CPR Promotional Check-Up - Oct 1, 2021

Five Morning Show Bits/Features That You Might Not Have Heard Of

I did a brainstorming session with a morning cohost yesterday because they’re trying to come up with some new things that they could spike in. And sometimes it feels like there are three features and everyone is doing them.

Said-person still has her recorder from 5th grade so she’s going to take a stab at pop hits and see if the listeners can ID them.

We all love “Stupid Crimimal News” or as KS95 does it, “The Jacked Up Person Of The Day.” Their jingle is amazing. Florida has been stereotyped as being the mecca for dumb criminals so “Florida Or Not” would be fun: read off a stupid criminal act and the caller has to ID the state where the guy greased himself up with lard and tried to break into the Dollar Store through a ceiling vent and got stuck. And the answer will always be “Florida.”

Body Oddity. Radio is the ultimate freak show so doing a contest to have listeners show off the weird things they can do would be great. A street teamer in Saskatoon could whistle through her navel. Steve Jones gets credit for the name.

In my 7th grade yearbook a future First Lady of Minnesota referenced me making out with Celeste Magnuson in the loading ramp at Southdale. My mom was “cleaning” and read it. Irene was not happy. Said-person’s mom is a riot so she will occasionally pull out this individual’s yearbooks (stored at home in Chicago) and with accompanying music, read what her friends wrote.

“Last Text”. Walk up to people at events and reward them if they’ll let you read the last text they sent on-camera.

The Giving Tree

One of the stations has a client obligation for December that needs to be reworked for COVID and are going to replace it with an on-line version of the Giving Tree, which was a staple for Weinstocks in California for decades.

Working with local agencies they will come up with a dial position number of families who have specific needs. Now, obviously, they’re not going to name the families, ie: “The Nienabers of Scandia have had a really effed up year….” There will be numbered ornaments on the tree.

• You click on an ornament and it will give a brief synopsis of who and what they need: There’s a mother and father and a 7 year-old son. They would like gift cards for food, mom is reentering the workplace so many a clothing gift card, and the boy loves anything about the Minnesota Vikings.
• You click until you find an available ornament/family that you feel capable of supporting or adopting.
• I’ve seen this done a few ways, but basically you’re adopting a family for the holidays. Either the referring agency has a cash total that you can give them and they can buy the stuff, or there are links to buy the stuff, or you buy it and then wrap and deliver to the agency for delivery to the family. I prefer the last one because it’s a little more personal.

Will there be a couple of people who flake or forget or don’t follow through? Yes. Inevitably. In which case you’re ready with the morning show for a “last show before Christmas push” to fulfill these needs.

I’ve also seen this done with families whose needs are more than material, like, someone to come and fix their washer and dryer. One of the GM’s noted that in 2020, this would be a bad idea. Stick to the hard goods.