One of my first programming mentors was a man that had learned from Bill Drake, the man that invented Top 40 radio. Howard had worked in New Orleans, New York, and San Francisco. I had worked in Abilene. There was a knowledge gap between us that was as big as the sky in West Texas. I knew I needed to pay attention.

Howard preached to his young air staff, “Do something.” He knew that people listened to the radio station for an experience. He would not allow us to phone it in nor waste a break.

A side note, I would often do things on the air just to get a reaction from Howard.

For instance, our station was in a market with a major horse racing track and our station carried the race results which seemed to be a big deal to a lot of folks. Well, on Mondays there were no races, but that didn’t stop me from doing my own obscure horse racing results in a dead on impersonation of the track announcer.

After one such parody for the Port-a-Potty Races, I looked up and saw my PD staring at me through the studio glass with a bemused look on his face. No critique. No comment. Just affirmation that he heard SOMETHING GOING ON. That was a good thing.

So why do I bring this up as a Frost Advisory?

I recently traveled to my former hometown where there are Christian stations on the air that are not available in the town where I now live. The contrast was stark. There was nothing going on there.

I didn’t hear anything that wasn’t typical of any other day. No “right now, right here.” No unique voices. No unique camera angles. No messaging of brand values that communicate why the station is on the air in the first place.

If that’s where your station lives, here are a couple of very basic things for you to evaluate:

Is there something going on? Something that is meaningful to me and inspires me to tune in again and again? Do you sound like you’re having a good time? People want to be with people that enjoy what they are doing.

To be continued…