The Super Bowl is less than two weeks away. What would you do to make sparkle getting one listener the day off from work the day after the Super Bowl? Every year we hear chatter that that Monday should be a holiday – make it come true for one listener in a way that’s big, bold, and fun.
Where are many listeners going in the first half hour of your show each day? To the gym. Find a bunch via social media and spend the next few weeks checking on them early in the morning to make sure they are headed there and to support their weight loss efforts.
Most shows will ask listeners this week what their New Year’s resolution is (snooze). Ask it differently, by asking the audience to call and offer up a New Year’s resolution for their boss.
Each of us has at least one person on our holiday gift list who is impossible to buy for. Grab that person, introduce them to the audience this week, let the audience get to know them, and then get listeners to solve your problem by suggesting gift ideas.
No doubt people are talking about the Peleton ad. Time for your version of this – which would be especially powerful on social media given it’s visual. Re-write the ad, find an exercise bike, put your least in shape cast member on it who’ll draw attention to himself (choose a guy), and watch it go viral. Ryan Reynolds did to promote his brand of gin. You should do it to promote your show.
Now that Frozen 2 has been in theaters for a couple of weeks, let’s place their music to the test. It’s been said that every mother can sing near any song from the first movie, because they’ve had to see it hundreds of times. How about the same for fathers? Walk around your building and challenge moms to sing any song from the first Frozen – and then challenge any co-workers who are fathers to see if there is a disparity!
Every cast member on the show should record the conversation at their Thanksgiving table on Thursday and play back a small portion of it for the audience on Monday. The listeners must guess at whose table the chat happened. Thanks to Sherman and Tingle, WDRV (The Drive), Chicago for this idea.
Spend the week putting together the squares on the Thanksgiving Bingo Card. Listeners call and suggest items that could happen over the holiday: someone mentions Trump, a kid cries, there’s an argument between two people at the dinner table, your uncle gets drunk. Fill out the squares then let listeners tick them off as things happen Thanksgiving weekend. The best part is that on your first Monday show back, you can choose a square and get a listener to call in and tell you a story around what was in it. Thanks to David Moore, PD of KSLX, Phoenix, for this great idea.
How long before someone brings up Trump at the Thanksgiving table in a couple of weeks? And, who in your family is most apt to do it? Time to write this year’s version of the No Politics Pledge and get listeners to take it so there’s peace at the family gathering this year.
The Mr. Rogers movie with Tom Hanks opens November 22. Why not get a ton of people to dress as Mr. Rogers in red cardigans, shirts and ties, and khakis to gather at a very public place to all sing Won’t You Be My Neighbor. Could attract some TV cameras.