Having spent more than twenty years working with radio stations in Southern California it is frightening to watch the wildfires destroy homes, neighborhoods, and lives. From Santa Monica to Pacific Palisades to the beautiful drive up through Malibu on the Pacific Coast Highway I react with the perspective that I’ve been there and have friends there.

A reminder: the recent wildfires in Southern California show us that with every event heroes emerge.

I reckon’ the most common New Year’s resolutions are about losing weight, quitting smoking, and getting more exercise.

What if we took those three ideas and applied them to our radio stations?

Since everything from Time Magazine to Rotten Tomatoes to Rolling Stone compile their own “best of” list for the year, I figured I might as lob a pitch in that direction. Plus it will give me another week to contemplate my new year’s resolutions for Frost Advisory #749. (That’s a tease).

The Christmas season brings out the best in our format. More people tune to our stations than at any other time of the year, some stations topping a million listeners per week, once unthinkable in our format.

Many stations do their best job of connecting on common values with stories of hope, forgiveness, and fresh beginnings. Over the last several weeks I have heard some amazing stories and songs.

I can’t walk through our kitchen without stopping and smiling.

Last Christmas our daughters gave us a Frameo. It’s a rectangular picture frame that can display digital photos from your smart phone.

At church yesterday I sat next to Warren. Warren is 50 years old and had never been to our church. In fact, Warren had never been to church.

I learned that Warren is a recovering drug addict and alcoholic and now has sclerosis of the liver. He was sitting next to his mother Maggie who had prayed for him for many, many years. Maggie held Warren’s hand like I imagined she did when he was a little boy.

Sitting next to Warren gave me a fresh perspective of a place so very familiar to me – my own church – for twenty years. I am on the inside getting a glimpse of what it looks like from the outside.

Every Christmas for the last several years I’ve thrown a few coins into the Salvation Army bucket down the street at Hillcrest Food Market. But not this year. Nope. They’ve changed their bell ringer. The guy standing outside the store ringing the bell is different this season, and I’m upset!

Ludicrous, isn’t it? Obviously, no one would stop donating to the Salvation Army because Fred replaced Ted at the bucket. That’s because…

This week’s Frost Advisory is a departure from my regular thoughts on how to make your radio station really snazzy and neato. Instead I’d like to take this moment during Thanksgiving week to encourage you in the important work you’re doing at your station.

I’m told that the word ‘encouragement’ means literally to pour courage into. This word appears over 100 times in the New Testament. In fact, Acts 9:31 describes the Holy Spirit as an Encourager.

I’m blessed to work with many of the brightest folks in our format. Some are Ph.D. level, and some are just sticking their head out of the egg. But they have one thing in common. They are all THINKERS.

Always thinking. Always imaging things better. Never accepting “we’ve always done it that way” as the best we can do.

My talented friend Lisa Barry shared with me a lesson she learned from a lady who does sign language in church.

“In order to ‘sign’ a song about Passover, she has to start with Jerusalem, so she signs that first even though it’s not in the song yet. THEN, she signs Jesus, which is her index finger sweeping across in front of her. So the song makes sense with Jesus walking into Jerusalem. Even though in the song Jerusalem comes second.

With sign language you have to start with the ‘what’ because otherwise, there’s no context to what you’re about to say. You start with the ‘what’ and then you can give them the ‘who’ and ‘what’s happening’.”