Pretty simple, really…

When it comes to non-musical, non-commercial content on music stations, there’s really only two choices…

You either see it as a threat to your ratings, or as an opportunity.

You know your own heart. You know you either fear your air staff when the mic is turned on, or you expect to hear something great.

You either feel the need to control the potential damage by the over-use of liners and sweepers or you anticipate hearing another really great break.

Threat or opportunity?

For the past 20+ years, the threat camp has dominated most markets.

PPM has accelerated the trend because so many stations have hired, or kept, mind-numbingly mediocre “talent.”

We get what we pay for.

When forced to choose between the self-absorbed ramblings of someone you wouldn’t invite to a party at your home, or another song, guess what wins? Every time!

If you’re in the threat camp, there’s really nothing I can say to you. You’re well down the path to being a music box using a limited, repetitive playlist interrupted much too frequently by an ever-increasing, apparently unlimited commercial load.

Ahh, but for those of us who see the stuff between the songs as an opportunity — an opportunity for emotional connection, an opportunity for positive differentiation and bonding, an opportunity for local relationships, an opportunity to be memorable, to be remarkable, to generate word-of-mouth every day — there’s never been a better time to prove it than now, precisely because the comparison is so stark.

You are the ones on the side of radio’s future.

You are the ones I hope to work with this year.

Let’s not wait any longer. Let’s start talking, today, before the opportunity passes…