The Green Bagel Machine

On Saint Patrick’s Day, find a local bakery that produces green bagels and hand them out in bags with your station’s logo and call letters on them. These make great giveaways if you have a parade, Irish store or restaurant in your town.

Show Us Your Green Thing

Here’s a St. Patrick’s Day promotion which can take place at a local night club or as part of a remote: invite listeners to stop by and “Show us your green thing.” Award prizes in categories such as most creative green thing, ugliest green thing or biggest green thing. You’ll be amazed at what people show up with.

St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast Remote

St. Patrick’s Day has become a big adult party day, often associated with alcohol consumption. If this isn’t an image you want to connect too closely with your station, a good solution might be a St. Patrick’s Day breakfast remote. Choose a popular and accessible restaurant. Set up your morning team in a spot where it’s easy for people to stop by and chat. It’s a good chance to visit with listeners and do all those “Irish” things…from music to stories about leprechauns and Irish toasts. Doing a morning show remote makes sense, because you can promote other events coming up during the day…and have your listeners toasting themselves with green omelets instead of green beer!

A Taxing Situation

On tax day, April 15th, there will be at least one location in every town that’s open until midnight to postmark tax returns. Your station should be there to hand out stamps, cookies, hot chocolate and station paraphernalia.

Getting Back at Uncle Sam

On April 15th find a location that’s near a post office (one of your clients’ parking lots would be ideal) and have a dunking booth with someone in an IRS T-shirt in it. Invite people to “dunk the tax man” to help ease their frustrations.

Do I Really Want To Know?

On National Honesty Day in April invite listeners to call in and “bare it all” on the air, being honest about something they’ve never been honest about before. You can get a lot of really interesting stuff…just be careful to pre-screen the calls since this can get a little risqué.

Honoring the Office V.I.P.

A promotion honoring secretaries is especially good for strong at-work listening stations. Hold an after work party on Secretary’s Day in April for all the secretaries who listen to you; you can have co-workers or supervisors call in to add their secretary’s name to the guest list. Get sponsors to donate gift certificates to local shops, boutiques, spas and restaurants. A variation of this would be to hold a Secretary’s Lunch instead of an after hours party.

I Cannot Tell A Lie…Or Can I?

On National Honesty Day, have your morning person announce three facts and one lie on a particular subject. Invite your listeners to call in; the first one to tell the DJ which one is a lie wins a prize.

A Parade…No Foolin’?

For a wacky April Fool’s Day promotion, broadcast on your station that there’s a parade in town on April first (which there really isn’t). Announce the time and place of the parade on the air and send someone from your station to that location to see if any listeners show up.

April Foolin’

If your station has a high-profile morning person or team, this can be a lot of fun. Choose another station in your coverage area that also has a popular morning person or team (try to choose a non-direct competitor) and with no pre- promotion, switch stations for the day. It’s a good promotion for you and one of your competitors, and if it’s a non-direct competitor, you can both win…it’s guaranteed to get listeners talking about your stations!

Dads and Daughters

Since Bring Your Daughter To Work Day is becoming more and more popular, have your air personalities bring in their kids or kids of people who work at your station to help do news, weather and sports during morning and afternoon drive. You can vary this by having a public figure like the mayor, police or fire chief stop
by with their daughters (if they have one).

Caesar Who?

To celebrate the Ides of March (March 15th) — the day Caesar was killed — get with a local restaurant and create the “World’s Largest Caesar Salad.” Invite listeners to stop by the restaurant and give away free Caesar salads with the purchase of an entree. You can give away prizes for the best Caesar-like hairstyle, bottles of Caesar salad dressing to every 15th customer, and enter anyone who wears a toga to the restaurant in a drawing for a weekend trip to…where else? Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

Thanks, Abe!

For President’s Day give away pictures of the presidents — which are, of course, found on money. You can do this on the air, giving away cash for correct answers to presidential trivia questions, or at a remote location like a shopping mall or grocery store. If you do this outside the station you can announce on the air that the first XX (your frequency) number of people to stop by a particular location will receive an envelope containing cash, which can be in any amount — from $1 to $1000.

The WXXX Hidden Treasure

Hold a scavenger hunt for prizes the week before Robinson Crusoe Day in February. Get local sponsors involved by setting up the hunt so that listeners have to register at different stores in the area to pick up clues to the treasure’s location. Work with sponsors so that listeners who register get a special deal at the merchants on that day, like “30% off on all merchandise to WXXX listeners.” Merchants can also give away prizes to the Xth (your frequency) registrant of the day. On the final day of the scavenger hunt give clues to make the location of the grand prize obvious. Then, the first person to show up at the right location wins. An appropriate grand prize would be a trip to a tropical island.

Spotting The King

To celebrate Elvis’ birthday on January 8th find someone who’s willing to dress up like The King. Hire a red and white limo and take him around to K-Marts, Wal- Marts, and shopping centers. Inform your listeners that Elvis has been spotted in the area, and the first person to call the station and report a sighting wins. Donuts, peanut butter and bananas can be part of the prize package.

A Kazoo For You

In honor of National Kazoo Day in January, hold a contest for listeners to call in and play their kazoo along with a CD. Air personalities can judge the entries and choose a winner. A great prize for this contest is an autographed cassette or CD containing the song they kazoo’d to.

Remembering The King

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday (January 15th) air short bits from MLK’s famous speeches, followed by, “WXXX remembers Martin Luther King Jr.” This idea can also be used for other famous American figures like JFK and Malcolm X. Sell sponsorships to accompany these promos.

June Dates

The first drive-in theater opened on June 6th, 1933. Kick off outdoor movie season by sponsoring the first night at 1933 prices, compliments of WXXX.

Me And My Shadow

Two weeks prior to Groundhog Day ask listeners to send in their guesses as to whether the furry fellow will see his shadow or not and separate the “yes” and “no” responses in two boxes. Once the answer is known, hold a prize drawing from the box of correct answers. The prize should be appropriate to whether summer will come early or winter will be longer.

A Memorial 500

Invite listeners to call, fax or write to your station, listing their five favorite songs of all time. Tabulate the results and play them back in countdown form over Memorial Day weekend.

A Laughing Matter

On April Fool’s Day your music programming can be lighter and sillier than usual. Tie in a promotion to have your listeners submit the worst ten songs ever recorded. Tally the results and count ‘em down on April Fool’s Night! If you don’t want to break format, select songs from your regular rotation that could be related to April Fool’s: Fool (If You Think It’s Over), Fooling Yourself, I’m A Fool To Care, Fool #1, Fooled Around And Fell In Love, Fool To Cry, What A Fool Believes, and Everybody Plays The Fool.

You Look Mahvelous, Ma’am

Celebrate Canada’s Victoria Day with a Queen Victoria look-alike contest, held at a local mall. You can also hold “Victrivia” contests running hourly during the promotion, with trivia questions relating to the queen or Canadian history.

Guess the Jackpot

For President’s Day, set up a cash jackpot but don’t tell the amount; let listeners know only that it’s made up of ‘presidents’ — $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 bills. At regular intervals on President’s Day invite listeners to call in and guess the jackpot amount. If they guess incorrectly, have the voice of George or Abe say, “Sorry, your guess is too high (or too low)” and award a consolation prize. If the guess is right, Abe says “Congratulations, you win $125 from WXXX.”

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.

Hysterical Hauntings

Do some research and find some local “haunted places. Have listeners call in and qualify to take the Haunted Tour of (your town) on a bus. Arrange your stops to include at least one place where your stations interns can scare people on the busa dark cemetery works well!

Pumpkin Party

Right before Halloween hold a pumpkin carving contest among your listeners where your stations call letters or logo must appear somewhere on their pumpkin. Listeners bring the jack-o-lanterns to a local mall where they will be displayed and shoppers can vote for them in different categories (scariest, most original, funniest). The jocks then present winners with prizes at a special ceremony.

Trick-Or-Treat

Put together a station-sponsored trick-or-treating Halloween party at a local shopping mall. Find mall sponsors willing to hand out small gifts or candy to trick-or-treaters and hold games for children in the center of the mall. Parents will feel more at ease with their children indoors and malls will benefit from the late-night mall traffic.

Halloween Reflections

Prior to Halloween, give away reflective stickers with your call letters and logo on them to put on childrens clothing to make trick-or-treating a little safer.

Ghoulish Fun

Sponsor an invite-only Halloween costume party at a local hot spot. During the month of October give away pairs of tickets to the 13th caller after they hear part of a Halloween song (like Monster Mash). At the event, award prizes for the best, worst, scariest, and most creative costumes. If alcohol is served at the party, be sure to provide alternative transportation for guests.

Knock, Knock, Whos There?

Designate one or more houses in your community as the “Official WXXX Halloween House. Promote on air that when parents take their kids trick-or- treating, they should ask: “Is this the WXXX Halloween House? The first trick- or-treater that asks the question at one of the designated houses wins a prize.

Boo at the Zoo

“Boo at the Zoo! Is safe and fun way to trick or treat around the Zoo. Our sales staff sold booth space around the Zoo to current advertisers, got free entertainment from local celebrities, entrance fee was only $1 which went to the Zoological Society. All booth sponsors gave away free candy and product! Awesome event, drew close to 5,000 people! Great event to raise money and promote a safe and fun Halloween!

Olympics - Secretary Style

In honor of Professional Secretarys Week in April invite co-workers and supervisors to nominate secretaries that listen to your station at work to participate in the Office Olympics. If your station receives more nominations than you have room for, draw names on the air. Have all secretaries meet at a specified location; break them up into teams and hold events like a typewriter toss or an office chair race. Award prizes to the winning team.

Food For Fines

For “Return Borrowed Books Week in March, work with your local library so that people who bring in one can of food for every late book (or dollar they owe) get their fines waived. Its a great promotion for this time of year since food banks are usually low after the holiday season.

Bring ‘Em Back

Another “Returned Borrowed Books Week idea is to invite listeners who have overdue library books to stop by the local library and have their fines paid by the station. If you would rather not pay everyones fines, pay for the person that comes by with the most outstanding library books or the longest overdue book.

Just Say Yuk!

During National Poison Prevention Week in March participate with a local drug store or pharmacy and give away Mr. Yuk stickers along with a list of common household poison mistakes and local emergency numbers with your stations logo on it. Make the stickers and lists available at the participating stores.

Throwing for Dollars

During National Condom Week in February, hold a “Condom Toss contest to benefit the local AIDS foundation. Fill condoms with water and have a mens toss and a womens toss to see who can throw theirs the farthest. Find sponsors who agree to donate according to the distance thrown (i.e. $10 per foot). The winner from each group can also receive prizes donated by sponsors.