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As I approach my
40th anniversary in radio I’ve been privileged to work with dozens
and dozens of people much smarter and talented who have generously
poured themselves into me. This week’s programming tip is a result
of taking those influences to discern the decision making dynamics
at dozens of Contemporary Christian radio stations over the last
decade. I’ve worked with radio stations that have become award
winning in the industry, and I’ve worked with stations that have
been a short blip on the screen. (Anyone remember Shine 97.7 in
Albuquerque? I didn’t think so). This week’s tip isn’t about the
music you play, the disc jockeys you hire, or how much marketing and
research a station has. This tip is about how trust is developed,
and its impact on a station’s progress.
The three stages of success is ultimately about relationships and
trust. This is true between an outside resource (like me) and
station management, between an air talent and the PD, or between a
PD and a GM. I’ll change the names to protect the innocent and use
the PD/GM relationship since most reading this tip have those
positions.
Stage #1: You know something we don’t know. You’re hired!
It’s a no brainer. You have value or you wouldn’t have been hired.
That value can be expertise, experience, track record, or on-air
skills.
Stage #2: Tell us what we already understand or agree with and
we’ll do it. We promise!
When a PD makes recommendations to the GM and the GM says, “That’s a
good idea,” it’s likely to be a rather effortless process. While
that may seem simple, there is a problem with that dance rhythm.
Since we can assume that the PD has programming expertise and
experience that the GM doesn’t (or the PD wouldn’t have been hired
in the first place) that station isn’t benefitting from the gap
between the PD and the GM’s programming expertise. When we do only
that with which we already agree or understand we fail to go beyond
our own knowledge. Former National Christian Radio Association
president Joe Battaglia says, “It is impossible to learn what is
outside ourselves from inside ourselves.” Golfer Tom Watson puts it
this way, “Everything I know I learned from someone else.”
I’ll reiterate that
this tip isn’t about the music you play, the disc jockeys you hire,
or how much marketing and research a station has. The three stages
of success is ultimately about relationships and trust which holds
true just as much for an outside resource and station management,
between an air talent and the PD, or between a chief engineer and a
GM.
Stage #1: You know something we don’t know. You’re hired!
You add value or you wouldn’t have been hired. That value can be
expertise, experience, track record, on-air skills, or that you’re
the cousin of the owner.
Stage #2: Recommend something, and if we agree with you we’ll do
it.
If we only do that with which we already know or agree with, we
don’t take full advantage of a perspective and expertise beyond our
own. That’s true in engineering, programming, sales, or on the
operating table.
Imagine that you’re lying in a hospital bed and the surgeon enters
your room and says, “I’ve thoroughly reviewed the x-rays and I need
to remove your
hippocampus.”
Because of the knowledge gap between you and the surgeon it is
unlikely that you’d respond with, “I disagree”, or “I’ve never had
that done before, so I elect not to!”. It’s even more unlikely that
you would respond with, “I think you should take out my
Greater
Saphenous
instead.”
This week’s programming tip introduces stage #3 success, the stage
that can transform ordinary radio stations to market leaders:
Be willing to do what you don’t understand (yet) or even that
with which you disagree (up until now).
My friend August Turak puts it this way, “Success in life, and by
extension business, often relies on an appreciation for the
counter-intuitive truths that stud reality. For example, the
belief that the sun circles the earth was so intuitive, obvious, and
common sensical that it took thousands of years and some very deep
thinking to discover that the earth in fact circles the sun.
Similarly, in business it may seem like the “obvious” way to
boost sales is by cutting prices, but my own company’s sales only
took off when we became the price leader. It takes a bit of deep
thinking to realize that GM and Chrysler were only cheapening their
brands through incessant discounting on their way to bankruptcy.
Meanwhile sales at companies like BMW were exploding, at least
partially, because they were counter-intuitively raising prices
instead. Bottled water is now a billion dollar industry because some
counter-intuitive, deep thinking genius decided to put a hefty price
tag on a commodity that was, and still is, practically free from the
tap.”
Stage #3 is about listening to those with expertise and experience,
whether that be in programming, marketing, sales, engineering, human
resources, or management. It’s natural to feel an uneasiness at
stage #3 simply because you’ve not been there before. But like a
good work out at the gym that uneasiness is an indication that
you’re exercising new muscles and new accomplishments are ahead.
It is impossible to learn what is outside ourselves from inside
ourselves.
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John 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.
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