Are You Evolving or Stuck in The Past?

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(By Jay Stevens) When I was programming day to day at WPGC in DC I created an acronym, I.L.T.E. We pronounced it Ill-Tee and it stood for: Interesting, Local, Topical, Entertaining. This was the filter that content had to go through to make it on the air.

We preached this motto consistently throughout the programming team. In aircheck/coaching meetings with talent we would review breaks and content through this filter. Imaging; promos, sweepers, dropins, IDs, the same. I always believed if we accomplished this on air, we would be the station that gave listeners FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

And I still believe that. But now it should be updated to S.I.L.T.E., or Sill-Tee. That’s Social, Interesting, Local, Topical, Entertaining. Challenge your talent: is the content posted on Social and will it be shared, is it Interesting, is it Local, is it Topical and Entertaining?

I have no trademark for this, so feel free to use it or craft your own simple motto by using a theme or acronym. Sports teams do it all the time, “Respect The Process” is the Buffalo Bills internal theme. They believe in it so much, they filed for a trademark. It’s plastered all over their facility.

Lou Holtz brought, “Play Like A Champion” to Notre Dame. The sign is posted above the tunnel to the field and each player slaps it on the way out to the game. The Patriots have, “Do Your Job.” Oprah’s motto is, “The Next Right Direction”, Apple’s is, “Think Different.” Mottos can be catchy, interesting and meaningful. The simpler the better, thus they’re more memorable.

I worked for someone once whose motto was, “work hard, have fun, make a lot of money, and don’t go to jail.” Hey, if it works……

The point is to have a mission and devise a way to bake it into the DNA of your product and it’s easy to reinforce.

And as we say here at Tenshare Media, Make It Happen!

Jay Stevens is President of Tenshare Media and can be reached at [email protected]

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