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I know
this is an unusual headline for a programming tip but that one
sentence is all I know about Mamie Wiggins, other than that she was
100 years old and died last Tuesday. I know those things because I
was reading The Washington Post last week and ran across her
obituary. To me that is Mamie’s legacy.
Your station also has a legacy. You are writing another chapter in
that legacy every day.
What
do people say when they talk about your radio station? It is
something as worthy as the headline about Mamie’s devotion to
helping the homeless, or is your station’s legacy built on something
less significant?
Is your station known as the station that plays 25 minute music
sweeps without any talk, or is your station known as one that helps
your community to be a better place to live and raise a family?
Is your station known as the station that gives away free CD’s with
a contest on the morning show every day at 7:25, or is your station
known as one that helps worthy organizations in your community
connect with volunteers that want to help others?
Is
your station known as the one with the joke of the day, or is your
station known as the one who honors moms and dads for the most
important commitment they’ll ever make—raising their children with
values, behaviors, and attitudes that will help shape their lives so
they can go out and make a difference in the world?
Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing inherently bad with a radio
station having amusing little features on the air if they are
appropriately executed and targeted.
But
those things don’t matter unless your station matters.
In his book, “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”, Donald Miller
poses the provocative thought that if they made a movie about a man
who wanted to buy a Volvo it wouldn’t be a very interesting movie.
He goes on to point out that many of us live our lives that way.
Mamie
Wiggins helped the homeless. What do you want your station’s legacy
to be?
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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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