CPR Promotional Check-Up - Oct 29, 2012

Great Moments In Torturing The Competition

When we were doing Wild in Reno, the competition had one of those huge cash contests that was hard to compete against. So Clifton made Wild the underdog. People love underdogs. We ran a promo saying that since the station wasn't owned by a company with 9000 radio stations all over the globe and since all of our employees actually lived in Reno, it would be hard to match that kind of money. And we were getting flooded with emails from people who wanted to win their money but just couldn't stomach sitting through all of the horrible music and all of their commercials.

So Jason from the Street Team got yet ANOTHER parking ticket on the Wild SUV and as punishment, we're going to make him listen for you. We'll tell you when to call and win from them and you can still stay tuned to our vastly superior programming.

Literally 1/3 of their winners were Wild listeners.

And the same scenario happened last month in Halifax where the competition had been promoting for a month that this morning at 8:20 am they'd announce a phone number. Caller 100 to that number would win $50,000.

So, Q-104 (which is killing them anyway) popped the phone number for their audience and encouraged everyone to try and win. Competition's heads exploded.

Still Hope For Terrestrial Radio

One of the GM's was asking me about "great stations" and what do they all have in common. Huh. Had to think about it. I told her:

• They ALWAYS have a great receptionist
• They would choose to hang out with each other outside of work
• They have fun in the halls and you hear it on the air
• Longevity; there's little turnover and most of the people have worked together for decades
• They evoke emotion from the audience
• They have fans. Not listeners; fans
• They take chances and don't freak out if everything they do is not a "10"
• They are continually scanning the radar for things and opportunities. They don't wait for people to bring them stuff.
• They are willing to call an audible. Change the game plan for a morning or a day or a week on a moments notice.

So the liberal and open-minded folks at Westboro Baptist Church were coming to Tulsa to protest the funeral of dead soldier. In exchange for them agreeing to stay far away, the morning show at K-Hits is gave them access to the airwaves the next morning.

You might not agree but it's ballsy and great stations are ballsy. And they got flooded with thank you's from the audience. When was the last time anyone ever thanked your station for anything?

Contests and concerts and all of the stuff we do every day will be forgotten in the long run. Stuff like this is the stuff people will remember. No one is ever, ten years from now, recall, "Oh yeah, I remember when this station did the Birthday Game!" or "I remember this time the station did a concert and had this act who had one hit and charged $60 a ticket!"