If you and I made a list of things that make a radio station ordinary we’d probably come up with the same list.

That’s the thing about ordinary. There is no surprise. There is no delight.

Consistency is good.

Predictability is not.

Consistency provides a foundation to really neat stuff like fulfilling expectations, delivering on promises, being trustworthy and dependable.

Predictability leads to doing things the same way, defaulting to monotonous patterns, and missing out on the transformational power of creativity.

“While a speaker … arranges his words into understandable sentences, the listener … anticipates and discounts the predictable.”

Roy Williams

Predictability is why we no longer notice a billboard we’ve passed numerous times. 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. In our format that often results in…

Nice Christian people saying nice Christian things to nice Christian people.

My talented friend Brant Hansen once 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.”

Tim Harford, “Jumpstarting Creativity”

Here’s a warning sign: When your own staff isn’t even listening to your station in the offices and hallways it likely means your station has become too predictable. Why listen, after all? They’ve heard it all before.

Here’s a free tip: to make your station more compelling than ordinary, still do all the good stuff, but just start in a different place.

Thanks to my five-year-old granddaughter Willow for inspiring this Frost Advisory with her drawing of Plutchick’s Wheel of Emotions. Although she used crayons and drew outside the lines. Which may be the point.