The Monday Morning Free Idea
Need fresh inspiration for show content?
Check back every Monday for The Free Idea—a fun, entertaining bit of inspiration to help your show connect with your audience even more. You can also view past ideas, many of which my clients and I successfully used to engage listeners.
Need help with that? Give me a shout!
The Pumpkin Spice Squad
Pumpkin spice dog food? Yup. I’ve seen it. It’s mid-September and everything is pumpkin spice because it sells more. How about putting together a bunch of people (listeners or co-workers) who you deputize to call the show after they’ve grocery shopped to tell you about the items they saw that have pumpkin spice. Call them the Pumpkin Spice Squad.
Hey Let’s Test the HOA!
It’s common knowledge that many HOAs remind us of Nazi Germany. Go buy a huge Halloween inflatable from Home Depot or Lowes. Find a listener (or co-worker) who is in a neighborhood with an HOA. On October 1, inflate that bad boy on their front law then check in with them once per day to see if they’ve heard yet from the HOA, saying they’re in violation.
Pie Day Friday
Fridays tend to be pizza days for lots of people. How about a new Friday feature called Pie Day Friday where you let listeners tell you about the homegrown local pizza shop that’s their favorite?
Straight to the Comments
We’ll all agree that the comments on posts (whether a Facebook post or a review online) tend to be hysterical. This is where the real venom lives. Craft a new feature for your show called Straight to Comments where you read the funnier and edgier comments you find online. Bonus points if you create a character reading them (i.e. assigning the feature to a funny person you work with).
The Teacher Lounge Makeover
Remember when we were kids and we’d walk past the teacher lounge at school? I always wondered what when on in there! If you can pull off a back-to-school promotion with some clients, find a teacher lounge at a local school and make it over. Clean it up, get new furniture, and stock it with refreshments for the teachers for a few months. Could be a fun idea that gets you chatter in area schools as everyone heads back this fall.
The Morning Show Honor Wall
What would it be like if you made a commitment to elevate and celebrate people in your community who make a difference? Volunteers, excellent teachers, emergency workers who always show up, those who run charities. Profile them on your show to counter all the negativity in the world. Then get a picture of them. Clear off a wall in the studio and put the picture on the wall, adding to it as you profile these folks. Call it the Morning Show Honor Wall. That visual can be updated on social media as you add to it and you’ll garner an image of supporting your community.
How I Spent My Summer Vacation
Remember when we were kids and went back to school and the teacher made us write an essay called How I Spent My Summer Vacation? Well, let’s do that as content with schools going back in session in the next month, Get your most entertaining co-workers to write and record that essay for your show. Then, once kids go back to school, spend a week airing them!
The Great Elementary School Speed Trap
It’s been done before but always a hit. With schools heading back in the next few weeks everywhere, partner with your local police department to set up a clandestine radar trap at an elementary school in a hot zip code. Have the officer (or someone from the show who’s there), share speeds of cars passing through. All in an effort to remind people to go the speed limit around schools when they’re in session.
The Name Game
A challenge for almost everyone is remembering the names of people you just met. So, how about doing The Name Game with each cast member? Take three calls from listeners who’ll give a cast member their name and an interesting fact about themselves. The cast member must remember the names for 24 hours. The next day at the same time, have back on all three listeners who offered up the interesting fact to see if the cast member remembers their name. You can do this multiple times with everyone on the show to see who remembers names best. Hear audio of this idea here.
Tales from the TSA
With summer vacation travel about to kick into high gear, airports will be quite busy. Let’s lean into a group of people who have stories. Tales from the TSA is where you get great travel stories from current and former TSA workers in your market. Solicit for them offline then record a bunch you can air through the month as everyone will be at the airport, looking to head out of town for some time off.