Archive for category: Free Idea

My Pain is Your Gain

If something bad (but not awful) happens to you, open the phones and let listeners guess what it is.  The first person to correctly guess what happened wins a prize in a new feature called My Pain is Your Gain.  Thanks to Sherman and Tingle, WDRV, Chicago, who share this idea.  You are looking for something silly here – for instance, Sherman got back from vacation and discovered his air conditioning unit and furnace went out and that it would cost $14,000 to replace.  So he asked listeners to guess why he unexpectedly spent $14,000 at the end of his vacation – that hook got the calls and made everyone else wonder what happened before he shared the story – a really smart way of telling a character story.

The Vacation Voicemail

With parents and kids on vacation now, ask the kids of co-workers who are out to leave you a voicemail each night before they go to bed listing the things they did that day with their families.  With some editing and a production value, this might make for a fun summer feature on the show.

Food Porn

Looking for something to do with all the weekend festivals in town?  How about “Food Porn” where you get audio of an attendee eating a fair food and then you (or them) giving listeners three risque clues as to what it is, with the first correct guess winning something.

Deputy Dogs

No one likes to come upon a parked car with a dog inside during the summer.  Why not “deputize” listeners with a quirky oath who’ll take a stand that if they see this in the next few months that they promise to not leave the car and dog and call the authorities?

You’re Granted a Full, Unconditional Pardon

With all the talk about pardons, ask the audience what they’ve done in life (or recently) that would require a full, unconditional pardon (you’re looking for silly stuff).  Tell them you’ve been given power by the FCC to grant them a full pardon (today only!) and then do so after they tell you their story.

Win or Fail Weekend

Friday and Monday shows are the easiest because you have the weekend to play on.  Sharing with the audience something you’re looking forward to doing over the weekend (and asking them the same thing) and reflecting on the same stuff on Mondays (and asking the audience for stories, too) is very connective.  A new frame for an easy Monday topic is Win or Lose Weekend.  Take calls from listeners, asking if their weekend was a win or a fail and why.  Thanks to Sherman and Tingle, WDRV, Chicago for this idea.

Doctor Google

All of us have not felt well and Googled our symptoms to find out what we have.  Create a new show character called Doctor Google.  Get a list of diseases that no longer exist.  Then find a fun person to play the character and take calls from listeners who give you their symptoms and you put them into the Google machine and diagnose the caller with a disease long ago cured.

Making It a Four-Day Weekend

No doubt with Memorial Day next week, many listeners will try to get Friday off, too.  Open the phones looking to find out what time people are getting off at work and then get one boss on who’s keep their employees until late afternoon and bribe him or her to let them go at noon that day.

The Queens of England

With the Royal Wedding this Saturday, how about getting some drag queens to hold up signs on the overpasses of busy highways asking those driving to work to listen to you?  Call them the Queens of England.

Valedictorians and Hollywood

With high school and college graduations coming this month, invite area valedictorians in to play whatever daily Hollywood-based trivia game you play to see if their book smarts also mean Hollywood smarts.  You might have to do some work to find the valedictorians to invite them in but this might be a fun thing to do if you have that feature.

Some of the Great Radio Stations I’ve Helped...