With the Olympics not too far off, a quick fun bit you can do throughout the games is called “Guess My Nationality”. Listeners call who speak with an accent. Have them read something silly within reach (i.e. the directions on how to use a household cleaner at their home). Each member of the morning show then gets to guess what country they’re from. Remember that somewhere on line are cheesy versions of every national anthem – have them ready to spice the feature up!
It’s hot. No one wants to be at work. The movie “Magic Mike” has male nudity. If you target women, convince your PD to give you $50 (I know, it’s harder that it seems). Open the phones to play off the it’s hot/no one wants to work theme. Get five women to publicly say where they work and that they want to escape for an afternoon. Then, take all five to a matinee of seeing a naked Channing Tatum in an air conditioned theater as a reward.
Dave McKay from the WQYK, Tampa morning show was talking recently about how his mother’s outgoing voicemail message made her sound like she works at a 900-number. He aired it, then added some porn music, which made it even funnier. Go grab some stereotypical porn music from your production library and put it under the outgoing messages of fellow station employees to “sex them up”. Then have listeners give you their cell numbers, call them back to capture their outgoing message, and do the same to them.
One great relatable from everyone’s summer as a kid is camp. Now there are a slew of them, and all different kinds. Ask fellow station employees who have kids going to overnight camp to ask their children call your voicemail each night on their cell phone to list the things they did at camp that day. Edit together the most interesting/fun things as told to you by the cutest sounding kids. Air them in packages through the summer that will make every listener feel like they’re twelve years old again!
How about calling random businesses around the country, introduce yourself to the person answering the phone, and (pretending you are an employee there), quit. See how the person reacts, maybe they will even feign knowing you even though you say you “work in different departments”. Remember to not air anyone without their permission!
For Father’s Day: “The Daddy Day Music Lab”. Have a father on with his kid. You play a hook from a song from the dad’s generation and the kid has to give you title or artist (remember you’re playing the hook so let’s see if the kid is smart enough to just regurgitate it back to you). Do the same with popular songs today to see if the dad knows them.
With Mitt Romney now firmly in command of the nomination, do “The Rich Guys”. There are tons of iconic rich guys on TV over the years (Thurston Howell, Mr. Drysdale, Jed Clampett, Bruce Wayne, Montgomery Burns, Gomez Adams, Richie Rich, Mitt Romney!). Have audio of each. Your contestant must guess three of five right to win.
The National Spelling Bee is this week. Get two male listeners on and have a Shoe Spelling Bee. You give them a brand name of shows (designer) and the first guy to correctly spell three brand names wins.
This one is incredibly silly. It’s called “The Name Game”. Get two people on the phone (it works best with a guy and a gal) and only introduce them to the audience as “caller one and caller two”. Going back and forth, each gets five shots at guessing the other’s first name. First to do it wins your jackpot or prize. But if neither do it, the prize goes in the bundle and you come back again the next day at the same time with two fresh people. This will go on forever and you’ll never get a winner and that will be the allure.
Mother’s Day is one week away. An angle that’s never explored is to put together a list of local celebrities (sports, TV, entertainment, politicians) and get their moms on. You might even land that hard-to-get interview with the local celebrity if you do!