CPR Promotional Check-Up - May 31, 2011

The American Idol Tour

The season is over and the tour of losers and the winner will be hitting the road soon. In quite a few markets, they're asking for promotional support.

Is the show still big? It's "big-ish". But the people who are into it are REALLY into it and WILL try and win tickets to the tour. It's Idol so it's different from the 1000th Daughtry stop in three years or another John Mayer show if only because of the things you can do with the tickets.

BTW: older brother Brett is a very successful and very rich doctor. Would seemingly be above this all. Every AI Tour that rolls through Minny, he and his wife grovel for free tickets. It's inexplicable.

Here are some suggestions that went to another station where the promoter requested that they shoot big and stay away from "click and register..."

I'd do it on the web. A compressed week of idols. Today? "In Utero Idol". Submit your photo of a pregnant belly by 9. They'll all be posted by 10 and we'll announce the winner and the next day's Idol, ie: Co-Worker or Men In Uniform or Puppy or Cub/Girl Scout, at 5:30.

Could also be done as "Wheel Of Idols" on the morning show. Ace & TJ did "Chainsmoker Idol". Saginaw did "Fastfood Drivethru Employee". Different niche sector of talent each morning for a week. Beats the Hell out of "VIP Club".

Maybe "Idol Contestant Or Random Person We Snagged From The Phone Book". They ALL blur together, and I'm talking the actual finalists. I'd go back and get a list of everyone who's ever competed. Take a caller, read a name and they have to ID as one or the other.

Still Hope For Terrestrial Radio #359

With 149 dead and with hundreds still missing, Joplin is way beyond what anyone thought. Tulsa is 100 miles away. In Minny? It would be Duluth. In Denver? Colorado Springs. Tampa? Ft. Myers. San Francisco? Sacramento. It's close.

Renda filled one truck to the point that it was illegally full and they got a second one. A third WILL be filled by tomorrow morning.

You should have a disaster plan. This is never a bad thing. Usually the biggest challenge is getting trucks. If you reach out to a client like a Coke or a Budweiser or a grocery store chain, they will never EVER say no to loaning a few to help out. Nobody is going to turn away the TV coverage of their logoed vehicle pulling out and heading for the disaster zone.

Water is always the #1 need followed by ice. Both weigh a lot so factor that in. KLUC's truck of water heading to Katrina overheated, caught on fire and burned to the pavement somewhere in New Mexico. Yes. A truck of water burned. I don't know how either.

Anyway, kudos to Renda and be ready for the next one. 2011 is shaping up to be an exciting Spring.