…

We tend to focus on the successful.

We laud the CEOs of the “hot” companies and shine our spotlights on them when things are going well.

Yet the truth is, every company and every industry will eventually hit some rough patches and what they do then is what we should be watching so closely.

We should judge companies, leaders, and ourselves on what we do on our worst days.

Here’s the hard truth, Radio people: Your station is only as good as its worst air “talent.”

That person you put on your station in the middle of the night on weekends.

That spot written and voiced by your sales guy because you can’t pay for copy writers and voice actors – or even a Production Director these days.

Your station is only as good as the worst song in your 350-song library, the one with big burn and low positives that you need as “fill.”

Your station is only as good as your worst response to the trauma your town experiences when the tornado strikes in the dead of night, or the mass shooting happens after 6pm, and you have no live air talent at all.

Crickets.

You need to listen like a listener, every day, every daypart.

Listen to every spot.

Listen to every jock.

Listen when keeping yourself and your family alive depends on your station’s coverage right now!

Your station is only as good as it sounds whenever one listener experiences it, really needs it…

and that doesn’t always happen just as you start playing a Power, or run a national spot, or when your Morning Show is actually funny, or when you have live talent inside your station to handle your local emergency.

How disheartening is that?

Well, it’s the truth.