The 24 Hours of Christmas

Beginning at 6 PM on Christmas Eve, play 24 hours of commercial-free Christmas music. Have only four sponsors during that entire time (you can charge quite a bit for this) with each sponsor airing only once an hour. There should be no selling messages, just friendly ones like, �Elmer�s Pancake House thanks you for your business throughout the year, and would like to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and happy New Year.�

Tis (Almost) the Season

Looking for a Christmas card idea to send to your listeners? Try a station card and cookbook rolled into one, with favorite recipes from station personnel. The cookbooks can be simple, with a holiday message on the cover. They�ll be something useful that your listeners will want to keep, so make sure you use your station call letters and logo on each page of the book.

Million Dollar Santa

Hold a hole-in-one contest in December. Invite your listeners to a local golf course. Purchase a large plastic Santa and cut a hole in the top of its head. Place the Santa in front of a par three hole. Each contestant has two ways to win: in one drive they must either hit the ball into Santa�s head or into the hole on the green behind the plastic Santa. Have a live Santa award prizes to anyone who gets the ball into Santa�s head; if anyone gets it into the hole on the green, they win a million dollars.

The Twelve (Work) Days of Christmas

This idea works great as a pre-holiday tie-in with your advertising clients. Get buys from twelve clients who will also donate a prize from their business. For each of the twelve work days before Christmas give away one prize each morning to a specified caller. Unwrap the gift on the air and tell them what they won, making sure to mention each day�s sponsor.

The Most Private Christmas Party In Town!

Plan a Christmas party for your audience that listens exclusively to your station at work! Encourage listeners to submit their names and place of business, either at a participating sponsor location or directly to the station via fax. Then for a three week stretch (mid-November to early December), pick one name from the entries four times a day. If the listener calls when they hear their name, they (and a guest) receive an official invitation to the �The most private Christmas party in town.� Trade-outs with food and beverage establishments can make this a lavish affair. Build it up on the air and have some fun.

Merry Meters

During the holiday shopping season, send station employees downtown with a handful of change and some flyers promoting your station, with a message to car owners that says the time on their parking meters had expired but your station was happy to have filled it up again for them. Followed, of course, by �Merry Christmas!�

Every Day Is Like Christmas

If you�re planning a major format change in January, consider programming an �All Christmas� music format from Thanksgiving through the end of the year. There are several advantages:

In many markets, the concept is so unique that it�s very attractive to your existing client base as well as advertisers who either don�t use radio or don�t advertise on your station.

Many stations doing a format change use some gimmick to trash the existing audience. But the �All Christmas� format will bring a new audience while maintaining some portion of the existing base.

The �All Christmas� format will confuse your competition. They may assume you�ll return to the previous format after Christmas. On New Year�s Eve, you can make a major announcement with the new call letters and format.

Santa Is In

Set up a Santa Hot Line prior to Christmas. Work with a senior center or recruit volunteer Santas to man your �Santa Hot Line.� Limit the hours that Santa will be on duty and invite kids to call in. Look for sponsorships with local retailers and make sure you promote the line both in-store and on the air. Roll tape, get approval from parents, and use some highlights from conversations with Santa in promos.

Holiday Giving And Sharing

Work with a local youth agency to obtain the names, ages and some wish-list items of less fortunate children. Join efforts with a mall or department store where you can display the WXXX Love Tree, which is decorated with information about the children. Invite listeners to stop by the Love Tree and purchase one or more of the wish list items, returning a wrapped, labeled package to the Love Tree by a designated date. Station personnel, agency representatives and listener volunteers can help sort gifts and assist the agency in distributing presents to the children. You�ll help make it a joyful holiday season for one and all!

Here Calls Santa Claus, Here Calls Santa Claus

Invite listeners to have their children call your station and leave a message for Santa Claus that you�ll relay to him at the North Pole. Record calls on an answering machine with a credible Santa voice and select a few to play back on the air. If you create a cross-promotional tie-in with a local retailer, some of the caller�s Christmas wishes just may come true.

End-of-Year Sale

Everyone has incentives, sales and special events before Christmas, so why not take center stage the day after Christmas Day? Take advantage of the wave of gift exchanges and returns during the week following December 25th. Choose a client like a department store and have them run a contest based on the number of returns or exchanges per customer. Award a gift certificate to the person with the biggest number. Be sure to promote the contest in the client�s pre-Christmas advertising.

�Twas The Week After�

When the last Christmas spot has been recorded and you hit that quiet week just before the end of the year, take an hour or two look at the great, blank expanse of next year�s calendar. Reflect on the already filled-up months of the previous year, and ask yourself what promotions worked, which ones were beneficial to both sales and programming and which ones failed. Make a list of must-do- agains for the upcoming year and pencil them in on the blank calendar. Now start planning ahead, but leave some room for spur-of-the-moment ideas and last-second opportunities. Make sure the planning session includes the GM, sales manager and promotion director. If possible, spend the afternoon away from the station and avoid the usual distractions.

Tree Lighting

Get involved with your community tree-lighting ceremony, and if there isn�t one, start your own! Invite your listeners to bring friends and family to the tree lighting. Have a Santa at the event, lead Christmas caroling and have hot cider or hot chocolate for everyone who comes. Invite public figures like the mayor, fire or police chief to help with the ceremony, and do the whole thing as a station remote.

Tag a Winner

Give away cash during the Christmas season to shoppers seen wearing a handmade name tag with your station�s call letters on it. Tie in with local sponsors and announce �The WXXX Christmas Cash spotter will be at (store location) sometime today between (time) looking for your Christmas Cash name tag.� It�s a great promotion to build mid-week foot traffic in a local mall or department store.

Safe Drinks For The Holidays

Enlist the help of local celebrities like politicians, entertainers and community leaders and have each of them come up with a dynamite non-alcoholic drink for the holidays. Promote a location for listeners to pick up the drink recipes and have the celebs cut promos encouraging non-alcoholic drinking during the holidays. You can set up a recorded message where listeners can call in and get the recipes or have the celebs drop by your morning show to mix up the concoction for your morning team to sample.

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