Archive for month: December, 2013
Secret Santa at the Dollar Store
The yearly bit of the morning show gifting each other and then opening those gifts on their last show before Christmas has no listener benefit because the gifts are serious and listeners are not getting them. How about doing Secret Santa each day in this last week before the break with a few fun station employees? The change is that anything you buy for the person you choose cannot exceed $1 in value and must be purchased at the Dollar Store. Buy things you know will make that person laugh or have an emotional reaction as they unwrap it on the air. The listeners will get the best gift of all, laughter.
KFGY Thriller Poem
Here’s an idea you can save for next Halloween. With the holiday approaching, and knowing that everyone can sing along with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, Rob and Joss, Froggy 92.9, Santa Rosa, CA got a local celebrity to do their version of the famous poem at the end of the song. Very clever and lots of fun, which helps them stand out in the market.
WQYK The Rays Streaker
When a local story breaks, you can recount the facts as you know them from the paper, TV, or the internet. Or you can grab someone who was in the middle of the story and get them to tell you what happened. Doing the latter is much more interesting because you can ask questions and get firsthand perspective, making the story come alive. Dave and Veronica, WQYK, Tampa, heard that there was a streaker at the Rays baseball game the previous night. They found one of the arresting cops who knew more than they did and invited him on the show to create the fun break. The moral of the story: do the work to pull this stuff off and you’ll have something the rest of the market won’t.
Trust Me I’m a Radio Host
Ryno and Tracy, KYGO, Denver came up with a fun game called “Trust Me, I’m a Radio Host”. Each gives a quirky trivia fact to a listener. Only one is true. Which of the two hosts can be trusted? Get three of five right and you win. Games work when they have a “play along” element to them for people in the car and are based around content (in this case quirky trivia) that’s fun to hear.
WGFB Sean and the Gas Pump
If you want to grab the attention of the listeners, tell them a great story. Listeners love stories. Sean and Michelle, Lite Rock B103, Rockford, IL know this. Sean had an almost-odd encounter with a gas pump. He told listeners the story, with its twists and turns, then opened the phones. The very best listener stories come when you tell yours, then ask them to tell you theirs.
The Censored Song
The morning show at Wired 97.5, Philadelphia did something fun I’d never heard before. They put a bleep over a word in a song that, effectively, turned the line (and song) naughty. They put a series of them together and were quite fun to listen to. You can call this The Censored Song.