CPR Promotional Check-Up - May 2, 2016

Billboard Broadcasts

One of the PD's asked for a "Dummies" version of how to pull these off. If you are a newbie to sticking an announcer on a billboard, here are some tips.

1. You want a setup. Not just, "Hey we're sticking some dumbass DJ on a billboard because we're bored and the Crippled Children's Fund is hassling us for $$$."

   The best set up is you have the jock screw up. Do something like playing the same song over and over. You call him to stop. He does. But chooses another songs and plays that for 30 minutes. Or he calls you at 6 am and wakes you up every morning with a stupid question. You finally get tired of this. You warn him. He does it again. You drive in, pull him off the air. And starting at 10 am a very serious-sounding message from the GM runs saying that "because of policy infractions, we've had to take some extraordinary and starting Monday morning at 6 am, a company mandated one week suspension will be imposed."

   The suspension will of course be him being "suspended in mid-air for one week to raise money for charity.

2. The charity is important. The best ones are the cool local ones that people in the audience actually care about.
3. This seems like a no-brainer, but he HAS to stay up there. No coming down. Period. TV showed up at 3 am in Houston to find Jimmy Olson in The Box building, sleeping on Scorpio's couch. So much for credibility.
4. The people who own the property that the board is on will need to be included in the insurance rider on it. If it's not a station board and is a clients or someone else, they'll need to be on the rider, as will the outdoor company.
5. Get a sheet of wood that is big enough that you can erect a tent on it, and mount THAT on the wooden walkway on the billboard.
6. Bodily functions occur in garbage bags and are tied off and handed down for disposal at night.
7. Some stations will sell commemorative shirts to help raise additional funds, ie: "I Helped Get Mark S. Allen Off The Billboard, May 2016"
8. Your jock will want a bullhorn for harassing passing motorists and a bucket with a rope for hauling up donations and food people bring by.
9. It WILL become a plugathon of restaurants delivering food for mentions. Who cares? The more the merrier. Also, you can initiate challenges. "The McDonalds on Howe Avenue has donated $429 and challenges all the other McDonalds in town to top that!!"
10. There will need to be a basecamp on the ground with a vehicle, canopy, soundsystem and staff. People will be dropping by 24 hours a day.
11. His return to earth needs to be dramatic. I did a thing where I had the fire department show up and put up a hook and ladder, climb up, throw him over their should and bring him down to thundering applause.