Unless all of your station’s employees have a shared vision and understood direction for the radio station, you will not be able to reach your maximum capacity for product satisfaction or revenue.  The primary areas that need to become one unit are programming and sales.  Far too often, personnel in each department are ruled by a different instinct or nature. By coming up with a shared vision and how to get there, we can channel these forces in the right direction.  The following is a 10 point plan to help you create this type of environment at your radio station.

1. Actually have a group meeting with all sales and programming people (including personalities) to come up with your vision.  If you have already done this you should use this time to reinforce the vision that has already been adopted by some.

2. Each week programming and sales should meet to discuss current and future possibilities for the station.  This helps each department to stay on coarse. 1/2 hour to 45 minutes.

3. The program director should attend and be a part of the primary sales meeting each week.  If there are things you don't want the PD to hear, chances are you don't have that shared vision we are talking about.

4. The sales manager should be a part of the announcers/programming meeting.  If there are things that you don't want the sales manager to hear, chances are you don't have a shared vision yet.

5. The sales manager and the PD should always discuss the BIG picture of the radio station. Countless great ideas and possibilities come out of this.

6. Sales managers need to be at all the major station events. Great ideas come out of these events.  At one station sponsored concert I was at a few years ago, the sales manager saw for the first time the power of the music we played... He then suggested to me, "On Monday, I will develop a sales plan that allows us to play more music and make more money at the same time." What a great idea he had!

7. Think before you make any comment about any area of the radio station, sales or programming.  Each job is highly personal and is constantly under inspection.  Make sure you have the facts and make sure you have a point!

8.  Make it a point EVERYDAY to complement someone on the job they are doing.

9.  Make it your goal to understand the other person's department. This brings a level of commonality that you haven't had before.

10. Understand that other employees at your station are as insecure as you are about their jobs. This industry is very volatile and all consuming.  We need to spend more time accepting responsibility for our own mistakes, so we can learn from them, as opposed to getting crushed or crushing someone else by shifting blame.  This will always happen if there is no shared vision.

Brian is a 30 year radio veteran who has successfully served many companies over the years as Program Director, Operations Manger and VP of programming. After many years of success working for individual radio stations and clusters, Brian Joined one of the most trusted consulting firms in the country, Audience Development Group. For the last 15 years Wright has enjoyed building alliances with scores of stations in the US & Canada helping them grow in ratings and revenue. Contact Brian at brian@audiencedevelopmentgroup.com
 

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