I'm a proud parent of a U.S. Marine

By John Frost
Goodratings Strategic Service

I was driving down the freeway yesterday and saw a car with a sticker in the window that read "Proud parent of a U.S. Marine".

Being the patriotic sort I gave the driver a thumbs up as I passed to show my support! She glanced my way, then just as quickly turned away having no clue as to my intentions. The sticker was on her car but wasn't on her mind.

Your radio station is like that.

Lost in the busyness of our day is what is most obvious to the listener. The very reason people tune to us in the first place becomes foggy in a day filled with meetings, e-mails, interruptions, and agendas. I've actually been inside stations where no one was paying attention to what was coming out of the speakers. Apathy produces no fruit.

When we make our programming decisions without considering why people come to us in the first place we ever so subtly build silos where personal agendas trump listener-focused strategy, and the crankiest critic's voice overwhelms that of the typical listener. The one e-mail complaint overrides the 99.9% from which we'll never hear. Subjective terms like "fresh", "stale", "hip", or "cool" permeate our vocabulary, rather than objective concepts such as "familiar", "favorite", "relevant", or "today".

Like the bumper sticker on the car of the mom of the Marine, your station sends a signal of what you're proud. Successful stations strategically link that to what is most meaningful to the listeners!