(By Paige Nienaber) When I got to Kiss 102 in Charlotte in July 1989 they were doing “The 102 Days Of Summer.” Ugh. And the competition was doing “The 108 Days Of Summer.” Double ugh.
If you’re going to do an umbrella, do it to tie together something that you anticipate doing a LOT of. I’d just started consulting KDWB when Rob Morris, the PD, said, “We’re going to have a shit load of tickets this Summer.” Sadly “The Shit Load Summer” was nixed by saner minds, but since Minnesota is The Land of 10,000 Lakes, thus was born “The Summer of 10,000 Tickets.”
And it was Good.
What were people going to be doing in Colorado Springs in 2021? Hiking and availing themselves of the myriad of outdoor recreational activities that the region affords. Thus was born “The Take A Hike Summer” and they heavied up on shoes, water bottles, camping permits and other gear.
And it was Good.
What else could you do?
- The FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) Summer is coming to a station in late May.
- What do people call the period between May and September? “Summer Vacation”. So some of the stations have used that, ie: “Hot 93.5’s Summer Vacation”. ‘OMC in Detroit actually went and got a Wagon Queen Family Truckster with luggage on the roof as their station vehicle.
- One of the stations in Albany did “Free Music Live” when they had a TON of concert tickets, and it was the FML Summer.
- Jamz did The Summer Of 1000 Parties in Birmingham. Clubs, shows, barbecues….everything they did on the streets was a party.
- Energy-FM in Bakersfield did The Summer Of 1000 Winners. K-Hits in Sacramento did a version of that and kept a running tally of everyone who had won.
- Doing stickers? This going to be your focus? “The Summer Of The Big Stick” was used by KLUC in Las Vegas and sounded great. Also done by ZFX in Fayetteville.
- The Topless Summer is, like The Summer Of 10,000 Tickets, inching glacier-like towards becoming a cliché. But if you have a convertible and if it hasn’t been done in your market, then have at it, like NOW in SFO. But, seriously, if you’re going to use this umbrella, have some fun with it. It doesn’t need to be dirty but when you say “topless,” no one thinks of a convertible.
- And an FYI: it’s next to impossible to milk a summer out of one car.
- One of the US stations is going to do “Red, Wet & Blue” and all their contesting and street level stuff will be focused on beaches and waterparks and giving away swimsuits and jetskis.
- “Beat The Heat” as done by The Boxx in Houston, was geared at helping the audience escape temps at waterparks and movie theaters and beaches.
- Power in Miami did The Big Damn Summer. Everything they did? Was big.
- I also like “BFS” as a moniker. Power in Miami, in ‘10, did “HFS”: Hot Flippin’ Summer
- WOW Country in Boise did “SPF 104.3” in ’09. Summer Prize Fun with “the owners’ daughter’s Jamaican boyfriend Dready D” as the voice for everything. CBS used SPF for pool parties in Las Vegas..
- “The All-Access Summer.” A station to remain nameless is going to give one winner a pair of tickets to every show for the summer. He/she/it will be their entertainment reporter and will shoot pics, blog and basically cover the music scene all Summer. Also a good umbrella if you have a ton of tickets and have done the 10,000 ticket bit already.
- Take your dial position and multiply it by 24. The 2548 Hours Of Summer?
- Much like imaging the summer as a club, what about a camp? Camp 103.5 Kiss-FM? Your jocks are counselors and we have a very busy day of recreation planned for you.
- Gas? Some stations have made that the focus. The Totally Pumped Summer?
- What if you did “(Stations) Summer Intervention”. Because without the intervention of the station and your friends and family, it would be just another summer sitting inside eating Cheetos and playing Wii.
- “InstaSummer.” That could be an umbrella if you think about it. Because the Summer is about finding stuff to do. Every day is a mini-vacation. Every weekend is Spring Break. What’s the next level up from…ugh…a Calendar Of Events? A constant stream of info, from the station, and the listeners, about what’s happening in the community. Beach conditions. Block parties. Free events. Etc.
- Hot in Houston did the OMG It’s Hot umbrella, because it WAS.
- Y-94 has done Best Summer Ever and last year did The No Bummer Summer
- And “Summer AF” made its debut in 2018
And now on with the Dumpage.
Two Word Tango
Van Harden at the gimazing WHO in Des Moines is one of the few US morning shows intelligent enough to monitor what the BBC shows do, and one of the contests they’ve used successfully is Two Word Tango.
How it works: We all sit around the mics and play a game. Each time there’s a small gap in the song we have to say the name of someone famous. As we go around the team the song speeds up hence making both the gaps and the length between the gaps shorter. This means that we, as a team rarely get to the end of the song before someone fluffs it.
Spring Fake
One of the stations has some tanning certificates to give away. You could just stick them under “Contests” on your site and have people register to win. But these are good prizes, so maybe there’s something else you could do. Like…Spring Fake. “If you can’t get out of town for Break like everyone else, we’ll help you fake it with a nice tan. Plus, on our site we’ll have lots of photos for you to steal and post so that people will think you’re in Florida or Galveston or Mexico or Vegas”.
Here is some imaging from 98.9 Magic-FM in Colorado Springs from one of their tanning giveaways.
Casinos
We love them for their revenue and their logistics for hosting events, expos and other “things” that need a big hall and food and beverage service. One of the things that Las Vegas used to do were gambling clinics. (They used to also do free drinks for slot players and then Chet Buchanan, damn him, said “You know how much money you would save if you made them pay for their drinks? Look at these people. They’re not going anywhere.”)
You could go in and every afternoon they would have a table set aside for free lessons on how to play card games. They fully understood that this would cost them NOTHING and that people who feel they have knowledge and control are going to feel way more comfortable with running a big line of credit. And the casino will ALWAYS win.
This is something that could also easily be done as a virtual classroom. “This afternoon, Mark Bauer, the floor manager at Mystic Lake, is going to discuss blackjack strategies.”
Pothole Of The Day
John & Tammy at KSON in San Diego once hit gold with “What is the slowest stop light in town?” People, in their cars, stuck in traffic, probably didn’t have to think long and flooded stations social media with their choice.
If you live in places like the Twin Cities or Detroit, a Pothole Of The Day feature would resonate because the season is upon us.
Teddy Bears
This is an amazing charitable hook. Following Katrina the Newcap stations in Edmonton collected over 100,000 and drove them to Texas for the kids living in shelters.
Following Sandy Hook, NOW-FM did a skating party and people could bring teddy bears for the local Bay Area EMT’s and first responders.
Y94 in Fargo did a campaign to collect them to be used locally. I can’t think of a client that would say “no” to that.
Taylor Swift or William Shakespeare?
I’ve always loved “Or” contests. Mix in Cincy did “German Goth Metal Band or Renaissance Fest Character?” for fest tickets. I’ve seen “Canadian Or Not?” for Bieber. Rob and Joss at KyXy in San Diego did it with “Taylor Swift or Shakespeare?”
This Is Great
From Hot-FM in Texarkana where a classroom of 4th graders and their teacher tried to win the Big Money Secret Sound so that they can afford a trip to Medieval Times.
Fish Fry Finder
Every market has something that people “look for.” It’s often seasonal, like Girl Scout Cookie Finder that Midwest Family did in South Bend. Here in the Twin Cities, people have garage sales, so one of the stations did Garage Sale Finder. Let them know where you’re having your sale and with a bunch of others, put it on their site and on social.
Hubbard in Cincy is one of the clusters that has done it with fish fries during Lent. Easy peasy and there are people who would most assuredly use the resource.
Leprechaun Theater
In the beginning, there was Munchkin Theater at Wild in SFO. (The morning show doing helium hits and reading lines from movies. ID the film and win.)
Rob and Joss who were at KyXy in San Diego did Leprechaun Theater, which they did at Froggy in Santa Rosa. Same concept but holidazed for St. Patrick’s Day.
Boat Load Of Prizes
Leapfrogging OVER March, April and May, in a lot of markets water recreation is a large deal. So, obviously having a jet ski or paddleboard or big inflatable lake toys or a boat for giveaway would be great. Boats can also be used for bundling clients prizes, kind of like the $10,000 sleigh that WROR in Boston did.
It was literally a sleigh full of “stuff” from clients. One of the stations here did it with a bass boat that was filled with stuff and they hauled it around to their broadcasts. Register to win. But it could also be “guess the value of everything in the boat”. Closest without going over wins it all.
Paige Nienaber insults/consults more than 100 radio stations on Fun ‘N Games (Marketing & Promotions). Find him at CPR Promotions. Read Paige’s Radio Ink archives here.
