We hear a lot these days about being “transparent” on the air, and I get what the spirit of that is. But being totally transparent can be too close to the bone.
I always use the term “being open.”
Being open is different, and better. If you’re unsure where the line is between openness and transparency, just remember this: Nobody goes to a party to watch a guy fight with his wife. You’re in the Entertainment business. Some things SHOULDN’T be revealed.
It’s easy.
It’s easy to let grass grow and have weeds in your yard. It’s easy to not practice and be a bad guitar player. It’s easy to be the last player on the bench and not get into the game.
It’s easy to have a bad radio station.
Play anything you want. Wing it with your content. Talk as long as you like.
Get a load of this… my friend Jerry Reynolds, who does “The Car Pro Show” in over 40 markets now, told me that he listens to WBAP in Dallas every morning. When he gets to work, he turns on their app and listens to the show on his phone as he walks into the building. Once in his office, he plugs his phone into his computer (so the battery won’t run down too much), and continues to listen through his speakers until the show is over.
Now all the statistical evidence today would tell you that this is very untypical…
But I’ll bet it’s not. I’ll bet it never was. People find their favorite personalities and they become friends; companions in their lives. With whatever available time they have, they listen. It’s just that simple.
We forget, don’t we?
We forget what real people go through every day.
We forget the messages they are bombarded with, the struggles they face, the negative influences on their kids.
Real people perceive your radio station within the context of their lives. Often they tune in to get away from the negativity, to be affirmed for the good in people, and to be reminded of the hope we can have through our faith.
The recent hurricanes in Texas and Florida remind us with every event heroes emerge. Yes, the front page is often filled with stories of villains, but our stations have other stories to tell.
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping. To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.”
~Fred Rogers
J.J. Watts used his football fame to raise more than $37 million for hurricane victims in Texas. Houston icon Mattress Mack turned his 100,000 foot furniture showroom into a shelter for those left homeless. Rusty and Jeff are not famous; just a couple of guys with a bass boat, but they are heroes to my friend Ty McFarland after rescuing his family from their flooded neighborhood.
Maybe it is easier for us to see the heroes in extraordinary times but maybe it is just as important to tell the stories when times are ordinary.
With every 9th caller to win a family four-pack of cardboard there is a hero.
With every mom or dad trying to surround their children with positive influences there is a hero.
With every routine traffic accident, with every mundane weather report, with every insignificant time check, someone is being a hero to someone.
But we forget, don’t we?
The other day, for about the gazillionth time, I heard a jock who had a phone call thing going use the exact same story he had told to start the whole thing off as he went into a call.
In our session the next day, I told him, “I don’t get why you’d do this. We just heard that story a few minutes ago.”
His thinking was that if someone just tuned in, they needed a reset to understand the call about it.