In my in-station workshops, I teach a foolproof system for developing a virtually limitless supply of new ideas for radio features, promotions, branding, etc.
I call the process “Designing Your Station’s Unique Listening Proposition.”
Here is my adaptation of an idea created by the staff at BBC Scotland. (So it’s their idea, tweaked a little by me.)
If you’re a rock station, create a rock band comprised of elderly, non-rock oriented people.
Solicit auditions via YouTube, and have listeners vote for their favorites.
Select the members of your band.
Have them rehearse with someone with real rock music experience.
Then they give a live mini-concert at a station event.
(Imagine the TV coverage you’d get from that type of live performance — plus, possibly, a very viral concert video.)
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Dan, if most stations would spend one hour a week, maybe a month thinking outside of the box… this would become more of the norm. Great idea!
Mark
We ran a Mutilated Manilow competition at Columbia’s Rock 93-5 in ’94. Contestants submitted tapes of their bands performing any Barry Manilow song in any style other than the original to win recording time at a local studio.
We had a Johnny Cash impersonator doing Ships That Pass In The Night, a punk polka version of Mandy, and one which sounded suspiciously like Kermit the Frog singing I Write The Songs.
If you’re going to do something like this, expect a very slow start. It will take a couple of weeks for contestants to choose material, rehearse and record it, and submit it to your station. We ran it for a month, and collected 32 entries – all of which made great fodder for the morning show.
C’mon Dan, shouldn’t we be focusing our efforts on truly creative efforts like “The Birthday Game” and “Pay Your Bills”? Don’t we need more forced listening contests like the “9-2-5” game or the “Pay Song of the Day”? I mean really Dan, this takes a lot of work, can’t we just take the (insert frequency) caller and be done with it? Or if I’m pinched for time, isn’t asking listeners to be caller #10 exciting enough?
Besides as PD and morning show host and doing remotes, or doing afternoon drive and MD duties on top of voice-tracking shows for other dayparts and other stations in the cluster, who’s got the time? I’m in radio and it’s a business, it’s all about making the most money with the smallest possible staff and you want us to entertain, engage an amuse people? (Note: please turn your sarcasm filter OFF.)
Years ago a station I worked at did a contest where listeners wrote and performed commercials. Six local clients were involved in the contest. After a slow start we received dozens of scripts and selected the best for recording — after some tweaking, of course. It worked well, some of them were very ear-catching and effective.
There is no box to think outside of! we all have the same amount of time… and poor creative stuff takes just as much time to conceive and execute as the GOOD stuff. It’s a mind-set thing, not a time thing. We can DO this, people. It’s all about saving the industry by using the one thing… the only thing… that has always made it work. The thing that is in short supply, and frankly always has been even in the days (if they ever existed) of flush budgets and over-populated staff. IMAGINATION!
Use it, or lose your career!