So, what did you think?

Key findings included playing songs people know, playing songs people love, and creating an environment that helps listeners feel good (particularly important in appealing to new listeners).

Those of us attending CMB’s Momentum in Orlando last week were enlightened by researcher Alan Burns’ findings on how to make a CCM station more attractive to new listeners.

After donuts and decaf, a discussion of these findings featured really smart folks like SOS’ Scott Herrold, Salem’s Mike Blakemore, and Alan Mason, who swooned the ladies with his manly voice..

“Oh, my,” I overheard from one sitting next to me, “he must have been in radio.”

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Being a lifelong learner is a great gift, as reflected in Coach John Wooden’s famous quote.

“Each of us is becoming, becoming something better or something worse.  And we become what we teach and what we learn.”

I have an idea.

If you’re one of the hundreds of Christian radio/music pros to descend on CMB’s Momentum this week in Orlando, open yourself up to learning.  The great irony is that the higher one is in the organizational chart the less inclined toward a learning spirit – just when they need it the most.

“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.

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Senator John McCain died over the weekend.  Many in our format will not even mention it.  Too political, don’tcha know.

Let’s face it.  There is a tension between being culturally relevant and sharing the news of the day that may push a hot button.  In this day of political correctness and social media, is there ANYTHING that isn’t controversial?

Yes, Senator John McCain played in the political sandbox.  He was famous for being a maverick to those in his own political party and for crossing the aisle to work with those with opposing viewpoints.  Either is fodder for spitwad throwing on Twitter.

Meghan McCain posted a remarkable note about her father.

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What’s the best thing you’ve done on the air recently?

It’s a question I often ask air talent I work with, and one that always results in a long pause.

First, it makes people think about what they’ve done on the air recently (few do), and second, it makes them evaluate those things in the context of everything else they’ve done (most never do).

I’m privileged to work with some of the best morning teams in the format; Kevin and Taylor, Scott and Sam, Ellis and Tyler, and Steve and Amy.  Each has worked together for at least ten years, some twenty, and at multiple radio stations together.

I’ve told them that their greatest strength is their greatest weakness.  Their strength is that they are well-schooled in their individual roles, they know each other’s hot buttons, and they know what elements tend to do well.  Their weakness?  It’s real easy to do last week’s show, last month’s show, last year’s show.

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“It is what you make it” – my dad’s advice at various milestones in my life.

There was a time in my career when I considered a radio station no more than the sum total of the things that it did.  The deejays, the music, the jingles, the contests.  Like a sport being nothing more than the players, the field, the goal posts or bases.  If that were true, then places like Cooperstown, New York, or Canton, Ohio, wouldn’t have significance since they aren’t home to the big league players and teams they eulogize.

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