Mason Morning Minute

Positive Is As Positive Does, Too!

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“If you have a positive attitude and constantly strive to give your best effort, eventually you will overcome your immediate problems and find you are ready for greater challenges.” – Pat Riley, NBA coach

We looked into “happy” yesterday.  I am pressed to think of any important innovation that came about by negativity.  So why not positivity today?  They are brother and sister.

So a couple of thoughts:

Negativity often happens when you’re not aware of it.  It becomes a way of being without you realizing it.  I once worked at a station that I found very negative, so I went out and bought a boat horn.  Looks like a can of spray paint, but is very, very loud.  Then, every time someone in the station was negative I blew the horn.  Within weeks the atmosphere of the station changed dramatically.  A loud noise showed them how often they were negative.

I know people who will tell me I’m not being realistic or too Pollyanna.  But where does it say that reality is negative?  Except maybe on some TV reality shows.  It’s not always easy, but reality is what you make of what’s happening to you.  You have the choice between seeing it positively or negatively.  I prefer to think like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland:  “I’m not strange, weird, off nor crazy, my reality is just different from yours.”  And it’s positive.

Mason Morning Minute

Happy Is As Happy Does

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“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life.  When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I wrote down ‘happy’.  They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life. “– John Lennon

The Pharrell Williams song with the simple name of “Happy” has become ubiquitous.  People like to sing it because…well, it makes us happy.  It makes us feel good, to smile.  It’s not only psychological, it’s physiological.    Being happy pumps the right chemicals into your body.

So why don’t we spend more time being happy?

Think about how much time you “invest” in being unhappy, even building on unhappy to become unhappier.  We create unhappiness in ourselves and others, and then we wallow in it.  Weird.

I’ve been told that other people can make me unhappy by what they do or don’t do…but that’s not true.  I have a choice of being happy or unhappy, and so do you.

Mom’s are right, happiness is one of the keys to life.  There are others too, but not as much fun.

Frost Advisory

Frost Advisory #223 – What do you believe?

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It’s ironic, isn’t it?

In a format that is all about belief, few stations ever share what they believe.

Belief Statement

Not a doctrinal statement, but a brand position. A flag in ground. A line in the sand. A reason to be on the air.

Chick-fil-A has one. Proof? Your money is no good there on Sunday.

Apple. Proof? So easy there are no instructions.

Coca-Cola. BMW. Harley-Davidson, my favorite example that I talk every time I’m asking to speak.

Even people that don’t own a Harley want to be identified with the brand. We can’t even get our own listeners to put a bumper sticker on their car.

In his TED talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action, Simon Sinek says,

“People don’t buy what you do; they buy WHY you do it. If you don’t know why you do what you do, and people respond to why you do what you do, then how will you ever get people to vote for you, or buy something from you, or, more importantly, be loyal and want to be a part of what it is that you do?……

Dr. King wasn’t the only man in America who was a great orator. He wasn’t the only man in America who suffered in a pre-civil rights America. He didn’t go around telling people what needed to change in America. He went around and told people what he believed.

‘I believe, I believe, I believe,’ he told people. And people who believed what he believed took his cause, and they made it their own, and they told people. And lo and behold, 250,000 people showed up on the right day at the right time to hear him speak.

How many of them showed up for him? Zero. They showed up for themselves. And it wasn’t about black versus white: 25 percent of the audience was white. We followed, not for him, but for ourselves. And, by the way, he gave the ‘I have a dream’ speech, not the ‘I have a plan’ speech.”

Mason Morning Minute

Riding the Hurricane

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“A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are for. Sail out to sea and do new things.” – Rear Admiral Grace Hopper

It was September, and we were sailing through a hurricane in the Caribbean on our way back to port at Norfolk.  I’d roped myself to part of the ship so I could go outside and spend time “experiencing” the hurricane first hand.

It’s good to be young and bullet proof.

I found that if I looked straight forward as we rode the waves at one moment I would see nothing but blue sky ahead, as we rode up, and then nothing but water when the wave took us down.  If I wanted to see the sky when we’d hit the low end, I had to look up quite a ways.  What a ride!

I think there’s similarities between the experience of my wild ride on a flat-bottomed amphibious ship and PPM.  You definitely want to strap yourself in, and the journey will be wild, not just all up.  We’re excited to see the blue sky, and a little fearful when you can only see blue sky by looking up.

Just like sailing, PPM isn’t all just up…or down.  You’re going to see both ups and downs.  But when you’re riding the bottom part of the wave it doesn’t mean you’re sinking, it means “up” is next.  Translation?  There are so many variables that it’s actually doubtful that the bottom of the wave is a reflection of real life, any more than nothing but blue sky at the top is.

If we ride the ups and downs of a radio station as if these swings were reality we’re going to sap the creativity out of our stations, because anything new you try is going to cause some sort of reaction.  We want to feel “safe” and secure.  So often innovation and risk taking evaporate.

What if reality isn’t whether you’re riding a hurricane, up and down,and instead is what you dowhile you’re riding a hurricane?

Tommy Kramer Tip

Tommy Kramer Tip #68 – The Meat Section

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Ah, another morning of listening to a team show. Waiting for the ‘biggie’ – a break in their biggest hour, when they have the most cume. Here it comes. Will it be the two of them weighing in on something everybody is talking about today? Will it be something really inventive, that only they would do?

The song ends, I turn up the volume, and hear… “Things that are supposed to be bad for you, but really aren’t.”

“Filler” material, total B-grade stuff. At best, just mildly interesting. Certainly not compelling. It wasn’t top of mind, it didn’t say anything unique about the show or the station, and there was no local tie-in.

So why do it?

When you “shop” for Content, stay in the meat section, not the tofu aisle. As a listener, if I don’t care about what you’re talking about, it’s easy for me to just not listen.

The less generic you get, the more definable you get. There’s a huge difference between asking someone to go see a spy movie, or asking them to go see a James Bond movie. I don’t care about a nameless, faceless spy, but if it’s a new Bond movie, let’s go early so I can get a hot dog and some popcorn.

Mason Morning Minute

Changing Listeners Minds

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“Persistent stories that are true, amplified by the tribe… that’s what changes behavior.” – Seth Godin

future and past

Have you listened to some of the imaging you hear on radio? Not quite “the more you listen the more you hear,” but close. We’re so busy talking about our own perspective and our own needs, that we forget that stories, not slogans, have impact and are memorable.

We write for print, use cliches, and sound very radio. But it’s not just us. Much of what you see in TV advertising falls into the same category. But we should expect more of ourselves, we’re radio people.

David Ogilvy, one of the greatest marketing people of all time, once said “The consumer isn’t a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything.”

With that in mind, take a listen to your imaging. What kind of “image” are you looking for? Is that what you hear?

If you listen to how your fans describe your station to each other, you get insight into what’s important. The best stations find a way to reflect that self image.

Mason Morning Minute

The Delusional Manager

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“In the past a leader was a boss. Today’s leaders must be partners with their people… they no longer can lead solely based on positional power.” – Ken Blanchard

boss-vs-leader

There’s a great scene in Forrest Gump where the Army Drill Instructor asks Gump what his responsibility is, and Gump replies, “To do whatever you tell me to drill sergeant.”  Of course the DI thinks Gump is a genius.

Unfortunately that’s often the perspective today’s boss has too.  They think they can make anyone do most anything they want by ordering.  They’re not only wrong, it’s a dangerous misapprehension. There’s a term for this kind of management, KITA, which stands for Kick In The A… never mind, you get the idea.

Only the very deluded think they can drive their team to greater success by snapping the whip and making all the decisions.  The landscape is dotted with people who thought they were leaders, and turned out to be bosses.  Usually they thought they were the only ones with all the ideas.  They thought they were expert leaders, when really they were strong bosses.

If you’ve ever felt demeaned, chances are you’re working with a manager, not a leader.  Sometimes they want to dominate you, but more often they just want you to do what they think is right.  Life seems very simple to these people.  They’re the Lone Ranger and you’re Tonto.

I know it’s not fun for the employee, and imagine it’s not fun for the boss either.  Ordering people around doesn’t really work and is followed by frustration.  In real life you need to be more like John Wooden and less like a boss.

Mason Morning Minute

What Goes Up, Must Come Down

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“Emotional roller coasters tend to emphasize the lows, tend to be more affected by the low, by the dip in an emotional roller coaster than when you are at the peak.” – Rush Limbaugh

Roller Coaster

Roller coasters always clank and make a lot of noise as they haul you, and everyone else in the cars, up to the top for the first dip.  Funny how, with a roller coaster, it’s the dip everyone looks forward to, and they relax as they build for a drop again.  Unfortunately, we don’t see that happen with ratings with the same delight.

All it takes is for a little drop to cause gray panic, and I don’t mean screaming in delight either.

Which is too bad, because those ups and downs that come with a roller coaster are are part of life too.  Up is never straight up, it’s always up and down over time, but up overall.  When you look at your ratings over a longer period of time, like Nielsen suggests, you can tell if it’s a trend or fluctuation.  Reacting in the short term produces the reality of self-fulfilling prophecy – that most radio stations die from the inside, not the outside.

I guess the moral of the story is this: If you want to crash your station in the quickest, most efficient way, focus on the fluctuations, especially the down ones like Rush says.  Rattle your troops, shake the unshakable, confuse the future, and paint yourself into a “reactionary” corner.  If you want to continue to grow, have a little maturity and understand the ups and downs of Nielsen and life, and be the one that stays on focus.

Frost Advisory

Frost Advisory #222 – What We Know To Be True

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Ratings are up! What have we done right?

Ratings are down! What do we change?

Evaluating your programming based upon the tiny sample size in the PPM ratings is a slippery slope. I’ve seen a station lose 100,000 cume in a week and go up in share. I’ve seen four meters from a family away for a long weekend cut a station’s share in half.

So, how do we know what to do when the ratings come in?

The Truth

I suggest that we can learn something about programming our radio stations by looking at our faith journey.

As Christians we search for guidance through the truth of the Word and wise counsel.

“Thy word is truth” (John 17:17b)

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16

I realize its a bit wacky to put the Bible and market research in the same sentence, but I think its fair to say that research is the most objective reference point in evaluating whether your station’s programming is on track.

It can show you the strengths and weaknesses of your station, the overall appeal of your format, and what messaging will be meaningful to your fans and conducive to attracting new listeners. This valuable resource can also uncover the strength of personalities, the relative importance of features or service elements, and whether the staff should get free coffee.

While we all love to tinker it is important not to overreact to changes in the behavior of a few panelists in the weekly or monthly ratings. If there’s a sudden burp on the PPM radar go back to What We Know to Be True. Objectivity is found only in market or music research, not the comments of the sales manager’s cousin or the latest complaint from a listener.

As an example:

Every year I’m involved in discussions about the validity of all-Christmas music programming, an often polarizing programming tactic where smart people can disagree. While I’ve made recommendations on both sides of the argument depending upon the station’s goals and competitive dynamics, in a recent discussion I went back to What We Know to Be True. That station’s market research revealed that 80% of their listeners said they would listen all or most of the time to a station that played all Christmas music. In other words, if they didn’t do it their own listeners would likely tune somewhere else for it.

That one piece of research made their decision obvious. Without it we might still be talking about how Aunt Minnie doesn’t like Burl Ives.

Tommy Kramer Tip

Tommy Kramer Tip #67 – Bumpers: Why?

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In the continuing battle to get more “right brain” elements into radio stations, I recently had a client station that was still playing “bumpers” – those things that would end a break by the morning team with a bumper (what some people call a “punctuator”) like “Shaker and Blotto…on 102.5 The Rock” into the commercial stopsets.

Bumpers were a bad idea when they first came on the scene a couple of decades ago, and one of the main uses for them was in syndicated shows. The thinking was that you had to remind the listener (who apparently must be an idiot to most programmers) what the name of the show was, and/or what the name of the station was. But in the real world – the listener’s world – he hears the show’s name or the station’s name, then a commercial. So guess what image is carried forward? You = commercials.

Plus, the bumper destroys the First Exit, the most powerful radio technique I’ve ever come up with, by literally stopping the momentum instead of moving forward seamlessly and having the spotbreak on you almost before you’re even aware of it. (If you’re unfamiliar with The First Exit, please see Tip #3 on my blog site.)

It’s easier to see how nonsensical this is if you visualize a real-life conversation. If we’re sitting over lunch talking and I make a good point, I don’t have an announcer come over to the table and say “Tommy Kramer!” after it. That would be very weird.

This is just another one of those old radio things that sounds Strategic in the planning stage, but is actually an incomplete thought. If you’re good, identify yourself regularly when it’s appropriate to do so, and have true Momentum, people will learn and remember who you are and where they heard it. Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory don’t use bumpers into commercials, so why should we?

Momentum trumps everything else. Period. Bumpers are an impediment to momentum. No amount of so-called “branding” can overcome that. While radio people see promos, bumpers, and commercials as different things, in the listener’s world, there are just two elements – Music, and things that aren’t music. To the listener, the bumper is just a commercial for you.

Oh, and let’s do away with the little movie and TV “drops”, too. They were great 20 years ago, but they’re not new anymore. I say just get into the spotbreak, and make everyone else sound like they have to quack their names out before they can move forward.