John Frost “Kicking the New Year Off Right”

Kicking the New Year off right!

I reckon’ the most common New Year’s resolutions are about losing weight, quitting smoking, and getting more exercise.   

What if we took those three ideas and applied them to our radio stations?  

Lose weight!  We know that eating junk food is unhealthy, but clogging up your radio station with junk programming can weigh you down, too.  Junk programming is anything that doesn’t match your listeners’ needs and expectations, or anything done poorly.  The discipline of losing weight isn’t much fun, but you’ll love it when you’re slim and trim.     

Quit smoking!   Smoking can be terribly addictive, but clogging up your radio station’s arteries with bad programming can be unhealthy, as well.  We justify by saying we’ve always done it that way, we can’t afford to do research or train the talent, but we know deep down in our capilaries that the station would be healthier if only good stuff was flowing through our programming veins.  

Exercise more!  Many stations allow clutter to lower their energy and give them the blahs. Flabby areas of your programming can be avoided with regular discipline.  Consider this;  when you add a promotion, take one away.  When you add a feature, take another away.  When you add a song, delete the weakest one in the library.   With each discipline your radio station will become stronger and more finely tuned.  

    “What you are going to be tomorrow you are becoming today.”  John Maxwell 

John Frost is a partner in Goodratings Strategic Services, and has been a successful major market disc jockey and program director for such companies as CBS, Cap Cities, Westinghouse, Sandusky, Gannett, and Alliance during his 38 year broadcast career. John joined Goodratings’ partner Alan Mason in 1999. Contact John at john@goodratings.com