YOUR MENU SUCKS

Kitchen Nightmares on The BBC America and Fox is a great show for helping struggling radio stations and/or talent situations. Figure out what is wrong with their prospective products. Ramsay fixes these problematic eateries with the finesse of a back alley thug. But – he gets it done. I was watching an episode where all three of the principles wanted to be the manager and nobody was addressing any of the problems. He asks them to figure out their roles and actually used several terms we use in programming when dealing with morning shows. He called it “role development”. He works with the managers, servers and chefs to understand basics and a routine that leads to success. Much like programmers work with air talent and specifically morning show players, he helps them understand how to get the job accomplished, park the ego at the door and do it successfully. He found out what each employee was good at and moved them into that position. How many times do we have the wrong people in what we think is the right place? Most of the time it’s a past programmer or a market manager that has made that call. Look into their skill-set and find out what they excel at. Ramsey addresses the menu, (playlist) to find out what to prepare and cook to serve the public after research. He actually went on the streets and started asking residents of this Liverpool suburb where the restaurant was located, what they would like to eat for lunch. Many of these restaurants he fixes are all over the road menu wise and nobody addresses any of the problems due to ego and apparent self satisfaction of being a manager. Doesn’t that sound familiar? If a struggling station or morning show problem was addressed in this manner (of course without the four letter words), what a sense of accomplishment and success would be created. Much like Mr. Wolf in Pulp Fiction, what if we could call on someone to help us with this kind of basic instincts and skill-set to turnaround problematic situations. I have worked with morning shows where I would have called Gordon Ramsay in a New York minute. We of course can follow his plan of attack to fix situations. Take time to overview the situation, come up with basic plan, talk to the individuals involved, be straight forward and blunt, get them to sign on, be prepared to make personnel changes if there isn’t buy in, work the plan and have fun doing it and watch the customers come in droves. BTW How many different ways can you prepare bland English food anyhow?