I think you can really separate and weed out the Great Stations from the Not So Great Stations when you look at what they do when something like Sandy Hook occurs. Or, when you look at their promotional calendar two weeks before Christmas.
This is it. Our the mid-point of our Meat & Potatoes promotional season. Halloween into Thanksgiving into Christmas into New Years. One amazing opportunity after another after another to market the station, make money, create buzz and close out the year with a bang, not a thud.
I was following up with my client in Grand Forks, Z-94.7 and Nikki Rush sent me a really impressive schedule of contests and events and happenings for December. I replied with some kind of “Wow, that’s fantastic!” and she shot me back “I’d like to see more happening.. we have a couple weeks.”
I got a little misty for a second.
Radio used to be the creator or bits and “stuff that people talked about”. In 2000, the Ice Bucket Challenge would have been the brainchild of WBLI or Wild in Tampa.
You should really monitor the Jimmys, Fallon and Kimmel, every night. They get it. Their acknowledgement of Christmas would not be a “Here’s what to do in Houston this holiday!” list on their website.
So, what would they probably do if they were on the air and doing mornings at your station?
- Santa Confessions They’d go out and blue dot a mall Santa’s face and get him to admit to stealing money from his parents or cheating on his wife.
- Swapping Swag They’d ambush shoppers leaving malls and trade stuff for their purchases.
- Uncle Billy! They’d get random people on the street to act out scenes from classic holiday films.
- You Talking To Me? They’d Robert Deniro-ize carols.
- Elfmation Theater They’d take those creepy Elf On A Shelf puppets and have them recreate iconic scenes like the chainsaw shower scene from “Scarface”.
- Hey Baby! They’d hollow out a snowman in a park, get inside and scare the crap out of little kids. Or make passes at women as they stroll by.
- Selling Snowballs They’d go out on a freezing day and sell snowballs to people as imported IKEA snowballs.
- Max-imize Your Dog They’d have viewers tie sticks to their dogs heads and submit the pics.
- Can I Gift Wrap For You? They’d pinhole cam themselves and get holiday jobs like being an elf or a lingerie sales person at Macys.
- Inagadadavida Baby They’d get a youth bell choir to take a stab at some hits.
- Mystery Date They’d take vintage boardgames out and challenge 14 year-old gamers to “Operation!” or “Chutes & Ladders”.
- Unnecessary Christmas Censorship They’d take clips from “Miracle On 42nd Street” and “Rudolph” and bleep out parts.
- Anything With Their Moms They’d have their moms go out and buy really age-inappropriate presents and gifts. And ask lots of questions about the t-back they’re getting at Fredericks.
- O.P.P. (Office Party People) They’d do a tutorial on the people you should expect to meet at the annual staff soiree. Happy Drunk. Angry Drunk. Skanky Drunk. Humiliated Spouse. Pretentious Manager. Dutiful HR Rep.
These two hosts should really almost be a litmus test for morning and station content. Would the Jimmys do it? If you think they would, then it’s probably a homerun.
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