CPR Promotional Check-Up - May 31, 2012

Pimp Your Grad/Urban Legend Week

There is a burgeoning trend for parents to give their graduating kids plastic surgery. THAT should get the phones going. Also, if you are stuck for a theme week, what about Urban Legends week. Put a kitten in a crib with a baby. Go swimming after eating. You get the idea.

Tank 'N Tickets

If you wait to get a gas giveaway on the air, you are risking getting scooped and losing the "position". The lovely and talented Chris Taylor thought of adding a twist to your sticker campaign. Call it "Tank 'N Tickets" and do sticker stops that offer every car an envelope. In the envelope? A tank of gas. Or tickets to whatever the hot movie or concert is that week.

V.I.F.'s

It goes without saying (but yet, I'm saying it) that you'll be out at some mega-event on the 4th. What should you do in honor of the true spirit of the holiday? You should have a special roped off area with great seating and sight lines of the fireworks, for the families of deployed troops. Very Important Families. It is respectful and honors our true hometown heroes.

Get Down With Your Badself

We're all going to, at one time or another, work at a station that might not be a total blast. Or, to be honest, that sucks. That makes coming to work everyday a tortuous experience. But hopefully we'll all get to work at at least one great station. I've been fortunate and have had a couple. WLOL in Minneapolis in the 80's was that way. Why? Because it was truly a family. We all liked each other. We were having fun. It was a party. And the station was monstrously successful. And this vibe came down from on-top. Doyle Rose was the GM and he put a strong emphasis on camaraderie. Every Winter he rented out a little bowling alley in North Minneapolis and we had a staff bowling party. Everyone took off the day, they put a temp on the front desk and a part-timer on the air, and we bowled. And drank. And bowled some more. Everyone was given a stipend for going to a retro clothing store and getting an old bowling shirt. And in the summer? There was the annual boat party. We all met at the station, boarded a bus and went out to Lake Minnetonka where be climbed on a big ass party boat and spent the next five hours floating, eating, drinking, hot tubbing, doing cannon balls off the upper deck, and bonding with our co-workers. It was something we all looked forward to doing every summer.

Doyle was splitting his time between us and the new Emmis station that they'd launched out west, Power in LA. He would literally spend Sunday and Monday at WLOL and then fly back to cover Power on Monday night. After a year of this insanity he finally pulled up stakes and moved out there. But there was a four year run with him in charge that was magical for me. And it was primarily because of the fun. And with fun came continuity. There was a two year period at the station without a staff change. We didn't lose so much as a researcher.

My point which was finally arrived at after a long trip down memory lane? In about 45 days the novelty of Summer is going to have worn off and everyone is going to need a break. Take the initiative to plan something fun. No families allowed. Just co-workers. And do it in such a setting where people can't wander off, like at a theme park. You want forced bonding. This kind of stuff has intangible dividends.