The Monday Morning Free Idea
Need fresh inspiration for show content?
Check back every Monday for The Free Idea—a fun, entertaining bit of inspiration to help your show connect with your audience even more. You can also view past ideas, many of which my clients and I successfully used to engage listeners.
Need help with that? Give me a shout!
The Great Gift Wrap Challenge
If there’s one thing most people can’t do its properly gift wrap a present. Which is why you’ll assemble folks for The Great Gift Wrap Challenge. Bring in those people at the mall who professionally gift wrap presents to judge a competition amongst the most fun people at the station. See who wraps it best. You’ll have a great video for social media and audio for your show to entice people to go see it.
The Best Holiday Gifts Cost Nothing
Inflation is up, people can’t even afford groceries. So, add this idea every day until the holidays to help people out. Ask listeners what gifts they can give this year that cost absolutely nothing. Sometimes those are the best gifts so, have one listener each day suggest a gift for a loved one that doesn’t cost money.
The NP Pledge
Appropriate for anytime the family gets together: The NP Pledge. That’s the No Politics Pledge. Have listeners call to take a pledge that they won’t be the one to bring up politics while with their family this week. And that if it does come up, they’ll steer it in another direction!
The Thanksgiving Motel
Next week’s Thanksgiving holiday brings food and family. And for many listeners, family they don’t want to see. Go grab a few nights at the cheapest motel in town, take calls from listeners asking which family members will argue or get on their nerves first, and give them the nights in the motel to send those folks to when they get aggravated. (This might be pure theater but a fun idea to listen to.)
We Light the Christmas Trees
In a few week’s time, Christmas trees will be lit in towns all over your metro. Get that schedule and invite the mayor on your show from each of those towns to promote it (uber local content). Then, convince the mayor to let you come and hit the switch that evening – trying to amass as many tree lightnings as you can.
Neighborhood Confidential
Lots of tea can be spilled in any neighborhood. Who’s getting a divorce? Who’s cheating on who? What kid is being punished and why? Start a new feature on your show called Neighborhood Confidential where listeners dish the dirt on their neighbors. Use a voice disguiser if you must – but get that tea.
The Crappy Candy House
When you were a kid, there was always one house in the neighborhood that gave out crappy candy (or worse, fruit!). Reminiscing around this could be a good phone topic. Even better is to locate one crappy candy house in a neighborhood, get the owner on, and outfit them with all the good candy they can use come Halloween.
Let’s Test the HOA
Does someone on the show live in a neighborhood with a stringent HOA? Go grab a very big Halloween inflatable from Home Depot. Have them set it up on the front yard and then let’s have a daily update on how long it takes before they’re flagged by the HOA. If no one on the show has an HOA, maybe a listener does.
The Candy Corn Pizza
We can have a long chat about appropriate toppings for a pizza. Wanna debate pineapple? How about a narrative story arc coming out of that phone topic where you dare to create the Candy Corn Pizza (disgusting picture here) and then get people at the station to try it out with audio for the show and a video for social media!
The Halloween Candy Countdown
Sixteen Halloween candies and a March Madness-style grid. Load them up, then commence the on-line and on-air voting to have listeners help you decide the penultimate, number one, most favorite Halloween candy.