Did your father steal your Halloween candy after you went to bed as a kid? Time to ask dads to take your Candy Contract. Write a humorous “I, (state your name)…” oath and ask fathers to call to publicly promise they won’t steal all the good stuff from their children after they’ve gone on their rounds Thursday evening.
We’re up on Halloween and the phrase “quid pro quo” is in the news a lot. How about getting a ton of Halloween candy and giving it to listeners who will get into a quid pro quo with you? Ask what they will do for you to get your candy! Then make the swap.
The Big Dave Show, B105, Cincinnati has a terrific yearly tradition at this time called The Monster Makeover. They ask grade school students to nominate their principal to be made up as a monster for Halloween. They then do the makeover in the studio close to the morning of the holiday and transport them back to the school where the idea wraps up with a reveal in front of the students (great video on this for social media).
Everyone has saved voicemails on their phone – even the cast members of your show. If you have a fun prize to give out, play a voicemail from a cast member (with their name beeped out if it’s in the audio). The caller must guess Whose Voicemail it was from – then we get the back story on the voicemail, which is character development.
As we approach October, more and more products will include that most-Halloween of flavors, pumpkin spice. Deputize a small fun group as your Pumpkin Spice Squad. Their job is to find the odd products with pumpkin spice (pumpkin spice dog food anyone?) and report back to you what they find throughout the month.
If you’re a rock-based station, the Guitargasm is a new, fun way to give out a prize. We always remember that how you give something out plays to the 99% of the audience who don’t care to win anything, but still want to be entertained. String a bunch of iconic guitar riffs together and the caller must identify artists and titles to win.
This is dumb and silly! With schools back in session, challenge area teachers driving in to call you and, based on their voice alone, guess what subject they teach.
How about grabbing two fun kids and have them compete in the studio in a pencil sharpening contest? Two kids, each with 100 pencils, and an electric sharpener (because they make the best sound). Have a teacher in who’ll judge each pencil as it comes out of the machine to deem it properly sharpened. Whoever does their 100 first wins. It would make a great Facebook Live. Thanks to Christine and Salt, 96 TIC-FM, Hartford for this idea.
Trump wants to buy Greenland. Who knew you could do that? (Actually, we did, from history class – remember the Louisiana Purchase?) Mount a one-week campaign to “buy” the state next to yours that listeners like the least. Do a Go Fund Me, have an online petition, see if your governor (or an elected representative) will come on and agree because they get the joke. Of course you won’t be successful, but you will have fun trying.
New feature for your show called Best or Worst where you travel around the room and, where appropriate (if cast members have something), that person tells you about either the best thing or the worst thing that’s happened to them in the last few days. Choose great stories and you have some character development.