Such A Seductive Thought

And who doesn't like being seduced?

It's such a seductive thought, that we can just test 700 songs once a year, weed out all the ones below some random number, and listening will rise.

It's such a seductive thought, that we can control how long our 'talent' talks and what they say, and as long as we keep it brief enough, listening will rise.

It's such a seductive thought, that we don't really need marketing, that we can just sell our 'benefits' with a ceaseless repetition of 10 words or less in our perfectly scripted liners, and listening will rise.

It's such a seductive thought, that we can hire a McVay or a Strassell to conduct the orchestras in dozens of cities simultaneously, allowing us to pay less for conductors in each of those cities, and our listening will still rise.

It's such a seductive thought, that we can have one really talented person be the brand in hundreds of cities and listeners won't notice or care if s/he never really mentions their town, and that all the other 'talent' on our stations can be mediocre and inexpensive, and yet our listening will still rise.

It's such a seductive thought, that we can add just a couple more minutes of ads and since every other station in our market is doing that, too, listeners won't notice and listening will still rise.

It's such a seductive thought, that radio can be an algorithm, that we can reduce everything to a formula that is universal and risk-free, easy to manage and forecast and replicate.

But each of these seductive thoughts saps a little more of the joyful, exuberant subjectivity that all great creations possess.

Greatness comes from passion.

Passion is fueled by emotion, not math.

Trust yourself!

Push yourself to create something worth remembering, something totally unique from all others.

If you're going to be seduced, at least choose to be seduced by that.