Is radio dying? That was the Point of View in a recent Radio Ink Convergence Conference. I blogged about this a few weeks ago…

http://www.radioink.com/HeadlineEntry.asp?hid=141391&pt=todaysnews

Leo states that “Good Content” is what makes good radio.  It’s my opinion that good radio people, who make good radio content, can always make good “radio” entertainment.  The problem we’re having is that the industry isn’t embracing the people that are growing into it. 

There really isn’t a grapefruit league for radio anymore… unless you embrace Podcasting.  Couldn’t it easily be said that good radio people never die they just live on in podcasting and internet content delivery? 

In many aspects, I think radio died a very long time ago. Billboard, R&R, Record companies, Arbitron, radio consolidation and brain dead PD’s are to blame.

The record companies tell the charts what to push - the PD’s play what the charts and some consultant on the other side of the country tell them to and arbitron rewards them accordingly for playing along.

The radio I grew up with was compelling and kept you glued to the dial.

Don’t blame technology - blame the content.

I look at it this way:

• I have a fun job
• People seem to enjoy that I do it
• I make enough to keep us alive
• I don’t smell like coal dust when I get home
• My audience believes in my product, and show up when we go out
• You can’t buy community support like we have
• My boss loves what I do, too

Today’s Best Music 99 1/2 WLOL Minneapolis, St Paul with another hour of custom mixed music…  Now that was a great radio station and a great PD.  Gregg Swedberg had some amazing talent and content with John Hines and the crew in the morning.

Hey tight and bright baby!!! Let’s create some new content! 

Justin Kaiser
Creative Identity Group

photo credit: paper by design

Ham It Up

Here’s a promotion that can be used prior to Thanksgiving or Christmas. Find a local grocery store or meat market that will donate turkeys (for Thanksgiving) or ham (for Christmas). Each day, give away one turkey or ham to a listener who gives the correct answer to a trivia question related to either Thanksgiving or Christmas. For each turkey or ham you give to a listener, donate one to a local food bank in the listener’s name.

Thanksgiving Feast

Just prior to Thanksgiving, send your jocks out to local schools during lunch to eat with the kids and sample their Thanksgiving meals. Then, select the school with the tastiest Thanksgiving feast and award them with lunch from a local pizza or hamburger restaurant.

Food Bank Contributions

Team up with a local grocery store during the holiday season to arrange a live broadcast from their location. Encourage listeners to come down and shop, and pick up some extra items to donate to the local food bank. Have containers for the food at your remote…give away station paraphernalia and put shoppers on the air to make the event fun for everyone.

Dinner On The Mayflower

Sponsor a “Thanksgiving on the Mayflower” dinner during the holiday season. Have listeners register for this contest at a local grocery store (you can even place the sign-ups with a food collection container encouraging donations, and give the contents to a local food bank). Announce the winner during morning drive the week before Thanksgiving…the grand prize is an elegant Thanksgiving dinner for their family or friends, served by candlelight, on a Mayflower moving van.

Holiday Visibility

The year-end holidays creates good cheer and positive feelings. Connect your station with that holiday spirit by being a visible part of your community’s holiday events. Co-sponsor tree lightings, arrivals of Santa and holiday fund raisers. It’s a great time to contact event organizers and offer to help out by publicizing and being part of their holiday fun! Warning: beware of clutter from November through the middle of December; limit on-air commitments and strive to get visibility at the events.

Home For The Holidays

As the year-end holidays near, get together with a travel agency or airline and put together a “Home For the Holidays” package. Fly a college student home or send a family to Grandma’s house for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Have them write or fax your station, in 50 words or less, why they or a loved one should win the trip.

Spice up Your Spouse

Invite listeners to write or fax your station in 50 words or less why their spouse needs a makeover. Winners could receive things like a pedicure, manicure, hair cut and style, new glasses or contacts and new clothes. Read some of the most creative letters on the air.

Charity Auctions

If your station receives lots of autographed holiday cards from famous performers, here’s a great way to put them to good use: hold an auction at a local restaurant with all money raised going to a local charity or food bank. If you don’t want to sell them, cards can be given away on the air to the Xth caller, or for answering a trivia question correctly. This idea isn’t limited to cards…you can auction off any autographed items your station has.

Mall Remotes

Tie in remotes with a local mall. Develop themes such as lawn and garden, home improvement or gourmet cooking and get sponsorships from merchants in the mall. If the theme is lawn and garden, get sponsorships from florists, lawnmower shops and gardening stores; if it’s home improvement get sponsorships from hardware and lumber stores; gourmet cooking sponsorships could come from kitchen shops or gourmet food stores in the mall.

Oh Yes It’s Ladies’ Night

If you’re a station that targets women, hold a “Ladies Night Out” drawing once a month. Ask female listeners to fax or call in the “song of the day” which is played at 8 AM to enter them in the drawing for a night on the town with five of their friends. This could include manicures, dinner and a movie for the group. Local restaurants, theaters and clubs would make great sponsors for this event.

The Ultimate Redneck Night

Have listeners submit their names for a drawing to be part of the Ultimate Redneck Night. Pick up the winning listener and their date in a 4-wheel-drive truck, take them bowling, have dinner at a local deli or hamburger spot and for dessert take them to Wal-Mart for Twizzlers. You could also have large belt buckles made with your station’s logo on them which the winners have to wear. What’s in a Song?

Progressive Trivia

Set a specified time each weekday morning when a trivia question is asked. Award small prizes to winners Monday through Thursday, telling your listeners to write down the answers to questions from those four days. On Friday, award a grand prize to the listener who can answer Friday’s trivia question, plus give the answers to questions from the four previous days.

A Strip-”Tease”

Have your female listeners call in to register for a night with a stripper for themself and three of their friends. Hold a drawing from the names and send the winner and friends out for a night of wild and crazy fun…with a paint stripper from a local paint store or remodeling company (this could make a great April Fool’s promotion).

Bad Impression

Have a “Bad Impression Weekend” where listeners call in and give the on-air jock their worst impression of a well-known person (this could be a local or national celebrity). If the jock can guess who the caller is impersonating, the caller wins a prize.

WXXX Pays For A’s

Encourage students to get good grades with a “WXXX Pays for A’s” promotion that can continue through the school year. Students who get A’s on their report cards can mail or fax them to your station. Draw names from the report cards and award prizes to students whose grades improved.

Midterm Madness

If your station is located in a college town, contact the local school(s) to find out when midterms (or finals) are scheduled. Team up with local sponsors and put together midterm survival kits to give away to students on the air. Contents could include coffee and a station mug, study snacks, pens, pencils and paper, vitamins, or a gift certificate to a local hot spot for celebrating the end of midterms.

Let’s Do Lunch

Hold a contest for your younger listeners…ask elementary school students to write, in 50 words or less, why their class deserves “Lunch on WXXX.” Read the most creative entries on the air. The winning entry’s class wins lunch from a local restaurant.

You’re Cookin’ Now

Put together a “WXXX Cookbook.” Have listeners submit their favorite recipes in exchange for a copy of the cookbook. Sell additional copies at a local bookstore or at station remotes, with all proceeds going to charity. Make the last few pages of the cookbook tear-outs with coupons from the sponsors of this project.

Rainy Day Pool Party

Host a “Rainy Day Pool Party.” Team up with a local Boys & Girls Club or YMCA so that when the forecast calls for rain they’ll open up their pool tables for the kids. Have someone from your station present to give away hats, bumper stickers and other station paraphernalia.

Fans For Fans

Give away fans with “I’m a WXXX Fan” printed on them. Aside from outdoor events such as fairs and concerts, these work particularly well at nightclubs where it’s hot inside. It gets your call letters all over the place, even if you don’t “own” the event.

Charity Of The Month

Choose a “Charity Of The Month,” sponsored by your station. During that month, sell your station T-shirts with all proceeds going to a local charity. This is a good promotion for stations that can’t justify spending lots of money on shirts just to give away.

Open Air Movie Night

Invite your listeners to an “Open Air Movie Night,” showing films on the side of a building (or hang a large canvas sheet off a building and project onto it). During the next day’s morning show, ask trivia questions based on things that happened during “Movie Night,” and award prizes to listeners who call in with the correct answers.

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Listeners

Here’s an oldie but a goodie! Gather photographs of nice looking men, women and/or families who fit into your target demo. Place their picture in the control room and in front of the microphone so whenever the on-air personalities open up the mike, they can visualize speaking directly to an individual listener. Alternate photos to retain freshness.

The 60 Second Survey

Here is an idea for getting great quantitative and qualitative research information without spending a fortune. Talk to the manager of your local mall and obtain permission to conduct a 60 second survey consisting of seven multiple choice and open-ended questions printed on a small index card. Register those people who’ve completed the survey for a weekend getaway. Have your sales manager work a deal with one of the department stores or cosmetic companies to give away samples of their products as well. Try to coordinate this on a weekend when the mall is having family events or crafts shows, which tend to raise attendance.

Clip Here

Many stations agree that coupon books are a valuable way to promote themselves and their sponsors. Allow an advertiser a coupon or two in your book when they purchase time on the station. Make the books available at participating sponsors and convenient locations in town. To give books extra value, number them and broadcast one daily for a bonus prize. Don’t forget expiration dates and be sure to promote your station, special programming and air personalities on alternating pages.

Co-Operation

If you have an under-performing AM, turn unsold weekend inventory into money with creative block programming! Set up a cooperative arrangement with a local business and allow them to do their own talk show. For example, a local nursery would air a gardening show and pay a flat rate for the entire time slot(s). In turn, you sell time to their vendors as sponsorships (such as plant food companies and lawn care product manufacturers). Vendors who buy time on the nursery show will get better shelf placement in the store. It can be a win-win-win situation.

Friday Flicks

Work out a trade with a local theater and give away pairs of movie tickets every Friday whenever you play songs from movies. Listeners will be thinking about weekend entertainment and they’ll stay tuned to your station to try and win. Give away as many tickets as you like, but limit the number of winners by giving away the tickets to the Xth caller.

Would You Like Fries With That?

Here’s a promotion if your station has a stunt person or wacky air personality. Have the stunt person go to a local drive-thru restaurant, but don’t let your listeners know the location. Invite your audience to stop by drive-thrus and say something silly like “Sam the Stunt Guy is my breakfast buddy.” The first person to stop by the correct drive thru and say the magic words wins a prize. You can invite listeners who stopped by the wrong drive-thrus to call in and tell about the reactions they got from people taking their orders too.

Personal Invitation

A few days before a remote, send a letter signed by the talent scheduled to appear to the zip codes in your database near the location. For example, “I’m going to be in your neighborhood this Saturday at noon.” This personal invite is a great way to increase traffic on remote day. Looking for a different grand prize for a concert giveaway? Award a telephone answering machine with a personalized greeting from the star of the show.

Parties On Pavement

If there’s a big concert or event coming to town, find parking lots near the event and buy the spaces in advance. Then, offer free parking to listeners who display your bumper sticker on their vehicle. The parking lots also make great locations for station-sponsored tailgate parties.

Pulverized Beyond Recognition

Find a local car dealer who takes in competitors’ models as trade ins. Ask him or her to donate a used vehicle to be smashed into a junkyard square. Find a towing company willing to haul the smashed square to remotes for several weekends. Invite your listeners to come to the remotes and guess what make, model and year the vehicle is, and award a grand prize to the best guess. If necessary, use the mileage on the vehicle as a tie breaker. Sell two remotes each weekend for eight weeks to generate revenue.

Stop The Violence

Stopping violent crime has become a priority with both federal and local government. Start a “Stop The Violence” campaign on your station. Work with local businesses and police departments to publicize the campaign and come up with incentives to get people to turn in their hand guns. You can come up with lots of incentives with help from concerned local businesses. Have the guns melted down and create a memorial to victims.

Day By Day

Offer to publish the annual business calendar for the local Chamber of Commerce or business association. List all the key retail sales dates, special town events, holidays, and — of course — your station promotions. Distribute the calendar to every business in your area so it can be posted to provide year- round promotion for your station.

The Beast and The Beauty

Find an old car from a junk yard and invite listeners to come and see “The Beast.” Then, over the course of six weeks, sell remote packages to body shops, auto painters, detail shops, auto parts stores, car dealers, auto repair facilities, service stations and car washes. Have each of these sponsors add a feature or fix something on the car, and remind listeners to come watch the metamorphosis. Invite them to register and listen for their name to be called to win what is becoming “The Beauty.”

A Sweet Promotion

Place candy jars emblazoned with your station’s logo and call letters in businesses throughout the community. Have your salespeople carry candy refills with them as they make their sales rounds. It’s a great way to have people notice the station’s call letters, and a perfect reason for the salesperson to make regular stops at each advertiser.

The World’s Biggest Newspaper Drive

Many charities rely on annual newspaper drives to raise funds. Make plans to set the Guinness Book of World Records mark for the biggest newspaper drive ever. This can be a sales and programming project. Plan a weekend-long broadcast from a client location, and find a moving company willing to donate a semi-truck or two. Find a local charity to provide some manpower and be the beneficiary of money raised. Alert local newspapers and television stations to your plan…perhaps the local newspaper would give you a donation of unsold issues to kick off the drive. Give this event as much pre-promotion as possible so people can stockpile their papers. You might want to have pony rides for the kids, a live band or some other activity to encourage people to stop by. Collect newspapers all weekend long The more excitement you can generate on-air, the more people will want to come and donate. Plan promotional pictures with your key air talent buried in newspaper. You’ll be doing something great for the environment and your community!

A Little Pick-up For Your Station

Stage a promotion to show listeners that your station cares about the environment…and get them involved too! Arrange a “Community Clean-up Day” where station personalities join with your listeners in a litter pick-up effort. Choose a location near a highway, park or beach where littering is a problem. Hand out station T-shirts to everyone who shows up at the event with trash bag in hand (you can pre-print litter bags with your logo/call letters on them, then distribute them free at sponsor locations); broadcast live at the location, and encourage everyone listening to come down and join in the fun. Prizes can be awarded for the most unique article of trash or for the biggest bag of litter. Be sure to separate recyclable items from the rest of the trash.

Foiled Again!

Have a competition among community or school groups to gather aluminum foil for six weeks and roll it into one big ball. At the deadline, have groups bring their foil balls to a station event at a recycling center to see which group has rolled up the winning entry. The winning group gets their aluminum weight matched in dollars by the station or a co-sponsor.

Talkin’ Trash

Have a contest to see who can come up with the most interesting use for a common household item, or the best use for something hard to recycle. Invite school art or science classes to get involved too, and let newspapers and TV stations know about the contest…entries could make great pictures for the five- o’clock news!

Environment on Wheels

Have your promotions person find local businesses and organizations that are active with environmental concerns. Work with them to create a traveling Environmental Fair to take to local schools. Have each group provide a speaker and materials, and ask the school to assign each group to a different classroom. Students go from room to room, learning about each topic. You can also use the school’s gym to set up areas for each topic. Train some of your personnel to work with the organizations so your station is represented at the fair. Give schools flyers to send home with students inviting parents to participate. Use your public service time to promote the fair, and let listeners know where you’ll be. Run promos containing positive comments from students, teachers and parents.

Yes You Can

Hold a fun afternoon event where your listeners compete to build towers or castles out of empty pop cans at a shopping mall, a roped-off section of a retail store’s parking, or a park. Award sponsor-donated prizes for winning structures in categories like biggest, tallest and most creative. Encourage teams or clubs to collect cans from all their friends and neighbors prior to the event. Weigh or count the cans as competitors register and find a soft drink company willing to buy back the cans with all proceeds going to a local charity or food bank. To comply with lottery laws (”no purchase necessary”), be sure to have extra cans available at the site — the soft drink company can supply them or you can arrange for a bin at the retail site during the pre-promotion period encouraging can donations. Recycle the cans at the end of the competition.

Welcome Developments

Each format has core artists that represent its music. When one of these artists comes to town for a concert and the promoter won’t affiliate any one station with the show, your station should still “welcome” the artist. Produce promos and liners that make you sound as official as possible. Follow up with tangible things like contests to win tickets, on-site giveaways and pre-concert parties at appropriate clubs.

The Secret Contest

Look for events in your community that are going to attract the demo your station is targeting. Print flyers to place on windshields of vehicles at those events inviting potential listeners to try your station. Say something like: “The staff and management of WXXX would like to invite you to try our radio station, and we’ll pay you to do it!! Tune in WXXX (plus dial position) and listen for (song). When you hear that song, call (station phone number) and be the Xth caller, and we’ll give you (dollar amount) just for trying our station. This contest will not be announced on the air. It is exclusively for recipients of this flyer. Thanks for trying WXXX!”

Cleaning the Prize Closet

If you’ve got a closet full of “nearly good prizes” left over from past contests, here’s a good way to get rid of them: create a “Station Janitor” character who’s charged by the boss with cleaning out the prize closet. You can have him come in (taped) to show off his latest find and give it away on air.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Invite a car dealer to co-sponsor a Good, Bad, and Ugly Car Show and Contest. Choose a panel of judges from your station and the sponsor’s staff. Prizes can be simple or extravagant but should relate to the categories:

The Good: The cleanest, nicest-looking cars.
The Bad: The best customized car or hot rod, judged on quality of workmanship.
The Ugly: For old, dirty, smashed, trashed or just plain tacky cars.
Turn this into a weekend remote at the dealer’s location; have free hot dogs and pop for everyone who stops by.

You Auto Do a Coupon Book

Since couponing continues to be very popular with both radio and print retailers, present a package of radio ads and coupon books for car care products and services. Give away the coupon books at sponsor locations to increase retailers’ foot traffic.

Baby, Can We Drive Your Car?

Find a local car dealer willing to supply a vehicle to be driven by each station personality for a week. After all your personalities have had their turn, invite listeners to guess how many miles the jocks put on the car during the contest. The closest guesser wins the lease of the car for anywhere from three months to a year (it’s up to your dealer). Note: check with your insurance carrier for coverage before you start this promotion.

Sticker-Spotting

If you have station bumper stickers, try a license plate spotter contest. Several times a day announce a license number of a car spotted with your station’s sticker on it. Give the owner of the vehicle a set amount of time to call the station and claim their prize. Sticker-spotters can be station employees on their way to work; you don’t necessarily need a spotter on the road all the time.

At Work Network

Good way to drive up those daytime numbers!

Did this last summer. Endless possibilities! Here�s what we did. Listeners faxed, e-mailed, or snail mailed to register. We said Hi to a couple of them each hour and on Friday we showed up at the office with a TCBY cake for them. We ate the cake, did a few call in breaks to get testimonials for the station and TCBY. Archived the TCBY clips about the food to be used for spots later. One thing�.It�s not a bad idea to call ahead on Thursday to see if it�s ok to drop by on Friday, just in case a district manager or someone along those lines is scheduled to drop by.

The sponsor ideas are limitless and can be alot of fun if you just put a little time into it!

Roadside Assistance

Needed: One Station Vehicle, a Cell Phone, and one �Stranded� DJ.
This works great as a one time promotion you can do every couple of months or make a full blown promotion out of it.

Take your station vehicle out in town. Take it to a neighboring town too so they don�t feel left out! Drive around for a while down the main drags so plenty of people see you. Then call the station from the van and have the jock put the driver on the air. Have the driver plead with the audience for �roadside assistance�!

Tell the listeners clues as to where you are, not revealing your location totally, acting as if your lost. Tell the listeners that who ever finds you and fixes the vehicle gets ______!

Pop the hood, and take off a battery cable or something silly like that. And then get back on the air and continue to give clues as to where you are. On the first call you just tell the town your in and say you�ll call back with the specifics. Give more and more info till someone finally finds you.

You fill the blank with cash equaling your frequency, membership to AAA or just whatever. Be creative!!

Be careful about the cash thing though. People might start to think you always keep money like that with you and you could become a hold up target instantly. Make them come to the station for it and get personal information from them on the side of the road.

Riddle Me This!!

Good audience participation contest which will also drive up the TSL, plus it�s a lot of fun!
Did this with a station down south a few years back. This was their cornerstone promotion each year for spring book. Get the creative copy writters out for this one.

For the set up let me first say you will need a grand prize which requires a key. Heard one station once used a house, but that gets complicated, especially if you don�t have the time!

On the air you will read a riddle (creative part). Each riddle contains three to four parts, and must, by the end, give the location outright. (if you havent figured it out the riddle is suppose to give a location, where in which a qualifying key is hidden) The key needs to be numbered, in case someone stumbles upon it by accident, along with a letter explaining exactly what the key is for. (for the same reason)

Read each part of the riddle throughout the day. The first line in the morning . The first and second in the afternoon and so on and so on till you reach the end each day. (Boom, there goes the TSL!) Of course you also set up sponsor boxes throughout the listening area for people to register for a few keys to be given away without clues.

Remember, hide keys on public property and weather proof the package! Trust me!

Once all the keys are found, or claimed, the station throws a big party, for contestants and a guest. Food, music, ect. Parks or a lake is perfect for this. You want to make the party as exclusive as possible so you don�t run out of freebies!

Use a random name drawing to select the order of which people are allowed to try their key. The one that works, wins!

This is the basic set up. I�m sure you get the general idea.

Free Money Music Machine

Great Theater of the Mind!
I�ve heard many variations of this contest, called many different things. Here�s the basics of it. You�re wanting people to listen for a designated period of time, and have them remember what they heard!

To start, the jock picks a song within in a certian time frame, for our sake lets use one hour. He tells the audience to start listening now, some time within in the next hour he will activate the free money music machine and give someone a chance to guess which song is in the machine. They, (listener) need to keep track of all the songs starting now.

The audience then listens for a pre-determined sounder as their cue to call in.

When the listener gets through, they get to pick one of the songs in the past hour. They then punch in the code to activate the FMMM, which happens to be your frequency, on their phone. The code activates the machine,(you supply the sound effects and a clip of your pre-determined song) and if the listeners song matches yours they win. If not, they get a t-shirt, or something from the prize vault.

We used the contest once to register folks for a grand prize drawing which happened at the end of book. This way the loosers got a little more than just a parting gift, and this also allowed us to work in MORE sponsors! (people can register for the grand drawing at participating sponsors to get in the grand prize drawing in case they can�t qualify on the phone)

Workday Classics

Did this on a Classic Rock Station, but you can do it anywhere!

Have your morning guy announce the Workday Classics at 10 after the hour during the morning show. The Workday Classics are nothing more than a song that you would normally play during a normal hour that will be the listeners que to call in and qualify for the grand prize.
Put out registration boxes at �participating sponsors� and pick on grand prize qualifier from each sponsors box.

Total amount of qualifiers is up to you. We used only 100, qualifying 3 people daily and then drawing from the sponsors boxes.

You grand prize depends on how you sell you sponsors. We gave away a Plymouth Neon, or $50k.

The �or� worked by eliminating the 99 qualifiers by drawing random names out of a hat. Last one in the hat drew out of a drum of 100 slips. 99 said new car, one said $50k. Good odds in the first round 1 in 100. (which ended up being 1 in 87 since you had to be present to win and not every one could show up for the contest) We gave no consolition prize to the loosers, but the possibility is there if you have the means to do so. Trips, dinners, music etc. Just work with it!

Cash Stash

I wanna be RICH!!

Easy way to score big with the audience. Offer them easy cash. This takes little work. Not alot of cash and ends up being a pretty good deal.
Go to your local second hand CD store, (pawn shops aren�t too bad either) and buy 150 CD�s which match your formatt. Make sure they are in good shape!! There is also a possibility of a trade out here with the store if you have time to put something like that together.
Now have the sales staff go and trade out oil changes and movie passes for consilation prizes to be used. Also, you can use t-shirts, and stuff in the prize vault and a couple of gag gifts for consolation prizes too. Your call! All together you�re going to need 149 consolation prizes and one big sum of money for the grand prize.

Make certificates to place in the CD�s listing what they won. (Only one with the money amount) Then decorate a huge box and fill it with the CD�s, each stuffed and taped shut! Put the box in the lobby of you building, or even in the studio, space permitting.

Here�s where you�re on you own! Find a creative way to give away chances to grab a CD out of the Cash Stash. Everyone wins, and someone will walk away with the cash. One thousand bucks works good, less seems cheep, more can be used for another promotion. This is simple and easy and budget kind.

One problem we ran into on this is that if qualifiers can come in as soon as they win and someone wins the cash in the beginning your promotion just ended very, very quickly and you have to fork out more cash to help get rid of the rest of the CD�s. On our second try at this we set a day in which people could begin to come and draw out of the box and then it took a couple days for someone to eventually come and draw it out.

The whole reason for keeping the box in the studio or building is to keep un wanted hands out of the box. Plus, people get a chance to see the studio! Sure they see you on location, but who wants to look at you anyway! The technology in our studio seemed to over whelm most visitiors and make them forget the money for a split second. Also they get the special �behind the Scenes� look at the radio station. Not something just anyone usually gets. If you keep it in the building the same effect still happens. Just leaving out the technology part. They still get to come to the radio station. Something you just don�t do on a regular basis. What I�m talking about here is PR!!!!

Once you have the winner, (make them open the CD in front of you of course) rush them in to a studio and get a reaction for a promo! We went so far as to have each person open theirs in the studio in front of the guest mic and we rolled tape on it to get the initial scream of excitement which made for a great promo!

This promotion has endless possibilities and is alot of fun for everyone!

The Match Game

The easiest way to unload those trips you traded for and haven�t used!

This works like the game most of us played as a kid. Say you have 20 cards face down. You turn over 2 and if they match, you keep the pair, if not, they go back where they were, face down. Just replace the face of the cards with your weekend getaways, and Ta-Da! Instant TSL booster to get rid of those trips. You can play when ever you want, and drag it out for as long as you want. Play just on the morning show. Or save it for the weak time slot and drive your numbers through the roof!

Parking Patrol

Easy contest to increase you exposure!

Here�s a great contest I thought of while driving through the mall parking lot over the weekend. I�m sure someone has done this before I thought of it, but I�ve never heard of it, so I�m claiming it!

The summer months are already here, but you can do this if you hurry. If not, try for next year, and take your time.

We all hate getting into our cars and grabing a hot steering wheel. Now most of us have those cardboard shields to put in the window, but are usually in to big of a hurry to put in up. How about if you could win cash just for putting it in the window? Well here�s the idea.

Have the things printed up with your station logo on one side, on the other, put the standard, �Send Help� like you see on most. Gather sponsors for the promotions and have them work up some type of cheep coupon to put on the shield too. The coupons in a column that you have the printer add extra to the shield when it�s printed. (like having an extra fold on one end of the shield) Or if you want, just have the sponsors logos printed on the bottom edge of the thing. Working in sponsors for this thing is easy, just use your imagination.

Have listeners pick one up at the station or participating sponsors. You can even charge them a couple of bucks for one and give the money to chairty. Then tell the listeners to make sure they use the signs, (logo side up) and if the Parking Patrol spots their car, and tickets their windshield, they could win (insert fabulous prize here). Qualify them for a grand prize,or just do what ever. Again, this is a simple contest, takes very little leg work and gets your logo seen all over the place, this summer, and the summer after that, and the next�..

One thing to keep in mind, when you ticket the cars, write down the type of vehicle and the plate #. Just in case someone decides to swipe the ticket and claim it for their own. On the ticket tell the person what they won or qualified for and that they need to bring their vehicle with the ticket to the station to claim the prize etc.

Hide and Seek

This can be alot of fun and all you need is a car and a cell phone!
Send your jock out in a car doing cell phone breaks saying he�s in a �Brand New �_________ from (for example sake) Smith Chevrolet! DJ hypes the fact that the car is awsome, loaded with power everything and can be gotten starting at.(base price of car). It�s basic, just do a regular remote break, but do it from the car. Along with the break, the DJ tells where he is. If you have him in one place, them give directions like in �Roadside Assistance�. If he is rolling, them have the jock be specific. If the listener can track the DJ down (and flag him to the side of the road, if applicable) then the listener wins tons of prizes, or registers for the car which is to be given away later.

This is a good way to reach neighboring towns in your area that get neglected. It�s alot of fun too! All you really need is some overhead and a car dealer, or sell other sponsors and have the jock give clues to lead listeners to that business, where he is sitting. Then when he is found, turn the whole thing into a full blown remote!

Very flexible idea that could make money and really get the listeners involved!

Secret Sound

Awesome Promotion which can be used in all dayparts.

The Secret Sound is a promotion is which all dayparts or just selected ones can benefit. It is an excellent way to boost a weak time slot by playing the contest just during those hours. The contest requires a financial commitment on the stations part, and I�m sure there is a way to work in a sponsor with the promotion, however I�ve not seen it done.
Before I tell you how it works, first lets get a few things out of the way. For starters you need real sound for this contest. Not, and I repeat, Not sound effects, or it will be too easy. They need to be short and audible. A pin drop will not work too well. Get creative with the sounds. (examples will follow) The whole idea is to play the sound only within pre selected hours and at the very beginning of the day when you announce those hours. If you play it too often, people have more of a chance to listen to it and then figure it out.

Ok, now the contest.

1. Have two or three pre set times in which you will announce each day (morning) the times at which you will play the game. At those times, announce which time throughout the day you will play the secret sound and give someone a shot at the cash jackpot. Each time,(two or three times) you announce the times give the audience a free shot to hear the Secret Sound. Also announce the current Jackpot.(details below)

2. Starting with the very first sound you will play, or if you are on the second one, after someone guessed the first, you need to set the jackpot at a base figure. For the sake of this example we�ll use $500.

3. You�ve announced the times your going to play and here comes the first one. Announce on the air that you are taking caller 10 on the studio lines for a shot at the Secret Sound. Give no clues or the jackpot amount.

4. You�ve got caller 10 on the line. Chit chat about where they are calling from and then ask if they are ready for a shot at the Secret Sound. Of course they are so you say, �But first I need to know how much is currently in the Secret Sound Jackpot! If they say $500 (or current amount) they move on to round two of the call. If not, they loose their chance, you give them a cheep parting gift, (T-shirt), and then you announce that you are adding another $50 to the jackpot which makes the new jackpot $550. A shot at the sound requires that listeners know the current jackpot amount.

5. If the caller gets the jackpot amount right, on to phase two. This is where they get a shot at the jackpot and the entire audience gets a chance to hear the sound again. Play the sound, and let the caller guess. If it�s correct, you blow the whistles and ring the bells and show them the money. If the miss it, throw the parting gift at them and kick in the customary $50 to the jackpot. Review the amount on the air, and dump the caller.

6. Before you move on to whatever�s next, tell the listeners at what time in the morning they can hear the times in which the game will be played each day.

7. It�s a good idea to review the jackpot about once an hour so the dial surfers get a chance to hear the fact that you are giving away cash.

8. Keep the answers strictly confidential. Judges will be needed to settle wording disputes on answers so pick them carefully.

9. It�s also reccomended that you select three or four key words the answer must contain.

10. Be advised! We had jackpots climb to 4 and 5 thousand dollars this past year, and that�s only playing 3 times a day M-F and 2 on Sat.

11. Also, since we played durring book, we played every hour on Thursday (Arbitron call back day) .

Examples of sounds:(we used these)

Keys being thrown into a glass ashtray
Base ball being thrown into a ball glove
Basket ball being droped into a trash can full of foam peanuts.
Remember be creative!!! It may also be necessary to give a clue now and again (especially when the cash amount gets high).