’re going to believe a story.”

How does your station connect with the things your listeners love most? 

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One of my favorite books as a kid was, “1001 Riddles for Children.”  I still remember one of the riddles…

Riddle: “How many legs does a sheep have if you call a tail a leg?”

Answer:  “Four.  Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one.”

The ratings arrive.  They are down.  Our impulse to react.  DO SOMETHING!

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Those words haunted me recently at a radio station.  While they were spoken by a program director about the general manager those words could have once been spoken about me.

We only know what we know.  Until the moment we say that we’re ready to learn, we’re stuck… with only the things in the rear view mirror as a reference.

“Everything I know I learned from someone else.”

Simply stated, strategy is about the big idea; why do we exist?  What do we stand for?  What difference are we making?

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