CPR Promotional Check-Up - Mar 29, 2016

Gallery Quest

One of the uber cooler afternoon talent is going into a three-four month period that is going to be jammed with club gigs and asked what stations are doing for "games" at these sales appearances. Sadly, PPM may have even ruined these promotions for us.

First, you can never go wrong with doing The Dollar Bill Game on-site. It's not loud and raucous but the clients seem to love having people with wallets packed with bills come to their bars. Go figure. Every 15 minutes read off three numbers and the first person to come up with all three, in order, wins. (There can be other numbers in between them but they need to be in that order)

I've noticed that quite a few people have "cell phones" these days. It feels like a fad. But you could do Gallery Quest which would be a scavenger hunt for saved images. Play some Star Wars music and announce that it's time for another Gallery Quest...and give out a photo, like "A picture of you with a Disney character." First person to rush up with one of their mobile device, wins.

The Shock Ball Challenge

Obviously, prize wheels epitomize Show Business, but there would be other things that we could do on-site and at remotes. For instance....

"For No Apparent Reason" Morning Show Accoutrement

I was having a call with one of the morning shows last week and we were kind of going over the other shows that are out there and who does good stuff in different categories. Community stuff? Hands down: Hubbard in Cincy. Video stuff? The Zoo at KLUC. Stuff like that. I said that Dave Ryan was pretty much better then anyone with bits that just appear. No reason. Just completely out-of-left-field stuff.

For instance, they did a morning of "thoughts" a few years back. Throughout the show there would be some harp music, Dave would fade out, and you'd hear one of the co-hosts "thoughts" of what Dave was talking about. One was always ultra-critical and showed that deep down, she really thought he was an overpaid douche. The other person was a fawning lackey. It was great.

There is certain TV show "bridge" music that is instantly recognizable. "Gilligans Island" is an example. The xylophone music as Gilligan walks from one scene to the next. So one of the Rock stations did that, for no apparent reason, just to seg from one bit to the next. Phones BLEW up. People laughing till they cried.

The late 80's-early 90's were not a great era for sitcoms. I stumbled upon "ALF" on WGN last night. It had the real generic 80's sitcom intro music that "Seinfeld" perfectly parodied when they did the "pilot" for "his show" late in the series. Me? I'd get some of these and use these as your show intros and outros for a few weeks. Why? Why not? Stop over-thinking stuff.

Schulte and Swann used to do "Cliff Hanger Friday" on KZIA. Last break on Friday was some cliffhanger that would be resolved in the first break on Monday.

One of the GM's asked me about "great morning shows" and things they all share in common. My response was that they ALL don't over-think stuff. They just do it and more often then not, it's cool. And when it isn't, then, at least they're trying.