April 29, 2022
AARP wrote a great article titled, “15 Lessons the Coronavirus Pandemic Has Taught Us.” And while I don’t think all of them are relevant to the radio industry, I wanted to highlight a few of their points:
Lesson 4: Have a Stash Ready for the Next Crisis
While they’re primarily talking about individuals, this is important to businesses as well. It’s important to have a line-of-credit ready even if you don’t think you need it. Always have a good relationship with your bank!
Lesson 7: Working Anywhere
At YEA, we’ve embraced the Work-From-Home culture. While we’ll never be a company this is 100% WFH, we have learned the value in it. We’re able to use technology to get together and even do broadcasts from the homes of cast members. And giving our employees back some of that commute time, allows them to have more time with their families.
Where I used to fly to New York for meetings every few weeks, a Zoom call will suffice for many situations now. I still believe there is a real advantage to in-person face time vs FaceTime.
Lesson 10: Loneliness Hurts Health More Than We Thought
Especially during the lockdown phase of the pandemic, we made sure our manager kept tabs on their employees, some of which lived alone. Never in most of our lives have we had to deal with the isolation that many did at that time.
But listeners of our shows were dealing with the same thing. And our on-air cast members knew it was their job to keep entertaining and keep the “normal” going. Some folks weren’t driving to work or school. Others were going in later. So listening habits changed and we adapted too. But we also kept things light and fun… there are a million places to get COVID news, so we made sure our shows were the place listeners could laugh, talk about what’s on Netflix, play a few contests and just escape.
Read all of the 15 Lessons from AARP here
From the desk of George Laughlin
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