(By Paige Nienaber) I wrote something a few years ago about going to a class reunion and having a friend named Carol Frey bring up, unsolicited, how she’d been blizzarded-in in Uptown Minneapolis in 1986 and was killing time by listening to WLOL with some friends.
WLOL was the Emmis behemoth in the market. As the employee who lived closest to the station, it was usually me who was summoned to come down and help out, which translated to playing the Rick Dees countdown from the previous week while the lone jock got some sleep on the couch.
My first time, I was living in a little one-bedroom on Washington Ave. I got a call from Tac, the PD, that the weather sounded like it would get much worse, so grab some food, and find a way to get down there. My car was already plowed-in in the parking lot so I got an empty backpack, crossed the street to the market, got frozen pizzas and beer, and then walked up a cross street and hitched a ride on a snowmobile which took me right to the front step of the station. On a later trip, an MTC bus got me as far as North 1st and Hennepin and I trudged seven blocks through drifted streets to the Itasca Building.
By the time I got there, I must’ve looked like a survivor of the Retreat From Chosin Reservoir.
My first snow-in was pretty simple but it evolved over time. Usually, a couple of people from Research would come in and we’d monitor TV stations and steal their school and business closings and do them between songs because that’s what people wanted to know about. This was pre-internet: you watched TV and listened to the radio for this info.
We’d also call cab companies and bribe them with tickets and swag to bump the talent to the top of their “necessary employees” list for rides. Cops and EMTs were still ahead of us but I was able to get Karen Wong as close as 7th and Washington – from there it was just a two-block walk.
By the second year that we were down at the Itasca Building in what was a DMZ of shells of buildings, we had set up our own business closing network through the Metro Council. There was a list of somewhere near 1,000 businesses and their decision-makers. These were all mailed the request line number and a code word for getting their announcement read. It was sponsored by Campbell’s Soup. I’d also compiled my own database of 132 schools in the metro area, and the Principals also got code words in the mail.
We were the only music station that did closings and our audience exploded during weather events. Which brings me back to Carol.
The reason that she recalled me being on the air at WLOL was that she said it sounded like a big freaking party. And it was. We had a key to the walk-in freezer at the rib joint downstairs and all they asked was that we track the food and booze, which the station paid them back for.
We were living in the moment with the audience who were doing what we were doing: drinking and eating and making the most of a day off. I have a lot of fond memories of that station but the blizzards were my favorite.
The closest I’ve seen to it was at Y94 in Fargo a few years ago. Blizzards aren’t like tornados; you have some notice. It was New Year’s Eve and it was clear that everything was going to close, and when it did, the station had repositioned all of their airstaff to the studios and they spent the night engaging the audience. They dumped all of the stupid, stupid pop culture auto-posts because… no one cares. Especially when it’s -66° and your dog is sticking to the driveway.
No one to kiss at midnight? No problem. They webcammed the jocks kissing the camera and you could pick one to kiss. It was a brilliant example of a station/audience-shared experience.
So if you get a blizzard, have some fun. I know. Radio actually is Plasma Physics.
And now on with the Dumpage.
The Stuff That You Don’t Get With Most Contests
When Mix in Boise did the Fugitive, over a three-and-a-half-week period they pulled 1.4 million hits on their site.
Oldies in Peterborough is a different market and format, but they showed view growth with their Fuge that wrapped up two weeks ago. In September 2016 they had 8.753 views and last month they had 20,568.
Costume-Con
We’re always looking for different hooks or themes for our Halloween things because if you truly step back and look at the marketplace objectively, a lot of us blur together. If your online or event costume party was themed around Marvel or cartoons or action figures, then Costume Con would be a cool name.
Cosplay
There are costume dashes for little kids. What about hockey or football or some other activity in costumes? It would look great on TV.
Intern Costume Parade
If you are one of the many stations that don’t have a local morning show, you’re going to need to find a way to still do something for Halloween that daypart would normally have driven. Could you do the 1st Annual Street Team Costume Parade? Have the team do costumes but make them obscure. Not super easy. Post one, and the first person who guesses “Clarissa Darling” wins a plastic pumpkin full of candy. Then you post the next one.
Taking Shots At Breast Cancer
If you have a talent who is “into” something… use it.
Rick Roberts at 93Q in Syracuse loves basketball so every day in October he takes ten shots from 25 feet away and the daily sponsor donates $10 for each shot he makes.
A Candy Bracket
Go on Facebook and post, “Sophie Turner’s post-break-up fashion style has heads turning!” And then go on Facebook and ask, “What was your FAVORITE candy to get on Halloween when you were a kid?”
‘Zactly. Brackets are basically social media but with a voting mechanism.
Movember
This came up yesterday and is only a couple of weeks away. There is always a big hole post-October so maybe this is your filler.
- One cluster used to do Mustache Day. Not sure why, but they seemed to have fun with it.
- If you had pit passes for an upcoming concert or NASCAR race, why should Movember be just for dudes? Have women get into it and post their shots.
- What 13 or 14-year-old boy did not get genuinely excited when he had his first facial hair? It was a rite of passage. So do a gallery contest but with boys and their wanna-beards.
- Or do a theme with each of the guys on staff trying to nail a celeb style. The Unabomber is a must. Or simply have listeners mow the calls into their lawns and post the pics.
Best Name For A Cruise Promotion
From a PD that must remain nameless, but she knows who she is: Song Voyage. A mashup of scrambled hooks. ID them all and go for a cruise.
A Truly Evil Podcast
From James Cridland: what is the #1 podcast in Finland? Well, imagine if Hell had a radio station…
When Topics Attack
Every once in a while you’ll hear a show go sideways when a topic just takes off. I heard that with Soucherary & Reusse at 1500 in the Twin Cities a couple of years ago when they started talking about the first R-rated films they’d seen. Someone called in, added theirs, and an hour later they were still trying to wrangle control of the show.
I heard that on a station on Friday with “What restaurant do you wish would re-open?” Boom. I was so moved as to pull over at a scenic wayside and tweet in “The Brothers.”
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.
