Monday Memo: “So What?”
By Holland Cooke
Consultant
About those commercials… which pay for you. When a prospective client says, “We tried radio. It didn’t work,” I ask to hear the commercial. Within seconds I can tell why.
It opens with the business name. It lists products. It rattles off prices. It stuffs in an address, a website, a phone number, and a slogan. Then it ends. Nothing happened. Nothing memorable. Nothing emotional. Nothing that gave a listener a reason to care. Yet radio gets blamed. Like blaming a fishing rod because you cast with no bait.
The commercial has one job: Make someone care enough to take the next step
That’s it. Not explain everything. Not impress everyone with how many years you’ve been in business.
Its purpose is to create curiosity…confidence…desire…trust…urgency…hope. Any one of those emotions can motivate action. A list of merchandise almost never does.
The listener doesn’t wake up hoping to buy a water heater, or hire a lawyer, or replace a roof. People act when something in their lives creates a need. Good advertising connects with that moment.
A mattress store isn’t selling mattresses. It’s selling better mornings. A financial planner isn’t selling investments. She’s selling confidence. A heating contractor isn’t selling furnaces. He’s selling warmth on the coldest night of the year.
Translate Features into Benefits
Every advertiser has a product. Every customer has a problem. Say it with me: “Successful spots connect the dots.”
Here’s a simple exercise: Every time they mention a feature, ask, “So what?”
- “We stock thousands of [item].” So what? “You won’t spend your weekend driving from store to store.”
- “We’ve been serving this community since [year].” So what? “We’ve helped generations of local families buy homes, build businesses, and send kids to college.”
- “We offer custom designs.” So what? “The ring she’ll wear forever will be unlike anyone else’s.”
If the answer explains how the listener’s life becomes:
- easier
- safer
- faster
- healthier
- happier
- less stressful
- more convenient
- more secure
- more enjoyable
…you’ve found the benefit, and you get paid.
Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn
The most important sentence in Sharon Gai’s How to Do More With Less: Future-Proofing Yourself in an AI Economy (Wiley) isn’t about technology at all. It’s about leverage. She writes that the goal is to stop being “the busy bee” and instead become “the beekeeper… someone that controls the ‘bees’ to get what you want.” That’s the wakeup call radio needs right now.
In Full Stack Human: The Mindset Upgrade You Need to Stay Human in a World Ruled by Technology (2026, Wiley Books) Dara Simkin and Tane Hunter describe a 2026 media landscape where people face information overload, shrinking attention spans, negativity fatigue, algorithmic manipulation, and constant distraction.
Radio stations used to announce the present temperature at the end of the weather forecast, empowering listeners who are heading out to dress accordingly. It’s the ultimate live-N-local information.
“Globalization and the deconstruction of community and country, an addictive media system that runs on algorithms we don’t understand and can’t escape, the unpredictability of climate change, Gilded Age-level inequality, and the worry that generative AI will control rather than be controlled by us.”
If your station is outside the top 50 markets, you already know the pressure points. A mature workforce stretched thin. Fewer applicants for on air and production roles – specifically the younger creators who don’t see radio as their first creative outlet. And a competitive landscape where streaming, satellite, and podcasts divert attention with the gravitational pull of a black hole.
No two summers have been alike since the pandemic upended listeners’ lives and retailers’ businesses. So, we’ve seen this movie before. To sound relevant and relatable and helpful, connect the dots:
The stations I work with make big money with live endorsement spots delivered by familiar local on-air personalities. Remember them? With most AM/FM broadcast hours now robotic or non-local, your relationship with the listener is precious and can be leveraged… carefully.
“Baseball is back!” was welcome in April (especially after a rough winter in many places). But it sounds embarrassingly old by now.
…I’m sharing promo copy now airing on my client stations, which addresses listeners’ – and advertisers’ — 2026 apprehensions:
If you are doing talk radio, much of your programming is syndicated. If you do music radio, your most formidable competitors are robotic streams that live in the cloud. Either way, YOU, being local, can make friends — and money — if you plan now to exploit these occasions.
Although I don’t have a machine to play it, I have saved the cart. December 9, 1980, the sad morning-after John Lennon died, Charles Osgood, doleful: “I read the news today. Oh boy.” That morning’s CBS World News Roundup – and on-hour newscasts throughout that day – delivered more moments that would keep you sitting in a parked car at your destination. As they would 3 months later when President Reagan was shot. Then soon again when Pope John Paul II was severely wounded in St. Peter’s Square. And five years yonder, when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds into its flight.
May the Fourth be with you today, as DJs and talk hosts are bumping with Star Wars music. And with Mother’s Day looming, 
As a newly minted program director (remember them?), I found the 1980 “NAB Radio Programming Conference” downright enchanting. New-tech cart machines (remember them?) would FIND the splice! And after the cart played, a flashing light saved careless DJs from accidentally playing it again.
Your prospect – or, worse, an existing advertiser with cold feet – says “We tried radio. It didn’t work.” Often, the copy is the culprit, because it’s inside-out.
If you work in radio, you’ve heard every flavor of AI anxiety. Some fear it will wipe out jobs. Others treat it like a super shortcut – cranking-out spots, promos, and proposals faster and cheaper. Kate O’Neill’s “
Every radio conference agenda and much of what’s-up in the trade press and chat groups is about exploiting Artificial Intelligence. Often these conversations land in one of two places: fear (“Will this replace us?”) or fascination (“Look what it can do!”). Both miss the point.
Notice how often you see one in TV commercials, even when the product has nothing to do with pets? I see spots for a local building supply outlet, in which the owner’s dog ambles through every shot, then plops down – seeming to smile – among employees in the closing shot.
Often, when visiting client stations, I ride shotgun on a sales call, and it’s always a masterclass. Retailers have a canny, insightful feel for their customers (our listeners). And accompanying these reps, I feel like I’m “Dancing With The Stars.”
Evidence that your correspondent is a nerd: my airplane read for my CES back-N-forth was Successful AI Product Creation: A 9-Step Framework by Shub Agarwal (Wiley). If you haven’t got time for all 307 pages, here’s what I gleaned, pertinent to radio:
appreciate this real estate, and your feedback.
News people I coach reckon that my epitaph will read: “Consequence, not Process.”
Running a successful radio station, hosting a show, or producing a podcast is a lot like hosting Thanksgiving dinner. You need a plan. You need to deliver something satisfying to a crowd with varying tastes. And most of all – if you get it right – you’ll have leftovers you can turn into even more value long after the main event.