If you and I made a list of things that make a radio station ordinary we’d likely come up with the same list.
That’s the thing about ordinary. There is no surprise. There is no delight.
Consistency is good.
Predict abil ity is not. Consistency allows fulfilling expectations, delivering on promises, being dependable.
Predictability does things the same way, defaults to monotonous patterns, and ignores the transformative power of creativity.
“While a speaker… arranges his words into understandable sentences, the listener … anticipates and discounts the predictable.”
Roy Williams
Predictable is why we no longer see a billboard we’ve passed for weeks. It’s the reason our mind starts to wander when Uncle Virgil tells the same story over and over. It’s the reason ordinary radio stations can’t capture our attention, much less our hearts.
Nice Christian people saying nice Christian things to nice Christian people.
My friend Brant Hansen asked me, “Do people in this industry even realize we are all in the creativity business? I don’t think they do. Or creativity is just too hard, and we’re too lazy. Not sure which.”
“Creativity is different from talent; it’s different from technical skill. If you’re always starting in the same place your skill, and your abilities, and your habits just become a cliché. And if you want to go somewhere different suddenly the skill will find a new way to express itself and you’ll reach new heights. The best way to finish somewhere different is to start somewhere different.”
“Jumpstarting Creativity” by Tim Harford
When you don’t hear your radio station being played in your own offices and hallways it means your station has become predictable.
If you want your station to be something other than ordinary, just start in a different place.
*Thanks to my friend John Randolph for sharing Plutchick’s “Wheel of Emotions”
