Frost Advisory #499 – How To Create Boring Radio

It’s simple. There are only two things in the design of a music radio station. There’s the music, and then there is everything that isn’t music. πŸ’‘

In the design of a successful station the music serves one purpose. The “everything but music” is designed for another purpose.

πŸ’‘!

How a program director designs each will have a transformative impact on the station’s success.

Let’s talk about the everything else.

You can be ordinary, or you can be remarkable. Only remarkable transforms a radio station.

remarkable
Adjective: worthy of notice or attention.
Dictionary.com

“Sometimes I think we forget we are all in the creativity business. And maybe we forget because creating is hard work, and we can be lazy.”

Brant Hansen

Great radio is hard work. I’m privileged to work with several radio stations that are top-rated in their markets. They don’t get there by accident. It takes work. It takes creativity.

“The life of faith is less about gathering information than it is about expanding imagination. The movement Jesus started was a movement of dreamers and visionaries, not a movement of academics and theologians.”

Erwin Raphael McManus, “The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

Consider this: the basic formatic design of a station is like tracing the lines of a great painting. It’s important for design but not what inspires awe.

It’s the creativity between those lines that creates a work of art that people will actually stand in line to see.

“You can’t be boring. Life is boring. The weather is boring. Actors must not be boring.”

Stella Adler, legendary acting coach

Ask yourself this: “What do I have to offer that won’t be ‘typical’?” Because THAT is what will set you apart from almost everyone else across the dial.

Consistency is good. Predictability is death.


John Frost

John has been a successful major market DJ and Program Director for such companies as CBS, Gannett, Cap Cities, Westinghouse, Multimedia, and Sandusky and publishes the Frost Advisory.

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