CPR Promotional Check-Up - Jun 11, 2018

Van Tip #264

One of the things we teach the promo team at street school is that they ALWAYS should drive in the left lane and always drive with the headlights on. Why? To be seen. Driving in the right lane, hiding behind the Meineke semi insures that only people directly behind you will see you.

Friday Night Live

I was listening to Q-105 in Tampa last Fall and they were doing a retro music club night that was hands down, without question, the best Radio live-to-air club cast I've heard in a decade. It was live. At a club. What a concept. Conversely there's a station in the Twin Cities that does this but isn't live from the club. It's all pre-recorded and sounds as exciting as a remote from Walgreens.

FNL is very simple and has been done a hundred times at a hundred stations. On Friday night the talent does the first hour, maybe two, in the studio and the rest of the shift is out live, bopping all over the market. Not sold appearances. Hitting grad parties, go cart tracks, cruising strips, basically wherever people are. It's audio accoutrement.

Celebrity Visits To Morning Shows

The how/why I was reading People magazine in a beauty salon on Friday is too hard to explain, even if I wanted to. But one of their features is "What's In Their Bag?". They ambush a celeb and have them dump out their bag. In an era where we've dumbed down live celebrity appearances to pretty much a photo opp, it seems like that could be a feature. In lieu of a purse, a wallet would work too.

Jo Jo Wright is a marginally talented individual with a miniscule following and he has for years, had every guest take off their shoes for a photo of their feet. (The guy has issues. He used to be my roommate and he had Batman sheets on his bed)

What about what their mobile phone screen shot is? "Dana Delany was in this morning and here is her screen saver pic: a photo of the Grand Canyon!" Or what is their ringtone. I think the audience might actually care to hear what Nick Jona's ringtone is.

Dave Ryan once had Jessica Simpson burp in a Mt. Dew bottle, he sealed it and sold it on eBay for charity. There are two potential bits there:

• Get a burp from every guest and hang the bottles on the wall in the studio next to a signature of authenticity. The Wall Of 'Urps.
• Get their permission to grab one item from their bag or wallet, like an ATM receipt or a parking stuff, have them sign it and sell it for charity. Trust me, if you had Dana Delany's grocery store receipt, I'd bid my brains out.

Also, think down the line. Go to Costco or a hardware store and buy a couple of boxes of ornaments that are gathering dust from last Christmas and whenever a guest comes through, have them sign a bunch of them. In December, auction off these covered-in-autographs ornaments for a toy drive or other charity.

Ditto with A Christmas Carol. Every person who comes through, have them cut a line from it. Edit it together and play it on the last morning show before Christmas. But only if you get Dana Delany to do it,