(By Paige Nienaber) One of my clients, who runs most dayparts live, is in a frustrating position. While their competition has only one live jock, they do the “Thanks to (person) listening in (suburb/neighborhood)” which is fake as hell, but it works.
Or at least it doesn’t not work.
So they’re trying to find a way to out-local them with that kind of stuff. The answer appears to be “Tree Lot Shout Outs,” which is what it sounds like: shouts to small, community/church/charity tree lots, of which there are a million.
Obviously, if there is a chain of lots that advertise, we handle that carefully and deftly. But honestly, Mega Tree City (now with seven metro locations!) doesn’t have a ton to worry about from Boy Scout Troop 143 freezing their asses off in the parking lot of Our Lady Of Perpetual Angst.
If you could sell it, all the better. The solicit could be on social media and it would also be nice if they’d turn their soundsystem to you or a sister station that happens to play Christmas music.
KLUC in Las Vegas actually ripped off Bud Lite and did “Real Tree Lot Heroes.” Tell me the name of the station in “FM” at [email protected] and I’ll send the audio to you.
And now on with the Dumpage.
DJ On A Shelf
“Somewhere” a station is getting five different shots of the morning guy hunched down holding a big inflatable crayon as if he’s writing. Each day a photoshop of the “elf” writing a song title on a fridge or counter will be posted on the website and that’s the secret song for the day.
Or…
Peabody Award winning Tommy Carrozza at Beasley in Tampa suggests “Elf On A Self” with listeners just including one of those toy creepy elves in their selfies to win stuff.
Santa: Behind The Beard
I was discussing doing a poll of “worst/dirtiest holiday seasonal jobs” with one of the morning shows and really, being a mall Santa would have its moments. The Promotion Director from KDWB is now Marketing Director at Mall Of America (after gigs as a roadie for John Legend and Stone Temple Pilots) and told me that Santa, the elves, and other members of that team have experienced some unimaginable stuff. My father-in-law was a mall Santa and he said, “You’re not officially Santa until you’ve been pee’d on.”
What if you did a video interview with a Santa in silhouette and with his voice disguised to talk about why he got into, what are the best parts, and what he wants to wipe from his memory?
The 12 Plays Of Christmas
One of the big Country (but not Big Country) stations has an awesome GM who is going to go out and buy a bunch of the “12 Best Toys” for Christmas 2024. They want both digital and an on-air component.
You COULD do the 12 Plays Of Christmas. Have SFX from an old-school toy on the station site. Go and listen and at 5p be the first person to call in the snoring as a Sing And Snore Ernie to win an Amazon Echo.
Cool Jobs
There was a spat™ of talent doing their markets’ dirtiest jobs a few years ago. And it was good.
But every market also has some iconic or otherwise cool jobs. In the Bay Area, it might be a painter on the Golden Gate Bridge or a cable car operator. In Portland? It would be a gig at Voodoo Donuts, which is what Cassidy from The Bull did for a day.
Rocks In Socks
Match Game is always a great methodology. John DeBella at MGK would annually do “Bust John’s Balls.” You pick two ornaments, they smash them, and reveal two prizes. Match two prizes and win.
At Classic Rock 92.1 in Lexington, it’s jewelry in Christmas stockings. Imaging here.
Porch Pirates
‘Tis the season to ruin someone’s Christmas.
I’m on a social media group for my little corner of extreme northeast Washington County and there have been just tons of posts of doorbell cam pics of people stealing packages.
Staci & Hutch at KS95 and Danny Wright at 97.7 The River do “The Jacked Up Person Of The Day.” It has its own jingle. It’s great.
What if you did The Porch Pirate Of The Day? Every day take a photo that was submitted and post it to your social media with the neighborhood where it happened. Maybe catch a crook while you’re at it. And people love amateur sleuthing.
Doing The Opposite
The Art of Promotions is best summed up by this analogy: “No one ever goes to work and talks excitedly about the person they followed to work who was driving the speed limits and signaling all their turns. The person you run into work and exclaim, ‘You’re not going to believe what I saw!’ is the person driving the wrong way, wearing a Jack In The Box head and firing a marshmallow gun out the window.”
That’s Promotions. Getting noticed.
Wired in Philly did The Cracked Out Countdown for New Year’s Eve. They started at #4 and then went to #26 and then to #12…
Hot in Ottawa did the same thing with a cash contest. If they didn’t get a winner, the jackpot could go up $100… or drop back $300.
So, a brilliant Cumulus GM is going to do Reverse Porch Pirates. Their Sports station will be dropping tickets and gear off on people’s porches. Oh. And the morning show is going to dress up like the two burglars from Home Alone.
Grammy Jammies
KDWB in Minneapolis discovered that when they post photos from their Valentine’s pajama party, for about 72 hours they will pull the highest digital numbers in iHeart. Granted, that’s only a dozen or so stations, but still, it’s kinda cool.
Apparently, listeners in skimpy PJs draw hits. Huh. Who woulda thunk it?
If you had a Grammy’s trip, it might/could be fun to do a submit/post/vote gallery of listeners in their jammies. If only for my benefit. I’m really lonely.
Super Bowl
One of the stations in a market with a team in the hunt has probably jinxed it by starting to plan for the potential of them being in the Super Bowl. One of the co-hosts knows less than nothing about football. Do you know what would be really funny and something good for your site? Find someone on your staff who is equally devoid of football knowledge, mute the TV, and record them doing play-by-play of the game.
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.
