Sometimes I think about when radio stations actually cared about their listeners’ health and safety. In my weekly Radio Ink musings, I don’t think I’ve referenced Cumulus Albuquerque’s “Take A Ride On Us” campaign, which won a metric ton of awards for public service.
For “heavy-drinking holidays” like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, listeners can use a station-provided code for a $10 Uber ride. While it’s not valid for Uber Eats, people will undoubtedly still try.
Cumulus/Albuquerque works with local county and community organizations that push that safety narrative, and client sponsors are usually the big local casino and a personal injury attorney.
I can’t think of another public service initiative in radio that comes close to it. Kinda gives me hope for the future.
And now, on with the Dumpage:
Holiday Malls
Everything that comes through promotions in the next couple months? Grab a few off the top and stash them away for a November campaign. Your goal? Be the background music on the store speakers in as many retailers as possible.
A week before Thanksgiving, go out with swag (movie tickets are best) and go to every store in every mall. Greet the manager. Bribe them to put your station on, and promise to return at least twice between Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you catch them playing the station, everyone who’s working gets hooked up again. This is about to hit somewhere at “turn us on.”
Great Moments in Signage
Incorporating bodysuits, waving banners, and “action” on street corners will get you noticed, from a station in San Diego.
October’s Very Own Theme
October is Anti-Bullying Month, and one of the morning shows has a slew of plans. Instead of just talking at the kids, it’s always good to invite and encourage involvement. For example, Augusta Ranch Elementary hosted a “best anti-bullying video.”
Video Bios
Radiowave in Windhoek once added video bios for all shifts and talent. This is kind of a compilation of that, plus a behind-the-scenes look into the operation. Watch people when they take a tour of the station; they’re soaking it all in. You should do something like this for your place. And in case you’ve never seen a station in Africa.
Club Z
A station-to-remain-nameless has tied in with a local promoter for a Halloween thing that is ridiculously cool.
They have a large swatch of land where the promoter is building a tiny village. You pay $25, get 50 paintballs, and ride in an old army halftrack that has both sides lined with paintball guns. As you drive through the woods and this little village, zombies will shuffle out, and you blast the crap out of them. At the end of the road, the vehicle turns around; you can buy more paintballs to blast the zombies on the other side of the road.
Eventually, you’re dropped off at a field with lights and fog and music and are joined by the zombies for a dance party.
Do this.
Just A Sec
Boom in Toronto has taken “Name That Tune” and PPM’ed it down to just one second.
Team Of The Week
Because there’s still a clock ticking to high school football, The Wolf in Greensboro made this play:
The Wolf’s High School Football Team of The Week promotion was a key element to our fall street plan! We ran a bunch of promos pushing to The Wolf website for listeners to vote for their school – so it wasn’t a contest, but more of an interactive element to the station. While the voting component was going on, we picked the schools and games we deemed as the biggest for our audience and areas in the metro we wanted and needed to ‘show the flag’ more. This gave the promo team the time to schedule personnel and arrange with the school’s AD for us to invade their event.
This is where, on the air, it began to sizzle for us – on Friday morning, we made the announcement during the AM show – then in each ‘top of hour,’ we included a salute to the team and their city in the Legal…and in the weather position, the jocks hyped the game…
The night of the game, we made a 50-yard line presentation to the coach of the team, one of the jocks made the announcement from the PA booth, and then we made a lap around the track in our big jacked-up truck, throwing Wolf mini footballs and t-shirts to the crowd!
We ran the promotion for about 4 years, and ended up in a few schools’ yearbooks!
CheerEOKE
First, there was Scaryoke, and it was good. That begat Mariah Careyoke, and it was shrill. That begat Car-eoke, which was also good. And then the Chet Buchanan Show wondered, what if we had high school cheerleaders competing in karaoke? And it was amazing, in case you’re still trying to figure out fall high school marketing game plan.
Spree For Me
Pay Your Bills reminds me a little of “Second Chance Prom,” which was an amazing event that eventually was diluted down to a club night with drink specials. Bills was this tremendous post-holidays contest that just became an umbrella for cash contests that 96% of listeners ignore. With that said, some stations have really had fun with it.
When I was at a station a few months ago, one of the PD’s commented that “bills” has a bad connotation, and why not, instead of focusing on the negative, zero in on it being about paying for “me time.” Stuff that you want to do. Like get a season pass to a ski arena or take your spouse to a cabin for a weekend getaway. And then use lots and lots of listeners talking about what they want to blow it on.
Food (Truck) Fight
Hands down, the biggest bracket contest for WQYK in Tampa was Food Truck Fight. People have strong opinions about food. Just look at social media. Apparently, they feel even stronger about local entrepreneurs on wheels. Random voters got gift cards to the winner, and the winner got a sked.
Santa School
One of the talent is working on a Holiday Bucket List. She’s going to be a costumed character at a commercial haunted house, do retail on Black Friday, and be an elf for a mall Santa.
There are actual schools that train Santas. You should put one of the jocks through it and chronicle the experience. The payoff could be your talent debuting at an event with the photo fees going to charity.
