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!
Drunk at the Debate
Trump and Harris are having their only debate this week. The question is how do you tap into this highly familiar topic without it being about politics? Easy, peasy. Do Drunk at the Debate. Get audio from both and doctor it so they sound drunk. Make sure to do both and then ponder why they’d have cocktails before the event.
Mensa Monday
With schools back in session, time to determine who the smartest person is on the show. Get a teacher to come in and administer a test to your team they give their students every Monday. Aggregate the results over one month (four Mensa Mondays) to see who the smartest is. If you don’t have many people on your show, include the afternoon show or and/or the entire airstaff to create more fun.
Permission, Please
We are on the cusp of a new year of NFL and college football games. You know what might be fun? Get male listeners to call their wives or girlfriends on the air to ask their permission to watch the games this year.
Teachers’ Rules
We start a new season of school with everyone teeming with excitement. Talk to a teacher, and they’ll tell you stories of difficult parents. Go gather audio from teachers, asking each to give you one or two “rules” from them for parents. Then, as school commences, share that audio with your audience. (Gathering it now instead of it being a phone topic will allow you to curate the best ones into produced features.)
Profane for Propane
Here’s a fun summertime promotion compliments of Marci Braun, Brand Manager, WUSN, Chicago. They had a gas grill to win in a promotion. The caller had to curse them out to get qualified to win it. They obviously bleeped all the curse words before airing the call, which made it funnier. It was called Profane for Propane.
The Winning Anthem
With the Olympics in full swing, every time you play a game this week and the listener wins, play the national anthem of the country of their ancestors. You can find all of these online (even cheesy versions, which would be funnier). Find out the country of their heritage before you play the game or contest and have it ready.
The Medal Update – In French
With the Paris Olympics the big topic for the next two weeks, have one cast member of the show (or a fellow employee if you are not part of a team) do a daily medal count update at 8am each morning. The only hitch is they have to do it in French!
The Wall of Vacation Selfies
Everyone’s headed out on vacation in the next month. Do a weekly phone topic asking listeners where they’re headed for vacation. Then ask them to send you a selfie from vacation. Print all the pictures you get and put them on a wall in the studio you will name The Wall of Vacation Selfies.
Amazon Prime Days Bonanza
With Amazon Prime Days this week, set someone from the show up at a computer and signed into their account. Their goal over the course of the program, is to load their cart up with so much stuff it equals $1,000,000. The hitch? They can’t buy any more than two items of the same thing. Put live video of it on social media as you keep looking at the cart! Would be fun to see what happens.
I Spot a Speedo
Time to ask the audience to help you with summer digital content. Many of your fans will be on beaches and at pools this summer. Ask for their help with I Spot a Speedo. If they see someone in a Speedo, have them take a picture and send it to you. Then share it on social media. Especially if you target women, who doesn’t want to see guys in Speedos?