Congrats. You survived The Bowl. That used to be something that it was just a given that a station would do something with. Why? Because it’s omnipresent and we need to acknowledge omnipresence. Not a ton of highlights from 2026, but here are the top three.
Jammin in Springfield did some brilliant imaging that mocked the NFL’s ownership of the term “Super Bowl.”
99.7 DJX in Louisville did a week of contesting as El Super Weeko.
And Moug and Karla at B96 in Chicago killed it with “bad” bunny races on the air last Friday to predict the winner of the game.
Hopefully, people do better with Valentine’s.
And now on to the Dumpage.
Significant Mother
One of the stations has a package out to a local chain of theaters to do some tickets for Mother’s Day. Go and take your mom to a flick. It will be umbrellaed as “You + Your Significant Mother”.
The Right Fluff
If you ask people to post photos of their pets for concert tickets, they most assuredly will. Mix in Cincy did it for NKOTB tickets.
Laura Daniels with Cumulus in Buffalo once had her listeners share pics of their bedroom walls from 1990. That would be GOLD too.
Green…. Means “GO”
Jeff Kapugi was the first to use the act of manually refreshing a site to make a stoplight change from red to green, which was the signal at his station in St. Louis to text and win Jason Aldean tickets.
“Guess How Many Beans Are in The Jar” is a contesting methodology for fairs, elementary school events and even Radio dating back to cave dwelling. Mix in Cincy brought it back for giving away casino prizes.
You could do it for St. Patrick’s Day with green M&M’s in a glass jar or bowl. Post the pic, and the listener who guesses closest without going over gets to go somewhere. We can overthink prizing: a weekend getaway is a killer prize.
The Black Box
Since the Dawn of Time, “Secret Sound” has metaphorically killed.
“The Black Box” just adds a visual:
- The station has put six or seven items in a box
- The box is hung from a crane with a giant painted logo and a “?” on it. THAT will get people’s attention. In Birmingham, it was at eye level with an elevated freeway. At Magic in Colorado Springs, it was streetside at a mall. In Kingston, Ontario, it was on top of a very tall scaffold. In Panama City, it was hung in the parking lot of a car dealer at the busiest intersection in town.
- ID all of the items based on SFX and win a prize.
Secret Sound + A Visual = Win.
Sounds plus promos:
Flash MOB
MOB = Moms on Break.
I got my first Mother’s Day “we have a client that needs…” request yesterday. The client has a big deck with food and alcohol and room-to-lounge. So, I think they’re going to tease (for the Friday before Mother’s Day) to “be ready to roll when we tell you when and where” and at 2 pm announce the location. Come. Lounge. Escape.
Give Them a Hand
For that client who says “I want something on-site. An event. Not a remote.” Get everyone gathered in front of their store. And interns with air cannons filled with decks of cards on either side of the crowd. On cue, blow the cards, sound an airhorn when 30 seconds is up: the person who has found and made the best poker hand wins the op to shake hands with (artist) at whatever concert you have coming up.
Fat Tuesday
Following Mardi Gras, we head into a downtime before St. Patrick’s Day, so make the most of it. I think you could also do some kind of “guess my weight” carnie thing. Post your photo in a Speedo on Facebook and let people try to nail the poundage.
Gift Cards
Arguably, one of the best “support local businesses” campaigns during COVID was Operation Gift Card, done by Beasley in Tampa. They had links to lots of local businesses on their site where you could go and purchase gift cards for future use, and help these businesses stay running.
People do love gift cards. BEN in Philly imaged a group contest as winning “1000 gift cards to (different business that they changed every day). One of the stations was working on a program with Applebee’s that the client LOVED. Basically, the morning show would have its own “brand” Applebee’s giftcards. Cost was $30 with a $25 value. $5 was going to the show’s charity. But when you used the card, you got a $5 bounce back coupon from Applebee’s.
That would be cool. And you have 8 months until Gift Card Season to pull it off.
Sleep With a Star!
When I was 12 years old, the station I was at in Minneapolis got gifted Bon Jovi’s autographed bed sheets from the Hyatt. You can overthink prizing. The phones went all Chernobyl.
In San Francisco at Wild, we did Janet Jackson’s BED from her hotel in San Jose. We just traded out a bed of equal quality. That really can’t be accomplished anymore because a lot of hotels have branded beds.
The next best thing? You have an artist stopping by? Go to Target, buy a couple of sets of linens, and take a couple of callers or texters, and using a permanent marker, have him/her sign and message the sheets and pillowcases.
Boring Winners
Could you imagine The Price Is Right without the excited winners? It would be cancelled. K-Rock 105.7 in Kingston got a lump for a winner for a Metallica flyaway and, with creative editing, fixed it. As Dan Wylie said: “Lemonade from lemons.”
Car Endorsements
One of the stations has an auto dealer that wants to do endorsements but is also self-aware enough to understand that no one cares that a host gets to drive a car for free.
So, who enjoys a car ride more than us? A dog. So, the goal is to have the morning person’s dog, Snickers, endorse the car with videos and v/o thoughts.
And for your viewing pleasure, the campaign that changed them all… The Trunk Monkey.
Chard Week
A station has a vineyard that wants to highlight its summer chardonnays. Getting on the air and talking about wine is a 4. You need a hook. So, they’re going to sip chard while watching shark attack videos on YouTube.
