Radio is not a normal career. The hours that we put in would be unfathomable in other industries. But it’s what we do, knowing that the Fun Factor is unparalleled compared to our sane friends who chose more serious and responsible jobs.
When I worked at Emmis in the Twin Cities, it was just a given that I’d work every day, 7 days a week, from late April through late September. It came with the territory, and it was simply understood that that was the schedule.
Summer in the Twin Cities could be debilitating for the entire staff, so at the midpoint, our GM, Doyle Rose, would organize a station fun day at Lake Minnetonka. Just a day to blow off and ease the stress Keith Moon-style.
When Kris Cegla was running Promotions at KDWB, she would take “the kids” out for a day of inner-tubing at the Apple River. Cost? Zero. It was a client. This simple gesture built loyalty from her staff, which I had never seen before. They loved her. Would take a bullet for her.
So keep your eyes open for burnout and see if you can find something to help break up the Summer for the team. Why? Because this should still be the Fun Medium.
And now on with the Dumpage.
Morning Show Tours
Promotions is a like a political campaign: no one is going to get elected by sitting in the headquarters sending emails to people.
Donnie Simpson at WPGC did The Hole In The Wall Tour and every month did his show at a different hole-in-the-wall breakfast joint.
Dave Ryan at KDWB would do a week of these, and they were great at picking locations normally overlooked by stations in the Twin Cities. Like doing one at Emma Crumbees in Jordan or at Caribou Coffee in Forest Lake. If they had done one at Starbuck in Stadium Village at the U, it would have been good. Forest Lake? It was like Woodstock.
Basically, you do your show but with a live audience. Contests that involve callers are done with people who are there to watch.
Pothole Patrol
Beasley in Las Vegas had an opportunity to get some “We don’t advertise on the Radio!” money from an auto body repair client. I asked the Sales Manager what the biggest cause of auto damage in the market was, and without pausing, he said, “Potholes.” So we put together a promotion that would help get bad stretches of neighborhood streets “filled.” The client went nuts over it and spent a ton to sponsor it.
93Q in Syracuse is soliciting driveway pics from their audience to get a seal from a client.
The Ticket Machine
Y94 in Fargo has a TON of free tickets to events. As exciting as a digital entry can be, they’re imaging it as a station ticket printing machine that is overheated from printing so many tickets, and you call in and win whatever is jammed up inside it.
Moug & Karla’s Day Off, Day #2
The morning show at B96 in Chicago is honoring a locally filmed iconic piece of cinema by inviting listeners to join them on Days Off. The first was at a museum. The next is at Great America.
Van Tip #264
One of the things we teach the promo team at Street School is that they ALWAYS should drive in the left lane and always drive with the headlights on. Why? To be seen. Driving in the right lane, hiding behind the Meineke semi ensures that only people directly behind you will see you.
Match The Criminal To The Crime
I’ve lobbed this out a couple of times, and since we’re always trying to find sticky stuff for our digital platforms, it’s worth mentioning again. Dave Ryan did it at KDWB, where he found five female audience members who had done at least one night in jail, posted their pics, and you had to match them to their crime.
I saw it done in one of the free weekly papers, where they used overnight mugshots, and you matched 10 people to 10 crimes. And then there’s this from Smoking Gun.
Military Mommies
One of the Country stations was looking for ‘something’ and I think we may have settled on a military version of the single mothers promotion that several stations have done. KDWB did it as Minnesota Mommies. Basically, if you’re a listener and you know of a mom holding down the homefront during a deployment, you submit her name and her story. Every Friday, one woman is selected, you read her story, you talk to the person who sent it in, and then you call her up. Tears ensue, and she gets a bevy™ of prizes from clients.
Back 2 School For Sales
This has probably been on the radar for most of your clients for a while, so here ya go:
Cheerleading Competition This is actually one of the easier events to put on. Usually held at a mall with a soft drink sponsor and in one case, Target sponsored makeup kits and hair product bags for all the girls.
School Lunches Remember: cash can be more than cash. Cash can buy other stuff. In the case of The Wolf in Greensboro, it paid for “school lunches for a year!” which worked out to be a couple of hundred dollars. The phones have not yet returned to a temperature where they’re safe to touch without asbestos protection. A station here in the Twin Cities is doing a promotion where they’re donating money to a local fund for low-income students’ lunches for every new like on Facebook. A client is matching this up to $5000.
School Spirit Contests If you’re going to do any kind of School Spirit contest, there are two time periods when they’re most effective: September and January. Any other time and they’ve got too much other crap going on. “High School Survivor” is the best methodology that I know of, and starting in 2009, it began being done as Last School Standing. If only because it’s still fresh and hasn’t been discovered by the rest of Radio. Questions? Call me.
“Pennies From Heaven” (as done by 98PXY and KDWB) and The Can Jam (done by KUBE) basically awarded concerts to schools that collected the most pennies (for charity) and aluminum (for recycling). You want to offer a concert. That’s the best prize. For the second and third place schools, offer a mixer for their next dance. They’ll be thrilled. Seriously.
School Supply Drives Most School Supply Drives are vibeless entities that are just another lame begathon with no premise or purpose. The setup in Orlando was that the school district was running Y2K compliance checks on their computer… and it kicked out Paco’s name. He’d never returned “Yes, Billy, Your Body Is Changing” in 6th grade. The fines were up to about $18,000. They’d look the other way if he could help them with getting needed items for students from low-income families.
Sidewalk Heroes What do people do the last week of August on Facebook? Post pics, lots of pics, of their little ones going off to school for the first time. Create a gallery and sponsor it by Olen Mills, Lunchables, or Target.
Cut The Cord With Kate Kate McGwire at Mix 106 in Boise annually does a promotion with restaurant, theater, and spa clients where she takes women out for a day of getting their mind off… their first day at home alone without the kids. My wife is already stocking up on Ativan. (But she would anyway.)
My Facth Ith Too Tite Sure, giving away some spa treatments to weary moms the week the kids go back to sc…zzzz…sorry. Nodded off. Hot 89.9 in Ottawa did Back To School Botox.
High School Press Conference The High School Press Conference. I lobbed this out at stations until KDWB jumped on it. They had JC from N’Sync coming through and were kind of undecided on what to do with him because, well, he was JC from N’Sync promoting his solo CD. They sent invites out to every school paper, and the first 40 that replied were given a phone number to call at a specific time. They were then given directions to a secret location and 90 minutes to get there. (Conference room at The Doubletree).
Once there, the reporters and photogs got to ask him anything they wanted and pose for pictures. We take this crap for granted. 17-year-old Debby from Richfield High School? Biggest afternoon of her life, and KDWB got crazy love in the papers. Power in Atlanta did this online. KILLED. Could be sponsored by fast food and a soft drink to feed the kids.
Yearbooks A bit from San Francisco, is to get autographs and well-wishes from every artist or celeb who strolls through the building. “Congrats, class of 2026 from Ariana Grande!” All of these are combined and laid out, and printed with a logoed watermark as inserts for yearbooks. In May, they would go and hand out tens of thousands of these, and they would go into the yearbook and stay there, pretty much forever. Clients could be watermarked on the inserts, or there could be coupon possibilities
Bookcovers Oldschool, but kids still use them. Distribution or pickup locations at clients.
Back To School Backpacks Back To School is a BIG financial hit on families. So what if you did “Back Pack To School”? For a reasonable price, through the station website, you could purchase a logoed-like-a-NASCAR backpack. Filled with?
- Snacks like individual packs of raisins or juice boxes.
- Certificates for clothes and shoes
- Supplies like paper, pens, Crayons, and a calculator.
- A day at a spa for mom
- Maybe a free pizza for the first day of school dinner
- A reusable nylon lunch bag logoed and perhaps a coupon in itself, by a client.
- Haircuts
Honestly? There are probably twenty other clients you could get in there. And make sure that you make a cash donation for every backpack sold to a school lunch program.
Limos Any time you can send a kid to school on the first day of classes in a limo, that’s big. Would be a great prize for a client’s back-to-school event.
High School Football I would hope that this is something you don’t need to be reminded about. And don’t limit yourself to one game a week. In theory, you should be able to hit four or five if you plan correctly. The call-ins and the visibility are why you do this. And spread it out: don’t hit the same schools over and over. I’ve done these patrols sponsored by Pizza Hut and later Pepsi. KDWB has it sponsored by a local bank, and every Friday night, some kid at some game is taken out on the field to attempt a field goal for a $10,000 scholarship.
Cheerleaders Get them on the air every Thursday night. Be sure to press release the school papers in advance, and try to get something prerecorded by the night jock, on their morning announcements that morning, to remind them. Like, “Hey Forest Lake, this is Wayne D from KDWB, and be sure to be listening tonight at 8, when Barb and Matt and Kia, and the rest of the FLHS cheerleading squad are in the studio with me.” Or something to that effect. Instead of having them come to the studio, go do the show at a cheerleader’s home. AMP in Boston was the first station to take it to the next level when they still didn’t have any air talent: they had squads host the night show. In Phoenix, this was sponsored by a pizza chain.
The Dream Dorm This is the single most outstanding mall event or campaign you can do. Ask and I’ll walk you through it. The clients love it.
Move In Day Lest we forget the universities, several of you are there with clients, food, and beverages to greet the parents and kids and help them move in. Great, simple marketing.
Doors Signs & Door Hangers Need something you can stick a bunch of clients on? Dry erase boards to hand out on Move In Day. Things that can go on their dorm room doors. Pizza. Bars. Clothing stores. All could get logos on there. Ditto with Do Not Disturb signs. B-96 in Chicago has done a great job with them.
Campus Invasions Done by a bunch of stations, including B-96 in Chicago and 94/9 in San Diego: it’s a sales promotion that is an excuse for you to hang out on campuses.
