Don't Be Afraid, Be Ready

We're lucky guys. Coast to coast, our Audience Development Group team gets to collaborate with some of the best minds in radio history ... people like Jon Coleman, George Johns, Mark Ramsey, Bob Hughes, Larry Patrick, John Dimick, Tripp Eldredge and many more. From our dialog and concept exchange, we've built our library of alpha-thinking, which in turn, we gladly share with you.

Fast water, rapid change, a hue and cry for certainty in an uncertain world; everyone fixates on how to succeed. Sometimes we learn a lot more by performing an autopsy on why companies fail. Here are hunks of red meat -- however pithy -- to pass through your departments.

Reality management defined: a coach's job is to convince someone to do something they really don't want to do, so that they can become something they've always wanted to be.

Anyone can sell great ratings ... can't they?

We celebrate bad ratings and missed sales figures five times longer than good ones.

There are only three types of people in radio: the gifted, the creative, and everyone else.

When a gifted person starts getting creative, the rest of us should just get out of the way.

Failing with a radio station is never fatal; failing to change might be.

There are three categories of people in a cluster who need to be overpaid: the talent who relentlessly bring more listeners to the station, the people who bring in the money, and the manager who hires them.

Since 1997, 90% of radio content has focused on the sending end. Starting now, 90% of radio content had better start with the receiving end.

If an on-air promotion doesn't excite the talent or cause buzz, it's called a sales promotion.

Staff creativity is something you cook up that is brand new ... or something old you do in a brand new way.

If a salesperson is in their job for any other reason than the money, or an air talent is in theirs for any reason other than entertaining, you have the wrong people in the wrong jobs.

Says George Johns: Radio Ink publishes The 40 Most Influential People in Radio. Perhaps they should publish the 40 People Most Responsible for the State of Radio in 2013.

Of the 10 problems coming down the road to meet you, nine of them will never get there.

The confluence of compacted time and money present radio with a simple premise: Cash is king. Without product however, it won't matter.

According to the FCC, CFOs cannot hold licenses.

Companies don't compete, people do.

People don't leave companies, they leave bosses.

The test of a great show is one that produces a great promo.

No matter how good your ratings, a client will soon straighten you out.

Most women left the bar scene when they were about 27. Unfortunately, too many radio programmers target those women who haven't.

Compensation has never been known to create character.

You can accomplish anything with a radio cluster ... providing you don't care who gets the credit.

It's not what you tell your staff that counts. It's what they hear.

Most radio stations seem to sound like their PD.

Since 2000, too many of us have put the technology cart before the performance horse. We've probably overestimated technology in the short term. In the long run, we'll probably underestimate it.

People who aren't funny off the air, shouldn't try to tell jokes on the air; yet they almost always do.

If your station imaging sounds like the PA flight announcements at O'Hare Airport, you're probably not connecting.

It's what's above the bottom line that causes the bottom line. The Holy Grail for sales is this: Tonnage cures everything.

The easiest radio station to make successful is the one that heretofore never existed. A distant second is the one with a new brand, name and address.

Never marry a person you met on the request line or at a remote.

There is no greater cause for celebration than a ratings party.

Holding on to what you have, usually keeps you from having what you want.