CPR Promotional Check-Up - Apr 12, 2021

Suggested Reading

The last time I shared an article, it was something Lorie Lewis wrote five years ago about inane social media posts. It was great. And a client fired me. Long story.

Jason Kidd really nailed it in this piece about saving CHR and it’s been picked up by a couple of TV stations and the Post Gazette. File for something to read. https://www.virtualjock.com/2021/03/26/how-to-save-top-40-post-pandemic-and-reignite-the-flame/

Suggested Viewing

For the cohosts birthday at Power in Miami, they ambushed him with a series of guests from his past including this 8th grade gym teacher who, to this day, he is terrified of.

They had the guests come into to the darkened production studio and then intro them with “Pablo, this next guest made your life a living Hell in 8th grade, see if you recognize his voice…” “Hi Pablo, I made your life a living in Hell in 8th grade….”

Pablo would ID the person and he/she would join them in the studio. His ex’s were the best.

Kind of like this. Sid Caesar - "This is Your Story" with Carl Reiner and Howard Morris (Full Sketch) - YouTube

In COVID this could be done remotely and would still be great for things like birthdays and weddings.

“The Somehow I Missed It Film Festival”

Test “Big movies that everyone saw except you?” on Facebook and see what happens. Me? “The Exorcist.” Not sure how I missed that.

One of the morning shows has this on their “As soon as it’s safe” list. The cohost never saw “Grease” so she’s going to find ten listeners who also missed it and have them over to the station to watch it in the conference room with pizza and popcorn.

Earth Day

It’s April 22nd.

Earth Day is an incredibly under-utilized promotional and sellable opportunity. And I don’t think I’ve seen a soft drink request in a decade that doesn’t involve terms nature, environmentally friendly events and terms like “natural” and “refresh”. This April 22nd is the 51st anniversary of its recognition. And it’s a Saturday. And I just saw a Toyota request that centered and it, so here ya go…

The Transit Company I can’t think of a market where they don’t come and ask for a promotion every April. It could be as simple as what 94.9 in Cincinnati did which was to have co-host do her show from a bus. It could be to wrap one of the bus’s and debut it with a big launch party on Thursday the 22nd. The station in Charlotte tied in a company that served organic coffee and every morning that week were on a different “line” giving it away for free.

Imaging That was easy. https://soundcloud.com/cprpromo/sets/earth-day

All Things Organic The youth group at my church sells organic coffee as a fundraiser. Could you get hemp book bags, fill them with coupons and samples from clients, and either do these on-line or out on the streets?

Bicycles Big day for people to (at least be encouraged to) ride their bikes to work. I saw a station in Minneapolis sponsor the “bike lot” at a big summer festival. Ride to Taste and leave your bike for free in a big enclosed area.

One Hug At A Time One of the oldest and quickly becoming cliché’d launch bits for a morning host is to go and sit in every seat in a stadium. I never quite understood that. But then, I like watching “Boy Meets World” in Telemundo. KS-95 started their morning show in Minny by having them go out and try to shake hands with every listener in town.

What if you morphed these and had the morning show go out on Earth Day to a park and hug every tree in it. Walk up, thank them for the clean air, give them a hug and add “I love you man!”

Shaken, Not Stirred From B-103.9 in Ft. Myers where in ‘09 they did“Earth Week”. “When it’s time to save the planet, the 18th caller will shake our Earth Tree and win whatever falls out. Naples Zoo tickets, Katy Perry tix, Maroon 5 tix. Everyone who wins also gets a tree seedling to plant and help make the earth a little bit greener.”

Leafies Selfies but with a nature feel to them.

Really Not That Huge Of A Departure Chet at KLUC ran recycled bits for their morning show on Earth Day.

Actual Global Warming Intern. Magnifying glass. Classroom-style globe you might find at a thrift shop. On-line pool on how long it will take him to set it on fire just using the sun’s power.

What Would Google Do? Six years ago they surrounded their logo with forest wildlife. Got a “0” in your dial position? Stick a spinning globe in there. Or turn the site green for the day. Or, just blow it off. Everyone else will. Which, from my school of thought is reason TO do something.

Actual Gerbil Power This has been bandied about by a couple of stations and no one has yet pulled it off. For Earth Day you’re taking the station off the grid and having it powered by a gerbil. Website is just a live (not) shot of a gerbil running in one of those little things. Put a sticker behind him and PRESS RELEASE THE WORLD. (It’s just a continuous loop shot of him/her/it running. In a perfect world they would pause and the screen would dim just a little)

Or Actual Human Power In 2014, 104.1 in Hartford was actually powered by a DJ on a bike. Live For 175 is the biggest awareness campaign in Radio. It’s done by Steve Kicklighter at Kiss in Boise, and until your morning guy stays awake and broadcasts for 175 hours or runs a marathon every day for a week to call attention to child abuse, you can’t possibly fathom how huge this is. And in 2013? They had it powered by humans.

For The Website Have some tips from home repair and auto maintenance people on basic “any idiot can do this” (that would be me) suggestions for cutting down on AC use and increasing gas mileage. Go. Sell. Now.

The Diminishing Ice Pack Few years ago on one of those temperate Phoenix days in July (read: 108) Power froze some tickets in a frozen P (hotel banquet ice carver did it) Guess how long until they “melted out” and fell to the pavement, to win them. This has “Earth Day” written all over it. The prize could be whatever