CPR Promotional Check-Up - Feb 10, 2014

American Idol

The only time I've seen a station successfully replicate it and do a genuine regional talent search that wasn't a really really bad karaoke night from Hell, was at WIOG with Mid-Michigan Idol. The rest of the time, it's just painful. You need to acknowledge the show because it IS so big. But, again, you can't do an hour on it and you can't do a straight rip-off.

The best way is to parody it. Wild in Tampa did Crack Ho Idol. Alice in Denver did Homeless Idol. Kiss in Pittsburgh did Airport Shuttle Van Driver Idol with these men and women singing on those bad van PA's. Drive Thru Idol: fastfood employees singing over those horrible drive-up soundsystems. I'm still waiting on Bi-Curious Cheerleader Idol.

What else?

• American iPool. Once they get their full retinue of contestants, assign a dial position of listeners to each one. When the whole shebang(r) is over, the people assigned to the winner get crap(tm).
• ProfiDol. Very simple. Have profiles of the logo and the contestants available for posting to your social network page. Show your support for who you think will win and get randomly spotted for prizes.
• Get a chatroom or message board going. Take it off the air.
• American Midol was an idea from the morning show at KOB-FM in Albuquerque. Get five seriously PMSing women in the studio, tease and berate them until one-by-one they start crying. Last one to cry, wins.
• Homeroom Idol: cellphone singing by a different teacher every morning.
• Idle Idol. One of the stations did this to win furniture. You move, you lose.
• Vietnamese Idol. Get a karaoke system that has pop lyrics in Vietnamese. Winner gets the Dong. (Vietnamese currency.) (It's funny to say "dong")
• Proxy Idol. As soon as the contestants are established, you assign a listener to each performer. Whoever goes all the way and wins, wins something for their listener.
• Similar to Proxy Idol. Once they establish the contestants, you put their names in a cage and do Gerbil Idol. First one to get their face gnawed off, wins.
• Baby Idol. I have the info and sales piece from Hot in DC. This is practically a cliché; everyone has done it. But if you haven't.
• Orajel Idol. As done on Wired in Saskatoon. Nothing says "hijinks" then swabbing out a receptionists mouth with Orajel and having her warble tunes while drooling all over herself. ID the song and win.
• Chainsmoker Idol. Ace & TJ did this. Got a bunch of serious smokers and had them rasp through music. I think their winner was some guy who'd smoked four packs a day for 43 years. This of course would then morph into "Asbestos Plant Employee On Sick Leave Idol" and "Lived At The End Of The Runway Since 1967 And Have 94% Hearing Loss Idol."
• I'm drawing a blank on who did iPod Idol. But it was huge. Get listeners, stick headphones on and let them start singing.

Pissing Off The Competition

Clifton is the expert at that. So when the competition in Reno started doing a massive group promotion, Clifton had Wild run a promo that basically stated: "We've heard from thousands of you that you hate having to sit through (other station's) awful programming just so you will have a chance at winning lots of cash. So we're going to make it easy; we'll listen for you and tell you when to call them to win. So now you can hear the best music in Reno and not have to sit through stiff after stiff just to play a contest." The funny thing? A good percentage of the other station's winners were from Wild, who would then call and get aired, thanking them for the great music and for helping them win the other radio stations' contest.