Mariachi Wake Ups

With Cinco de Mayo just around the corner (it’s on a Saturday this year), do some Mariachi Wake Up Calls.  Find a local mariachi band and solicit (via on-air or social media) for moms who are frustrated that their kids can’t seem to get up on time for school.  Show up at a home at 6am (or the time the kid needs to be awake) and wake them with a full mariachi band in their bedroom.  This works best when recorded, edited, and presented as live.  You can do a few the week of the holiday!

Does That Make Me a Bad Person?

Someone was telling me they watched a guy exit a Starbucks and, before getting in the car, he put his coffee on the roof, got in, forgetting about the coffee, and drove off, with the coffee spilling everywhere.  They felt bad they didn’t say anything.  The bit is “Does That Make Me a Bad Person?”  Listeners call with similar stories and then ask that question, with you validating that it does not!

Feet or Fraud

With “Dancing with the Stars” back on TV and its image that they put the absolute biggest no names on their show as contestants, play “Feet or Fraud”.  Offer up the names of people who’ve actually appeared on the show (feet) or ones who didn’t (fraud).

Your One Phone Call

If you were ever in trouble, who would you call?  For many, it wouldn’t be their spouse because they’d freak.  This new feature is called “Your One Phone Call”.  A listener comes on to tell you who they’d call if they were ever in trouble.  You then create a scenario, call that friend on the other line, and sit back to see if the listener’s “one phone call” will help bail then out!  It’s great conflict around a relationships-based bit.  Remember to not air people without their permission!

Break Lent

Diet Coke, chocolate, cursing.  These are some of the things people gave up for Lent.  Invite people who gave up things to come in and break Lent on its last day on your show.  Imagine a Diet Coke lover going forty days without their favorite soda, and then having it for the first time in over one month on your show!  Open the can, let the listeners hear the fizz as it pours over the ice cubes, and then your listener takes their first drink of Diet Coke live on the show.  You could always do this, too, with people in the building.  As long as it’s entertaining, it won’t matter if you use listeners or co-workers.  Find others who gave up things like this and have a Break Lent Day on your program.

Gas Man

Yea, gas prices are through the roof (again).  Anyone can give out free gas (this always works). But developing a character called “Gas Man” might make it more entertaining for those who don’t care to hear a promotion about low gas prices.  Dress up someone from promotions in a leotard and cape.  They swoop in on unsuspecting citizens filling up at service stations during the morning show and, after they recite the fun “gas pledge” you write, Gas Man fills their tank up for free.  You can even rewrite the old Batman TV theme to stage it.  The great part is that you don’t need tons of free gas to do this.  Once a morning show for a few weeks doesn’t add up to much and is entertaining for 100% of the audience who just come to you to have fun.

Bed, Wed, or Dead

Mix celebrities and relationships and you have a new feature called “Bed, Wed, or Dead”.  Offer up three celebrities of the same sex (Jonah Hill, Cee Lo Green, Kris Humphries) and your female listener must tell you which of the three she would want to marry, which she’d rather have a one night stand with, and which of the troupe she’s so tired of hearing about, she wants him off the face of the Earth.  You can always flip this and do three female celebrities for male listeners to evaluate, too.

Where Are You Going?

This feature is so simple, it’s almost mind numbing.  As an occasional bit on the show, dedicate a break to going around the cast, asking each member for the most interesting place they’re going that day.  Might be the dentist, or to their kid’s school to meet with a teacher, or to a lawyer’s office to sign papers to buy a house.  There are stories in each and set you up the next day to hear how things went.  If the place you’re going (and the reason you’re headed there) are interesting and told well, you have character development.  You can easily include listeners in this, too, to get to know them!

The Middle Name Game

With Monday of this week being President’s Day, an easy game to play is “The Middle Name Game”.  For some strange reason, we know the middle name of almost every president who’s been.  Sometimes in PPM, easy wins because listeners can follow along, especially if the design of the game is vicarious.  Offer up the president (“Richard Nixon”) and the listener has to tell you their middle name “(“Milhous”).  Three of five right and you win.  Doesn’t need to be any harder than that!

The Last Meal Game

Keep an eye out for when there’s an execution in the country to play “The Last Meal Game”. Listeners have to guess what the convict’s last meal was.  First to guess it wins.  Edgy, yea. But definitely memorable!