A Brand Warning

We have allowed the negative of what our collective brand means to be seen as a positive for streaming services. That's actually shameful if you read it out loud. It pisses me off every day.

But what can you do, without power, with only your voice and your station?

Remind yourself and your team daily that your station is only as good as the last experience your listener had with it.

If she came and heard eight spots in a row without one song...

If she heard nothing but inane liners and self-congratulatory boasting...

If she heard something too embarrassing to have her kids exposed to without an uncomfortable explanation...

Well, you know how that ends, don't you?

Make every listening experience count for you, to the very best of your ability.

Listeners are swimming in and out of your content constantly, and we now have proof (of what we always knew, but for which we pay a fortune to Nielsen) that they're just as impatient as you or I.

They don't like most commercials, and tune them out. They don't like DJs who babble endlessly about their own lives, who insult their intelligence, who think they're hilarious when, in fact, they're not.

They don't like most of the content we now offer on our stations because we've removed all the content they did like. Why would we do that?

That content is expensive. It requires "air talent," not DJs. It requires preparation and time to think and create and inspire. It requires imagination and risk and occasional failure. It can be second-guessed by every executive anxious about his or her survival up the food chain.

But remember, your station may only get a few listening experiences from most of the potential audience in your town. And really brief listening experiences at that.

What will they hear?

Endless commercials? Chest-thumping liners? People talking who couldn't hold their interest at an office party?

Or, will they hear someone amazing? Someone who tells them stuff they want to know, stuff they need to know so they can share it with their friends. Someone who they want to know in their real life. Someone that makes them laugh and cry, makes them care, makes them see their better selves when they look in the rearview mirror.

It's our choice.

And it really matters now, especially now, when choices are limitless.