If you have a good prize to give out, bring two listeners in to have a Smelling Bee (alternate name: Spell What You Smell). They sniff a smell hidden in a box and have to spell it. You get the visceral on-air reaction of the smell before they spell it. Some items to consider: sulfur, ammonia, gasoline, goat cheese, compost.
Another fun game which plays off the popularity of the new Star Trek movie is called “Trek or Trebek”. Get audio from any Star Trek movie or TV show and Alex Trebek from Jeopardy. Change how the audio sounds in the production studio. Play it for your contestant, who has to identify if the audio comes from Star Trek or Alex Trebek. The Daily Double sound effect sounds like phasers, by the way! After they guess, play the unaffected audio to prove it. Hear how John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego executed the game here.
Two hot topics right now are the new Star Trek movie and the Indianapolis 500. John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego merged both for a fun game called “Trek or Track”. They gave the listener either the name of a character on Star Trek or the last name of an Indianapolis 500 race car driver (they’re almost always foreign). Simple games which can be played along with everyone listening at work or in the car are effective.
On a conference call recently with The J Show at B96, Chicago we were all talking about how much we hate having to watch ads online before we get to watch the TV clip we really want to see. J then noted how much he loved how YouTube handles this – they let us skip the ad after only five seconds of it. He then wondered if a business could grab people’s attention in just five seconds and offered anyone that amount of time to promote their business on the morning show. The feature is called “Skip This Ad”. Business owners come on and have to grab them in five seconds or they get buzzed out. It was local and fun to hear people try to rise to this challenge. Hear how they did the break on the audio page here.
With one-third of the Triple Crown done, my friend Alan Peterson passes along the game “Rapper or Race Horse”. It’s pretty self-explanatory, but he notes that lots of race horse names sound like rappers. So, you put together a list and start quizzing the audience! The next stage of the Triple Crown is The Preakness and is on May 18. You can get horse names here. Here’s a starter list for both: Rapper or Race Horse
Have you ever bought anything at a Rite Aid or Best Buy? Purchase one item and the receipt is three feet long. Here’s a dumb, silly listener engagement break called “How Much Was That Long Receipt?” Tell the audience where you shopped, how many items you purchased, and the length (in inches) of the receipt. The listener who comes closest to the actual total amount wins a prize.
With Cinco de Mayo just around the corner, this one is an easy putt. Find a band at a local Mexican restaurant, have them in with sheet music of songs from your format, and play a game called “Mariachi the Hits” with the audience. They play a tune, first listener to identify the song wins. If you cannot find one, then maybe you can find a mariachi band doing this already on You Tube.
Mother’s Day is a few weeks away. What might be fun is to find five mothers of celebrities (even if they’re local stars) and have one on each morning the week leading up to the holiday. You’d find out about their celebrity son or daughter from a completely different perspective.
Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston do a fun, recurring feature called “Rumor Has It”. Salt from the show makes up bold-face lies and then asks people on the street what they think. For instance, he’ll go to Fenway Park and tell people outside that “rumor has it, the beer at the park will now be non-alcoholic because there are too many drunk people at Red Sox games.” Or that the hot dogs will be made of soy now. The reactions are always classic. They use the hook from the Adele song to stage it and it’s very fun to hear what people say to what they’re being told.
The weather is turning nicer, which means lots of people will be doing spring cleaning. Time for you to do the same. Have you gathered lots of cheesy promotional items over the last year, which are just stacked up in your office? Do a version of “Know the Show” with the audience to clear your office out of the stuff you would have just thrown out. Ask a listener two personal questions about a show member (for character development). If the listener gets both questions right, they are offered the choice of two worthless promotional items in your office. Done under the banner of spring cleaning your office, and you have a fun personal bit.