12-Point Strategic Checklist

Alan Burns, consultant and creator of the Movin’ format, shared this critical 12-Point Strategic Checklist with me some years ago. I still refer to it – along with other tools, checklists and processes - when I am working on strategic plans for stations that I am either programming or consulting.

You, too, may find this checklist useful as a basic framework to help you quickly analyze your station’s ratings future.

1. Does everyone on the staff know the target?
2. Does everyone know the goals?
3. What’s the station’s word?
4. What need (or mood) do we serve?
5. Is every quarter-hour consistent?
6. Is on-air positioning/branding creative, focused?
7. Outside media: simple message, concentration of force?
8. Are we seizing the moment?
9. Are we thinking “outside” or “inside”?
10. What makes us more local?
11. What are we doing to be different?
12. What are we doing to learn?