We�re Cookin� Now!

Stage a �WXXX Cookout� where the entire station staff puts on an evening or weekend barbecue for listeners. Trade with sponsors for food and drink items. You can turn this into a contest for groups or offices: have them write, in 25 words or less, whey they deserve a �WXXX Cookout� for their friends. Hold the cookout in a popular public location for high station visibility.

Neighborhood Block Party

Block parties can be popular during the summer months. Your station can put together instructions on how to hold a block party and provide official block party signs with your logos or call letters on them. Stage your own block parties throughout the summer months, inviting listeners and their friends to join you. Arrange for local police officers or firefighters to drop in and say hello to all the children.

There Is Such A Thing As Free Lunch!

During summer months, do live remote broadcasts from a popular beaches or public pools. Team up with a local deli or sandwich shop and put together boxed lunches (order however many match your frequency � 101, 95, 104) and give them out to the first people to arrive at the location. Include station paraphernalia such as bumper stickers or pins inside each lunch box. In a selected few boxes, insert bigger prizes such as gift certificates or movie passes. If possible, have the lunch boxes custom made with your station logo and call letters on them.

Mall Shopping

As summer temperatures climb, people will escape into cool and comfortable shopping malls. Set up a booth and hand out promotional material like bumper stickers and key chains and have a drawing for prizes such as a weekend getaway or tickets to an upcoming show. Use it as a remote opportunity as well. This need not be an expensive event, just a reminder that your station is around.

Pits Are The Life

Here�s a fun summertime contest: hold a �WXXX Cherry Pit Spitting Contest.� Invite listeners of all ages to join in the fun. Entrants simply eat a cherry and spit the pit as far as they can�it�s best to use a flat, paved surface. Award prizes according to age group categories. Hold the event in a place like a grocery store parking lot and broadcast a remote of the exciting play-by-play action.

Hooked On Headphones

Use summer events like county fairs or weekend festivals where lots of people gather to obtain some data. Get your engineer to connect a tape playback configuration with ten sets of headphones. During the event, have people put on the headphones and listen to 20 song hooks (which would take three to four minutes). Provide a score sheet for listeners to rate the songs. Change the set of hooks regularly to collect more information, and be sure to ask some qualitative questions about your station, your competition and the person�s listening habits.

Briquettes In The Morning

Hold an official summer kick-off Barbecue, where your morning show personalities host an early morning BBQ in the parking lot of a store at a busy intersection. Invite your listeners to stop by and sample the food. Invite special guests to stop by, like chefs, local celebrities and the Mayor.

The Good Old Days

Set up a noontime oldies show that focuses on music from five, ten, twenty and twenty-five years ago. Invite listeners to call in with memories of their high school years and promote the summer�s upcoming class reunions. This will work great for a number of stations, regardless of music format.

Bow Wow and Meow

With kids on summer vacation, it�s a perfect time for your listeners to adopt a pet. Broadcast puppies and kittens available from local humane societies and offer a month�s supply of pet food, collars and pet toys through a tie-in with pet supply retailers to listeners who adopt a pet.

Mystery Song

Music-intensive stations looking for a good summer promotion should consider reviving the �mystery song� contest if it hasn�t been done in your market recently. Put a summer spin on the contest by splicing together the word �sun� (or �son�) from a dozen or so titles and challenge your audience to identify each title in the mystery song. For forced listening, play the mystery song at fixed positions during the day. If your song is really hard to identify, provide clues to help move the promotion along. To generate revenue with the contest, entrants should be required to fill out forms at participating sponsors. If you are using clues, they can be posted at the sponsor�s as well.

Downright Neighborly

Summertime means vacation time, and families often struggle with who�ll look after their house, pets and yard while they�re away. Get together with a local junior high or church group and find kids who are available to vacationers to watch over residences during the summer. With the approval of school or church officials and a verifying background check, the students, known as the �WXXX Watchers,� can earn their way into this group with the completion of successful projects during the school year and through involvement in extra-curricular activities. It�s extra money for kids, peace of mind for travelers and community involvement for your station.

Those Were The Days

Does your station target an audience between ages 28 and 58? If so, they�ve got something in common � summer high school reunions. Spring is the planning time for these 10, 20, 30 and 40 year reunions. Be sure your station is �Class Reunion Headquarters.� Make announcements for groups organizing theirs and offer to provide talent and emcees for the events.

A Day In The Park

Now�s the time to plan �A Day In The Park� hosted by your station. Pick one of the three long weekends this summer: Memorial Day, Fourth of July or Labor Day. Pick a popular local park and invite your listeners to join you, as a �thank you� for their support. Have live music, contests, games and food at the event.

Making Waves With Your Station

In markets located near lakes and oceans, take advantage of your geographical situation this summer and head for the water. Find a local yacht company to sponsor a boat that will take your station�s air personalities out on the water. Have them hand out T-shirts, bumper stickers and other prizes to boaters who have their radios tuned to your station. For you land lovers, stage the same promotion at local beaches or picnic areas and hand out prizes to anyone with their radio tuned to your station.

Piggy-back Remotes?

While summertime remotes offer stations the chance to generate great revenue, they may also stretch your staff and air sound a little thin. One good alternative is a �combo� remote using more than one advertiser. Offer a small discount on remote packages that lets you combine one client�s product with a remote at another client�s location. For example, broadcast a remote from a car dealer�s and offer discount coupons for the local Subway sandwich shop. Your air talent delivers a combined spot for both advertisers during cut-ins, and you reduce clutter and avoid running two back-to-back remotes.

The Cardboard Castle Build-Off

Not every station has a beach or a year-round supply of accessible sand. So, converge on the local park and have a cardboard castle build-off. Participants are given ten-by-ten foot areas in which to construct the most unusual, tallest or most grandiose cardboard castle they can. Hold the contest in the morning, judge in the early afternoon, and award prizes. Then, tear �em down and haul the cardboard to your local recycling center. Have the recycler co-promote the contest or get prizes from merchants as incentives to get involved�and make sure to have a station team of listeners picked from random callers on the air to compete.

End of Summer Jam

Invite local or regional bands play to play in a day-long concert at a nearby race track, stadium or park. Charge one admission fee that will covers all bands. Broadcast live from the concert and encourage listeners to come down and join in the fun. You can sell or give away T-shirts, hats, cups and sunglasses, with all proceeds going to a local charity.

Take a Stand in the Sand

As summer arrives and listeners head for the beach armed with portable stereos, encourage them to take your station along. Air promos that �WXXX undercover beach surveillance crews will be scanning the sand at (location) for sunbathers tuned to (frequency/call letters).� Station personalities or representatives can patrol local beaches listening for radios tuned to your station. Give away water bottles and beach towels with your station�s logo on them, or bigger prizes like portable stereos, concert tickets or gift certificates.

Everybody In!

During the summer months host �Pool Party Weekends� and give away summer survival kits. The kits should include things like six packs of pop, suntan lotion, beach balls, beach towels and a couple of CDs. Qualify all kit winners for a big �Summer Survival Get-Away,� a trip to a sunny destination that they can take during the winter months.

Balloons for Summer

Summer is the time for outdoor promotions and opportunities to increase your station�s visibility. Helium balloons are a great way to do this. Print your logo on one side of your balloons, and an advertiser�s logo on the other side, sharing the cost of the balloons and helium. The advertiser�s employees could fill and distribute the balloons at outdoor functions you participate in. It�s a great way to stay top-of-mind with your listeners!

The Joy of Dunking

A great county fair event is a dunk tank, featuring local celebrities as the targets. Set up a station-sponsored dunk tank at summer events with proceeds going to a local charity or food bank. Station personalities can broadcast from the booth to encourage participation, or even be in the booth if they�re brave enough.

WEEKEND SPECIALS:

Here is an outline of weekend specials to consider for the Summer:

May

1-360 hours of 60s Weekend
8-10All-Request Mother�s Day Weekend
15-17Twin Spin Weekend
22-24Memorial Day 500 Weekend
29-31British Invasion Weekend

June

5-7Graduation Weekend
12-14All-Request Father�s Day Weekend
19-21Summer Songs Weekend (summer begins 6/21)
26-28Soul Patrol Weekend

July

3-5Made in America Weekend (Independence Day)
10-12Girl Group Weekend
17-19Beatles Twin Spin Weekend (anniversary of first US release)
24-26Sing For Your Oldies Weekend
31-260 Hours of 60s Weekend

August

7-9Motown Weekend
14-16Class Reunion Weekend
21-23Elvis is the King Weekend (tied in with anniversary of death)
28-30British Invasion Weekend