Succeeding as a New Program Director

Know the answers to the questions below and do your best to help them be accomplished. When your GM wins, you are along for a great ride in your new gig.

What is your boss trying to accomplish?

What does your boss want you to accomplish?

What do YOU want out of your current position, and is it compatible with your boss's goals?

Do your goals advance your boss's, or do they conflict?

What kinds of problems most worry your boss?

What kinds of victories most please your boss?

A popular saying around radio management circles is: get the right people on the bus, and then get the right people in the right seats on the bus.

Be sure you know where the boss is driving your bus...and what you can do to help it arrive there.

WIN WIN: A Promotion that works for both Sales & Programming

"HOW DOES THIS CLIENT'S PRODUCT/SERVICE SOLVE A PROBLEM OF OUR TARGET LISTENER?"

Lead the brainstorm.  Ask the group, and post 20 answers  to that question on the whiteboard in your meeting room.

Pick out a few that get your programming team excited and pitch those half-baked back to the client. 

The whole WIN WIN happens when we get away from Features and focus on Benefits.   When the programming team gets Emotional about the Benefits of the Client's product or service, there's a 99% chance of a mutually satisfying promotion.

What's the Future for This Station?

In fragmented media universe,  radio’s strength is: Local inspiration for an audience for which we monetize the access of.

2 Things We Must Develop:  Unique personality (can't get it anywhere else) and impactful community service (credited 100% to your station in the minds of the business community)


• The challenge is to create relevance for listeners and for advertisers alike.

• The challenge is to monetize access to listeners. Create demand for our listeners for whom we are the gate keeper.

Radio inspires.  The internet informs.   Is this broadcast inspiring listeners?  Very good, that's the foundation for everything else that follows.

Manipulate the Competition

5 Flaws in Management:  do you observe any of these in your competitor? 

1- If he is reckless, cause him to waste his resources.
2- If he is timid,  take over his resources.
3- If he is short-tempered,  piss him off.
4- If he is self-important,  flatter him.
5-  If he is concerned about popularity,  be faster. He will hesitate before making an unpopular decision at a critical time.

6 Common Reasons a Station Fails

Failing in one or more of these areas can be Deadly:

1-Lack of resources: poorly equipped, funded, or trained.
2-Lack of direction: the group isn’t on one page.
3-Lack of performance: poorly trained or demotivated people.
4-Lack of discipline: your people act out of emotion rather than planning.
5-Lack of order: unclear tasks, vague goals and ineffective tactics.
6-Lack of competence: uneducated, perhaps lazy, but definitely not reading the competition and the marketplace.