Vin Scully Lullabies

"Not much wind here tonight, just a gentle breeze blowing out. I think this is what the locals would call sleeping weather." - Wally McCarthy of WSLP AM, Big Rapids

Next time someone asks me to explain the "jobs to be done" framework, I'm going to recommend they fire up the Northwoods Baseball Sleep Broadcast before they pull up the covers at night.

Jobs to be done (JTBD) is one of those concepts that still persists despite being overused/misused because it helps "business people" better understand and describe why "customers" make small to large decisions. For those who are unfamiliar with JTBD, the typical gateway is to watch (YouTube) or read (HBR) Clay Christensen's "morning milkshake" anecdote (it sounds more risqué than it is, I promise).

tl;dr: Fast food chains were unexpectedly selling lots of milkshakes in the morning. Why? Sadly the spike in milkshake sales wasn't attributed to a rise in mass workplace severance, but rather because commuters liked how they were easy to consume (no crumbs!), filling (calories are good y'all), and provided a modicum of entertainment (slurp city USA).

Instead of explaining how the milkshakes kept bringing workers back to the cubicle, I'd much rather describe Wally McCarthy's cadence and non-sequiturs as he calls fictitious games between the Cadillac Cars, Big Rapids Timbers, and Tomah Tigers. I'll gleefully describe the made-up companies buying ads to sell gelato to the fine residents of Central Michigan. I'll relish describing the realistic sounding crowd noise between the innings or the stadium employees at Foghorn Field hawking beer and peanuts to the happy fans in the bleachers.

If you want to better understand why people do what they do... take the time to think about why someone would choose to press play on a two-hour-long podcast painstakingly chronicling fake baseball games. Ask yourself what people need in order to fall asleep. Detail out why listening to a live ESPN radio broadcast between Yankees and Red Sox feels different than a WSLP Big Rapids broadcast between the Tigers and Cars. Heck, go mess around and do some research into why all podcast players and TVs have built-in sleep timers in the first place. Y'all get the gist by now.

And go Tigers. Tomah for life.

h/t Dirt Newsletter + Ben Firke for turning me on to the WSLP AM, Big Rapids.