The Five Rules Of Flow (Part 2)

In my last article, I proposed that one of the most vital elements to a successful radio station is Flow. It's one of the key factors that separates decent stations from truly great ones. My working definition of Flow (as best as I can currently articulate) is as follows: Flow is the multi-layered sense of satisfaction that comes from listening to a series of sonic elements that are progressively more satisfying the longer you listen.

There is no one right recipe for Flow, but there are some general rules that will help you find the right Flow for your station. In fact, I propose that there are Five Universal Rules of Flow. Here are the first two:

THE RULES OF FLOW

1. THE FEELINGS YOU HAVE ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE HEARING RIGHT NOW ARE INFLUENCED BY THE FEELINGS YOU HAVE ABOUT WHAT YOU JUST HEARD.
2. THE FEELINGS YOU HAVE ABOUT WHAT YOU JUST HEARD ARE INFLUENCED BY THE FEELINGS YOU HAVE ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE HEARING RIGHT NOW.

Picking up where we left off last time, the key takeaway from Rules One and Two is this: no audio element on your station exists in a vacuum. It exists within the context of the element before, and the element after. A station that Flows well gives the target listener a positive cumulative listening experience during their entire listening occasion. To accomplish this, the station gives the listener a bunch of smaller moments of delight throughout that listening occasion. The really cool part: when this is done artfully and consistently, the end result is even more powerful than the sum of its delightful moments.

Let's think of it like a Delight Bank Account for a moment. When your listener tunes in, the account is empty. Each time the listener hears something that lights up the pleasure center of their brain, you make a deposit. Each time the listener hears something that snaps them out of that delight, you lose some money. Poof! It's gone. Where did it go? Who knows? It's a bank fee, Russian hackers, I don't know. The point is, you didn't withdraw it, you lost it. (Note to self: Work on better analogies that don't break down at the end. Sheesh.)

It is possible to make lots of small deposits at the beginning of a listening occasion, take a wrong turn in your Flow, and lose even more than you initially deposited. It leaves the listener with an overall negative listening experience. This is why Rule Two of Flow is the feelings you have about what you just heard are influenced by the feelings you have about what you're hearing now.

It doesn't have to be as dramatic as an overall negative experience with your bank account in the red. There can be a constant give-and-take, an ongoing deposit and loss cycle.

For better or for worse, we live in a society that's constantly rating and ranking. We assign a certain number of stars to nearly every experience in life. We rate our Uber drivers, our restaurant experiences on Yelp, our purchases on Amazon, and so on. Every song transition, with every DJ break, with everything that plays on your station is a new opportunity to be rated - and it's happening constantly inside the minds of the listeners. You can give them 10 minutes of solid, amazing Flow and then do something that makes them very unhappy and wreck the whole thing.

I'm intentionally avoiding talking about specific tactics here, because there is no one recipe for proper Flow. This is art and science colliding; it would be arrogant for me to pretend to create a box in which it might fit. But as we continue to discuss the rest of the Five Rules of Flow, my hope is that you'll begin to clarify the right tactics for your station.

BONUS: Let's go straight into Rule Three. If for no other reason, because Rule Four is gonna take some serious explanation, but Rules Two and Three are pretty straightforward.

THE RULES OF FLOW

1. THE FEELINGS YOU HAVE ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE HEARING RIGHT NOW ARE INFLUENCED BY THE FEELINGS YOU HAVE ABOUT WHAT YOU JUST HEARD.
2. THE FEELINGS YOU HAVE ABOUT WHAT YOU JUST HEARD ARE INFLUENCED BY THE FEELINGS YOU HAVE ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE HEARING RIGHT NOW.
3. THE ENTIRETY OF THE STATION'S CORE SOUND SHOULD BE ACCESSABLE WITHIN THE AVERAGE LISTENING OCCASION.

Rule Three of Flow may seem like Music Director 101 sort of stuff. Yep. But we're dealing with the foundational concepts here, so it needs to be included.

How long is your average listening occasion? If your station subscribes to a ratings service (there are so many choices, ahem) you know the exact answer to this question. For many stations, it is somewhere between 8 and 15 minutes. A good goal, then, would be to encapsulate the breadth of your core sound within each quarter-hour. Not necessarily the depth, but certainly the breadth.

This goes far beyond music. Let's think about station imaging. And by that, I mean your DJ's, who establish the lion's share of your station's imaging (it's true, my production director friends. You have immense power in ways DJ's can't ever reach, but when it comes to 'imaging' for a Christian station, your DJ's paint with big, broad brush strokes, and you get to create the beauty within the details). Does your hourly clock allow the DJ to give the breadth of their potential impact in each quarter hour? I'm not suggesting a stop-set every 15 minutes, but at least make sure you have talk elements built-in to each quarter hour that allow them to shine.

Okay, NOW we give the production directors their dues. Does each quarter-hour give them a chance to communicate the branding that you've asked them to express?

I think you understand the point. Think about all of the elements that compose the experience for your listener, and make sure that they get the complete picture of your brand within their listening occasion. This is vital to Flow.

In my next article, we will dive into the very cutting edge of where the art and science collide. Rule Four of Flow explains the success of modern pop music, taps into MRI-based music research and possibly even the very core of the human experience. It is a quantum leap from Rules One, Two and Three. Not more important, but more nuanced.

Remember, Flow applies to virtually every human experience. These articles are written specifically to address how Christian radio can harness these principles - but you'll find Flow everywhere. I'm not trying to be some granola-Zen-'the Dude abides' kinda guy here. But keep your eyes, ears and heart open to Flow. Become a student of Flow. The streaming services are spending a LOT of money on artificial intelligence designed to out-program you. Like, more money than your ministry will ever raise-ever. But they will never be able to make an algorithm for Flow.

I'm a firm believer that because Flow is a collision of art and science, it will always be a human advantage. Don't miss it.