CPR Promotional Check-Up - May 24, 2022

Buffalo

Sadly, there are going to be times when you’ll need to address something sudden and tragic that happens in your market or nationally.

Joe Russo with Cumulus reminds us of something that when we’re rushing to react, we might forget: look at the music. Is there a song that’s in there that up until an hour ago would have been innocuous. There was a station “somewhere” that played Foster The People 90 minutes after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. It had been logged and forgotten about. I also saw similar things happen on 9/11 and with the 35W Bridge Collapse.

It'll take a minute, there’s a 99.99% chance that everything will be good…but if something slips through, those are the kind of calls with the GM that you probably wouldn’t enjoy.

And in the aftermath of the Buffalo shooting and people in the African American community being hesitant to go to stores, Cumulus helping with food collection and distribution. From Joe:

We are running everything thru some of the major players including Feed More WNY to help with food deliveries. Right now it is mostly promo driven. Many of the organizations are overwhelmed and can’t keep up with the donations (city of good neighbors). Mayor’s office and Buffalo Niagara Partnership are two groups we are trying to funnel our activities through so we do the most good. There are lots of organizations doing things, but we are trying to do the right ones. Today though we brought the conversation of gun violence and racism to the station. We talked to Rev. Darius Pridgeon, County Executive Mark Poloncarz, Sen. Brian Higgins and Mayor Byron Brown. Most of our energy this last few days was on getting this show right and Shredd and Ragan put on a masterclass. We will have a more concrete street response hopefully tomorrow.

A Horror-Themed Version Of Hidden Cash

Rob Mise sent this to me.

Remember in 2014 when “Hidden Cash” was a thing and we learned that hiding $100 would jack things up for an afternoon?

Someone,, someone brilliant, in Mirimachi, New Brunswick is going and hiding money around town. But they’re doing it under the name of “Roman Dungarvan”, an Irish cook who, by legend was murdered at a logging camp in the 19th century.

Take a look at the story and how they’re taking a standard Radio promotion and draping it with themes and characters.

‘We absolutely love it’: horror-themed treasure hunt thrills Canadian town | Canada | The Guardian

And for the record, you don’t need to do something that dark (and no one is seeing it like that anyway). A jilted bride who sold her ring and is dropping money around town. As an example.

This is a great line: “I don’t think anything of this magnitude has ever happened in Miramichi,” said Adams Robichaud, a high school student. “And we just absolutely love it.”