The Moving Target

I’m going to make a statement that some might consider blasphemous: Setting goals is not the way for a radio station to be successful. Here’s why: A goal is a destination. A destination is an end. Have you ever gone on a long hike, and you’ve set a particular lake or mountain top as your destination? What happens when you finally get there? You stop! How many radio stations have you known that have reached the pinnacle of success only to lose that position shortly thereafter to another station? The reason is: the people at the station stopped trying. They reached their destination.

If a goal is going to be effective, it needs to be a moving target. It’s okay to use some guideposts along the route as markers of success. For example, you could set a certain target you’d like to reach by a certain date, and use that as a measure of success. But too many programmers have set a particular goal as their mission, and when they reach it, they go on the defensive so that no one will steal away their little victory crown.

The inspired leader keeps reinventing the radio station so it never gets complacent.

A Radio Station of Few Words

You’re at a concert where a deejay comes out on the stage before the show to make some announcements. He goes on so long that you can feel the audience getting impatient. They have come to this hall to hear music, not some stupid deejay. 

The point of this story is that listeners generally do not tune in to a music radio station to hear a deejay trying to be clever or cute. They tune in because they like the music the station plays.

Here’s the key to maximizing your station’s potential: be concise. Be the station of few words. Deejays should be prepared every time they go on the air. Some deejays have a tendency to meander. They talk in circles, many times about nothing. They take phone calls from listeners with nothing interesting to say. This is usually done in the name of entertainment. But who is being entertained?

Imagine you go to a nightclub to see a comedian. The comedian comes on stage and has no routine prepared. He just walks out and starts interacting with the audience. Some comedians can pull this off, and it could be very funny. But this level of comedian is very rare. Instead, most comedians have a routine that they have rehearsed and prepared, with very specific timing and rhythm. It’s this focus that keeps the skit moving along and interesting.

Many deejays spend their time doing things other than preparing for their next on-air break. One of my favorite examples is the time I walked into the control room at a legendary rock radio station. The live deejay on the air had his monitor turned all the way down with his back to the control board, reading a book. Twenty seconds before the song ended, a light flashed, letting him know the song was ending. He spun around in his chair, opened his microphone, backsold the music, started the next element, turned the monitor back down, and then spun around in his chair to continue reading. If this person isn’t even listening to the station, what about his audience?

Prepared deejays think about how they are going to use their precious few moments on mic to share as much pertinent information as they can, in an entertaining manner. A radio station has forward momentum with a focused deejay. Some radio stations have even installed 40-second timer clocks that start flashing lights in the deejay’s face when time is up, and some have even gone as far as installing microphone disablers after a certain amount of time. These kinds of heavy-handed restrictions don’t really get to the root of the problem.

Besides the live talk elements, keep all of the recorded stagers, drops and seg-assists short and to the point, too. With so many listening choices, as soon as a radio station begins to meander, you are giving listeners the chance to tune away to see what else is available. Keep everything that’s not music concise and to the point. Be a station of few words, and each word will carry more weight.