It was my enemy. The dreaded pop quiz.
I wasn’t a fan of school — at least not the “go to class and study” part. But I’ve come to appreciate the pop quiz. It wasn’t really about grades. It was the teacher’s way of learning more about their class: who’s tracking ahead of schedule, who needs help, and who might need a parent-teacher chat.
At RockTernative Radio, a pop quiz can serve similar purposes.
And I don’t just mean for talent. I mean the whole staff — on-air, sales, promotions, engineering, the Excel department. Drop a short, focused quiz on the team and you’ll learn:
- Who’s paying attention
- Who’s aligned (or not) with the station’s mission
- Who might be in the wrong seat
- Who’s being overlooked
It’s not “gotcha.” Staff names can be optional. It’s also not a precursor for employee reviews. The goal is to take the temperature of the room and spark insight you won’t get from Slack threads, a bagel meeting or group text.
Don’t you want to know:
- Does the air staff understand the “whys” behind programming moves?
- Does the sales team really know what they’re selling?
- Are there great ideas hiding with the street team or up at the transmitter?
You’ll already know some of what you find. But the quiz can unify your team and help more people feel like part of the mission.
We’ve all been there before: a lot of folks don’t ask questions for fear of looking dumb. This quiz tears down that barrier, and everyone will learn something. If you want part-timers, VT’ers and remote teammates — who can understandably seem less engaged — to have more passion and fight harder, this brings them into the game plan. It lets them suit up.
Here’s how the Rock Pop Quiz works:
- Call an all-staff or department meeting. Zoom in whoever is out of town.
- This is paper and pen — no Google Docs, no digital cheating.
- Everyone gets the same quiz. Five to ten questions. Short answers.
- No talking, no groupthink. Just like 7th grade.
- Names at the top are optional. You’re not handing out grades.
- Collect them when finished and go over the answers as a group. Make it interactive. Laugh. Learn.
- It’s OK to not know everything — no one should know every answer. That’s the point.
The team will feel more informed and smarter. But here’s the payoff for you — Extra Credit.
New sheet of paper. Names required this time. Just two questions:
- What’s the best creative idea you have for the station? Promotion, morning show idea, someone to hire, music ideas, marketing — anything.
- If you were in charge, what’s the first thing you’d change tomorrow? (Hiring Sydney Sweeney and Free beer Fridays don’t count.)
You’ll get gold from this. Maybe some from surprising places. Over the years, I have seen great ideas come from workers who aren’t usually asked to provide input.
You don’t need to do this monthly. Once per year might be enough for most departments. For the content team, it can be more frequent, with a different theme each time — such as music, competition, audience profile, Nielsen, or sales strategy. I just planned your next five meetings.
Want a list of sample questions?
Hit me on the email below, tell me your focus, and I’ll send you a small set.
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Keith Cunningham is a music industry and Rock/Alternative columnist for Barrett Media and the founder of Black Box Group, a modern-modeled creative & strategic consultancy built for brands that need strategies with teeth. He’s the former Master of Mayhem at 95.5 KLOS-FM in Los Angeles for over a decade, a nationwide consultant, and has been repeatedly voted one of America’s top Program Directors and strategic thinkers. Keith has built his career by taking multi-million-dollar brands from worst to first and leading Marconi & Gracie award winners along the way. A data nerd with a rock-and-roll heart, he is an advisory council member for St. Jude fundraising, a fantasy football champion, and lover of his daughters & dogs. Reach him at keithblackboxgroup@gmail.com or on LinkedIn or X.
