Fighting Change

"Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have—and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up." — James Belasco and Ralph Stayer, Flight of the Buffalo (1994)

Ever notice how people hang onto something because “it’s always been that way?” Sometimes we start digging ourselves a hole because we’re so sure we’re right, and that the old way is the best way, we don’t listen well. Which brings me to a story.

KGW in Portland was a legendary Top 40 station in it’s day, knocking off a heritage competitor and rising to the top of the ratings. When I was programming the station I kept asking the engineers to look into why we couldn’t go to full power at night, since we were cutting power at sunset. For those newer to radio, it’s an AM thing, I’ll explain it some other time.

The engineers always responded that we couldn’t do anything because we were protecting a government listening station that was affiliated with the FCC. No matter how many times I asked the did nothing.

Then, a few years later, I came back as GM of the station, with a little more clout. I asked a whole new set of engineers to look into it, and got the same feedback, an FCC listening station and nothing we could do about it. But, of course, I’m known for being tenacious, so I kept on them to go all the way back and check all the facts. Finally one of them relented, and took it on as a project.

One day he walked into my office with a smile on his face, and told me the results of his three-month search. It turns out there was a listening station on 620 AM. But it had signed off the air in 1947. KGW had been low power at night for all those years because no one checked the facts, and was willing to take a new look at it.

What’s your “FCC listening station?” Do you find yourself, or someone on your team, has dug their heals in and is intractable, even when it makes no sense?

Change is hard for everyone, but as I always point out, history has shown us that the species who adapt and change survive, and the others don’t. So I guess the bigger picture questions is, which kind of species do you want to be?