October is the month for Pumpkin Spice Lattes and pumpkin spice everything! Find a bunch of folks who’ve never had a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks and give them their virgin experience on your show in a bit called “Pop Your Pumpkin”. Thanks to Stacey K from HOT 101.7, Santa Rosa, CA for the catchy name to this idea.
Tracy Dixon from Ryno and Tracy, KYGO, Denver, suggests one of the great ideas for this month: record listeners calling their moms to remind them to get checked because October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Then let the audience listen in on those conversations. You’re soon to see pink everywhere. This is timely, very topical, and very human. Excellent idea Tracy (and thanks for sharing it!!).
There are stories all around that scream “redneck” loud and clear. Audition two stories from listeners that drip with Springer inside. The audience then decides which is better in a new feature called “Rate Your Redneck”.
Pope Francis makes his first visit to the United States this week. Gather all the controversial and/or banal things the Pope has said and make some up that he could have said (or things people like Kim Kardashian have said). Grab the audio of the real ones and the made up ones and play “Pope or Nope” while he’s here.
This week’s idea comes compliments of Jim Day from Jim and Jeane, WIL-FM, St. Louis. It’s called “The Five Dollar Story”. Tell the audience you have five bucks and you’ll give it to the first story you hear that grabs you. Open the phones, but once a story is being told, if you get bored, the story is over and you go to the next caller, until you hear one that’s so engaging and entertaining that you give them the money.
The win when giving out something is not the prize, but how you give it out. If people not calling in are having a good time playing along, you gain positive imagery. Music-based features always score well. Stitch together the hooks of several songs on the station – the first listener to name all artists and titles of the songs wins. Call it “Frankenstein”.
If you have a fall fair in your town, convince someone from the livestock part of the show to name an animal after each member of the morning show. Rob and Joss, Froggy 92.9, Santa Rosa, CA do this each year and call it “Give Us the Name, We’ll Give You the Fame.” Then check on the person who consents each morning to see how your livestock are doing!
Someone attending last month’s Morning Show Bootcamp shared a fun, new idea: making a funeral director laugh. The marriage of these two opposites is intriguing and this might be a fun bit to do at the same time each day for a week where you get on a different funeral director and then someone on the show has thirty seconds to get them to laugh out loud.
Almost every person you’ll encounter the day you read this has something gnawing at them. An item in life that, if they were to just unload or talk with someone, they’d be free to have a better day. Guess what? You’re that person in a new feature called “Let It Go”. Remember, if you offer frivolous items as suggestions for the feature, that’s what you’ll get on the phones. Thanks to The Big Dave Show, B105, Cincinnati, for this one.
With back to school happening in your market in the next few weeks, and with back to school shopping the big topic, invite mothers to come on to just read you the laundry list of stuff they have to buy their kid to get ready. New backpack? Check! Five subject notebook? Check! Protractor? Huh??? The mothers with the longest list of things the school is asking them to purchase will have some of the odder items, producing your most relatable and fun break.