Stop Doing Good

Matt Stockman,PD K-LOVE Network

I watch a lot of cooking shows. One episode I saw recently featured Gordon Ramsey rescuing a failing restaurant by spending time with the staff and the owners to uncover the problems they were dealing with but couldn't really even see. The first thing Gordon did was reduce the size of the menu from 40 average items, to only the 10 most memorable. When he quizzed the owners about how their menu got so bloated to begin with, they said they added more choices to appeal to a more diverse crowd. Not surprisingly, reducing the menu to 10 great choices actually increased business and created LOTS of new fans.

I think radio stations can fall victim to that same thinking, too. Specialty programming for car lovers, weekend night shows for youth, worship music on Sunday mornings, sponsored ski reports, all request lunch hours, the pet patrol! etc., - while these are all good ideas, they're likely NOT the things that makes your radio station great. In fact, these good ideas might be preventing your radio station from becoming great. Let's face it- another way of describing a radio station that's trying to appeal to a 'wide and diverse audience', is to call it a radio station that lacks focus.

Take some time in the next 30 days, and listen critically to your station... identify 2 or 3 things that you're doing now that need to come off the air, because they detract from your focus. Perhaps it's imaging that's delivering too many different messages. Maybe it's that 1 minute outdoorsman feature. Perhaps it's the 20 songs that make your station sound dated and tired... or a contest that's so established, it's more like wallpaper than something actually enjoyable for new listeners.

There's a very fine line between a great radio station, and a cluttered radio station. You might not be able to trim it all right away, but set out to strip things off the station that- while good- are keeping you from being great... because it isn't laser-targeted on your listener and mission.