Girl Scout cookies go on sale soon. Great character development happens when you place show cast members in competition with one another. Partner a girl scout up with each cast member of the show. Give the teams one full week to sell cookies, setting up a narrative story arc listeners can follow (each day a different “content chapter” of the competition). Whoever sells the most girl scout cookies wins. Thanks to Zach and Brittney, B100, South Bend, IN for this idea.
Betty White is going to be laid to rest this week. She was a big animal advocate and lots of animal shelters are doing fundraisers to honor her. Instead of asking listeners for money again, especially in a month when they’re getting their holiday credit card bills, do something bigger. Partner with a local animal shelter and get every stray adopted.
With the passing this weekend of Betty White, let’s honor her (and be more topical) with a fun game tied to the icon. In this game, the caller has to decide which is older, Betty White or the odd item you’d find in the grocery store. For example, which was older – Betty White or Hostess Twinkies? Believe it or not, Betty was older by eight years. Betty passed at 99. Twinkies were introduced in 1930, making them 91!
Who in your life gives crappy gifts at Christmas? It’s great character development, an awesome phone topic, and a next level idea if you call that person on-the-air and share it with them in a Giftervention.
Need something fun to do in one of your last weeks of the year? Have a week-long Christmas carol karaoke competition amongst co-workers on your show. Find the most entertaining co-workers, bring them in, have them sing holiday songs, and let listeners vote to choose who moves on to the next round as you walk to crowning a champion.
Here comes the Christmas music! Grab the hook of a popular holiday tune and bleep one word so it sounds dirty. The first caller to tell you the bleeped word wins your prize.
Resigning from work is all the rage. Seems like everyone is doing it. Find a listener who is intending on quitting before the end of the year. Spend a few days learning about them and then write their resignation letter before you debut it on the show. Change their voice for extra intrigue. Here’s a great article on writing a terrific resignation letter.
Lots of shows embark on a “buy local” campaign for Christmas shopping each year. Really smart move as it tends to highlight little mom and pop stores in town. Bring an additional element into it this year if you do so. “Buy Local, Listen Local” is where you get business owners on to tell the audience about their small local shop, but only if they promise to play the station there through the holidays.
Time for a new character on the show called Mr. Passive-Aggressive. A cast member or listener has a problem and Mr. Passive-Aggressive tells them how to handle it. Except his fix is passive-aggressive. You could also nix the character and do this as a phone topic, asking listeners to give you solutions that are passive-aggressive.
With Covid abating and everything opening up, we’ll get a more normal set of holiday celebrations this year. Set up a special email address and tell everyone that if it’s happening in their town for the holidays, you wanna know about it. Let businesses and malls tell you when decorations go up, have mayors call to tell you about their Christmas tree lightings, etc. Be the market’s one-stop-spot for everything holidays with free plugs and fresh social media content.