CPR Promotional Check-Up - Nov 22, 2016

Secret Shows

Back when radio was cool, there was an air of mystery to the medium. And then we webcammed the studios and showed the world what a monotonously boring job that this can be.

One of the PD's just went to Las Vegas for a Stones listening party. It was draped in secrecy. Secret meeting place. Shuttled to a secret location. Surrendering of phones and devices and then signing non-disclosure forms. That's cool. That signifies that what you're about to experience is going to be beyond the realm of anything else you've ever done.

The first concert that Xtreme in Hawaii ever did was at a secret location. Winners were called and given an hour to get to a parking lot where they would be given a number to call that would than lead them to a phone booth that had the location written on the wall in magic marker.

Wild in San Francisco did Area 94.9 as their Super Bowl Party. Winners met at a location and were bussed to a house that had been taken over for the day, in a bus that had the interior windows papered over. Why? Because it cooler than saying "Join us at the All American Sports Bar for our annual Super Bowl Party!"

The Beat in Austin did a Beach House on a lake for Labor Day weekend, and again, listeners parked and were shuttled in. This was so cool that "we can't afford to let the location leak...TEXAS would show up." Power in Miami did that with their Beach House the next year.

When KDWB did their High School Press Conference with one of the guys from N'Sync and 50 high school papers were invited. They were given a number to call where there would be a message with the secret location where it was being held.

"Secret" is highly under-rated.

Better Then A Begathon AND Guaranteed To Give Corporate Attorneys Chest Pains

We're going into the Season Of Begging. Where every TV station, newspaper, website, radio station, mall, school, bar, bank, theater and grocery store will be asking for people to donate. No real incentive. Just "give because we asked you to". That didn't work in a good economy and it certainly doesn't work now.

You need a hook. Like Chet on the scaffold in Vegas. Like "Free Willy" and threatening to kill a turkey if you don't meet your goal. We're in Show Biz. Use that as your litmus test. If Steven Spielberg or Monty Hall were tasked with raising $100,000 for a food shelf, would they stick a DJ at a table in a mall for four hours on a Saturday?

This would give most US Radio Attorneys heart attacks.

She raised $10,000 in pledges for Easter Seals in one morning and rappelled down the side of their building. The next day? Another $10,000 in pledges and she went off the Halifax bridge. Which she readily admits made her almost soil herself.

Granted it's not a mall remote with a skirted table, but it's darn close.