Do you know it?

“Business isn’t always about numbers. Actually, it rarely is. It’s about people, and emotion.

What about the dollars? The cash flow? The share price? Don’t kid yourself. Those are the by-products, the results.

Anyone who is truly sophisticated about business recognizes this essential truth.” ~ Robert Safian, Editor, Fast Company

It always comes back to this: We are in the people and emotion business.

Ratings, and the revenue they bring, depend on understanding this.

Ratings and revenue are the by-products of content that is focused on the listener.

Not the CEO. Not the stock market and share price.

On the listener!

Content that moves people to listen now, and keep listening tomorrow, that entertains, that inspires, that turns them into disciples singing your station’s praises, that is the only thing we have to sell.

People, not numbers.

People just like you, struggling to make sense of our chaotic world, doing their best to raise their children, to take care of aging parents, pay their mortgage, afford their medical care, celebrate anniversaries and birthdays, and mourn death and lost loves.

When you focus on those people, you can’t blithely punch up that next stupid liner.

“We’ve never worried about numbers. In the market place, Apple is trying to focus the spotlight on products, because products really make a difference. You can’t con people in this business. The products speak for themselves.“

That was Steve Jobs in 1985. He understood this essential truth.

We can’t con listeners into thinking liners and over-commercialization are “content,” no matter what Radio’s leaders proclaim.