STUNTS:
UNTAINTED OFFICE OLYMPICS
We asked listeners to send us a fax with their
name and location of their office. We then went to offices and put the person
who sent us the fax up against their co-worker. Here are some of the things
that they had to do to win: The first one to lick and seal 25 envelopes, first
one done wins. In 90 seconds type a letter about your boss and fewest mistakes
win. Make photo copies of 10 different body parts. Sharpen 50 pencils, first
one done wins.
WHO'S GOT THE WORST COUGH?
We're doing a little contest soliciting for the
best cough. Call us, cough for us, and if we vote your cough the best, you'll
win a complete cold-care kit. Ny-Quil, Day-Quil, chicken noodle soup, Kleenex,
vaporizer, Vicks. Total cost is about $30 bucks but should be a fun little bit.
INFORMATION PLEASE
Whenever we don't have a "wake-up"
call to make and we're in the mood to bug someone, we love to call our local
directory assistance. Someone who works at the telephone company told us that
they aren't allowed to hang up on callers who might have disabilities
communicating or whatnot, unless they hear profanities. Today my partner did
Scooby-Doo looking for a restaurant... and if she got close to understanding
him he'd lay the dogness on thicker to where it went over 2 minutes for cheap
fun!
WHAT DID WE DO?
What did we do this morning? Tell listeners that
at 9:00 you are going to ask questions about that day's show. The first person
who gets all the questions right wins a prize!
SECRET SOUND
Here's a contest we bring back to the morning
show now and then. Kind of a friendly reminder that we're the station that does
it. Had a couple this morning that were good. We even started giving clues:
Crinkle up a plastic bag, from the supermarket,
and slowly pull it apart. (sounds like fire or a heavy rain)
Quickly spin the lid on a child proof plastic
bottle or jug.
Tapping 2 bowling pins together. (it has it's
own distinctive sound)
KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES
Call a Jones family out of the phone book and
start telling them what you have. "I bought a new screwdriver yesterday,
bet you don't have that. Got a new pair of pajamas too. Hey, I've got cable.
Bet you don't. Both of my mother-in-laws live with me. Can you top that?"
You get the idea.
KISS AND WIN
Get a listener to call you and conference her
with her husband. She says something romantic to him and them makes a kissing
sound on the phone. If he kisses her back, they win! Give them about thirty to
sixty seconds. Remember, they can't tell the husband that they're part of a
radio contest and they can't mention the fact that they're on the air until
after they've won (or lost).
GET US ON TV
We got on the air and complained that "Gee,
you haven't seen a commercial on TV for us yet... and we really need some TV
exposure." Bingo! We're going to give one lucky listener $100 and concert
tickets. How do they win? They gotta get our name on TV! National, local,
doesn't matter, just on TV! Their best bet is to make a big banner and try to
get in the cameras. Then, they have to prove it was on by videotaping the news
and bringing the videotape to us.
DESKTOP LOTTO
Get a listener to call you from the office.
You've got three items on a list. The listener has to start naming off every
item on and in their desk. If they have all three things on the list, they win
something fabulous like a computer or a station t-shirt.
MAY I SPEAK WITH A CELEBRITY PLEASE?
Get a contestant on the line. Dial the local TV
newsrooms. All the contestant can say is, "May I speak with a celebrity
please?" If they can talk the person on the other end to let them talk to
one of the anchors or reporters, they win.
WEB WEDNESDAY
We do a feature called "Web Wednesday"
where listeners call-in and nominate the "web site of the week." It
gives us a good chance to try and share new web site info with our listeners. A
listener called up and told us about http://www.gentlehints.com It's a web site
that sends letters on your behalf (annonymously) to people with body odor or
other offending habits. We are having one sent to our boss as a joke!
RADIO PING-PONG
Get two listeners and throw out a topic. The two
listeners go back and forth throwing out answers till they can't come up with
an answer. They get the point for the correct answer. The first to three points
wins. Examples of topics: names of candy bars, names of Local TV news anchors,
you get the idea!
DEEP DARK SECRETS
Invite listeners to call in, remain anonymous,
and tell you their secrets. Can get pretty steamy, ebarrassing, or down right
incriminating. Alternate name to this is "True Confessions" or
"Talk with Father (insert your name)."
AFTER THE TONE
We just started an answering machine contest and
invited our listeners to record a new greeting mentioning our morning show and
radio station. Then they call, fax or e-mail us their name, number and best
calling times. We call several numbers each morning to audition them. We'll
select the three best and let the audience vote for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
Great prizes involved. We've had incredible response. The buzz about this has
been pretty cool too.
OSCAR SCREEN TEST
Great tie-in for the Oscars or any time. On the
morning show, we play clips from previous Academy Award Best Picture winners
and they have to tell us the name of the film and a least two of the stars! The
winner receives a copy of the movie on videotape in return for the right
anwser.
UNDER THE BED SHOW AND TELL
Listeners call from their bedrooms, get on their
hands and knees and start pulling stuff out from under their bed to describe it
to your audience. The grossest, wackiest or most unusual item or items win.
GOOD SAMARITANS
We sent a man and a woman to two separate
locations during the 7am hour posing as stranded motorists at busy locations.
The woman was offered help from 12 people and not one person stopped to help
the guy. Once we were done with our little experiment, we let the audience in on
what we had done. Then the calls started pouring in from all of our listeners
that saw them but didn't stop. It was interesting to hear why they ignored the
motorist in need of help. A good local bit to try to measure the friendliness
of your town. A recent survey revealed that 78% of men would stop to help a
woman stranded during snow.
STOP CALLING ME THAT!
Great game and no prep required!
Step 1: Get listener on phone who knows a
friend/relative is home.
Step 2: Give them an annoying word to call the
person (ie: Mookie, home slice, puffy)
Step 3: 60 seconds on the clock, get them on the
phone.
Step 4: Go!
RIGHT MOVIE/WRONG LANGUAGE
We give out the title of a movie in a different
language. The first caller to correctly guess the real name of the movie is the
winner. We also do "Right Song/Wrong Title," where we mix up the name
of a popular song. The first caller to correctly identify the name wins.
REFRIGERATOR FINDS
Time for everyone's favorite new game,
"Refrigerator Finds!" Get contestants on the phone to describe
something that's waaaaaay in the back of their fridge. They've got to describe
it in great detail without mentioning what it is. If you can guess what it is
based on their description, they win something fabulous.
WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE (JOCKS)?
Here's a bit we do a couple of times a year,
"Where In the World Are (Jocks)?" Great pre-promotion for remote
broadcasts. We give clues the day before, starting out very vague, like what
state we'll be in. Then the county, then the city, then more specific if we
have to. It works out that they find us around 7:15 am, then we give away
concert tickets for the next (frequency) minutes. It's a great bit because we
have prizes for everyone who finds us. We'll be in five different counties this
week.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
In an effort to get our stunt guy on the street
more, we've come up with a "What Would You Do?!" day. We send stunt
boy out to offer people money to do stupid stuff. One guy ate worms for $5 each
(a limit of 4). Hey, he said they tasted like fish and chicken! Another guy
drank a Pepsi from stunt boy's shoe. Another lady let him pick her nose. The
funniest was when a lady put his underwear on her head (all over her face!) for
$20! People will do anything for money!
I LOVE THAT GUY
String together just the word "love"
from about 7 or 8 different songs from the same artist. Listeners had to
correctly identify the songs they were taken out of to win concert tickets.
SECRET CRUSH
Got listeners on the line that had secret
crushes. Then called the person they have the crush on. Conferenced them
together. Pretty good.
MAKE ME AN OFFER
Went to a few garage sales over the weekend and
used it as an excuse to play "The Garage Sale Price Is Right" game.
We listed five different and funny items and what they sold for at the sales.
We took three callers and had them play the game. Closest to the actual sales
price without going over won a great prize and something special that didn't
sell at the sale.
COMMON KNOWLEDGE
We've been doing a good bit on our show by
sending our intern out and asking men common knowledge questions and women, and
men common knowledge questions about women. Kinda like Jay Leno's
"Jaywalking." We stop the tape before the answer and ask listners to
bet on whether the man or woman knows the answers for prizes. Usually both the
questions and answers are hilarous, and it gets the listener into the show.
THE WHEEL OF WHOOPIE
Get a wheel with ten locations on it in town, a
married couple. Have them come down to the station, spin the wheel. Wherever it
lands they must go to that location and do it. Of course, you supply the cell
phone. Talk about getting talk.
GUINNESS BOOK OF LISTENERS
We're doing our annual "Guinness Book Of
Listeners." We come up with about three categories every day and we find
winners like "tallest listener," "car with the most miles,"
"biggest feet," "biggest difference in height between wife and
husband," etc. It's a great way to get lot's of calls during what could be
a slow time of year.
MORNING SHOW CHALLENGES
Get a steamy novel and a bullhorn and highlight
the parts you want a participant to read out loud on a bus, in the skyway, at a
library, etc.
At a supermarket, get a participant to fill a
cart and get in line at the express lane, or, walk up to people and take items
out of other peoples' cart. When doing so, each time they reach into someones
cart to take something they say into the phone a password. This tells us they
just reached into the cart for an item and a response should follow from the
shopper.
Give ae participant a newspaper and he or she
has to scream out the headlines. They try and sell the newspaper to someone.
At a gas station, get a truck driver to open the
hood of his truck, then put a Burger King crown on his head and give him a bull
horn. As people pass by he has to point to his open truck hood while screaming,
"A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"
The participant, at a gas station, waits for a
motorist to go into the store, puts a sign on the guys car that says
"Raffle $1. Win this Car." Try and sell tickets, especially try to
sell on to the car owner when they come back to the car.
Get some idiot to pour a 5-pound bag of
Pillsbury flour over her head, then send her running through the local mall
yelling, "I'm the Pillsbury Doughboy." Have them try and get people
to tickle them.
Give the participant a shopping cart and they
have to try an convince someone else to push them a block.
RELATIONSHIP CHIPPER
Take payback to the next level. Invite listeners
to bring down an item belonging to an ex- (wife, boyfriend, lover) and throw it
into the "Relationship Chipper..." which is actually a wood chipper
that is primed to eat CD collections, engagement rings and letter jackets.
SEXY VOICE
Looked for the sexiest voice in the
neighborhood. There are quite a few pretty listenable voices out there, but
like me, do they have anything worthwhile to say? Most would reply,
"No!" Have them read labels off the back of food packages, recipes,
instruction manuels for your dishwasher. We just took their number and
qualified them all for a big stinkin' gift at the end of the morning, or you
can pick a "best of..."
MORNING JUDGE
Do a judge thing like Judge Judy on TV. Get two
listeners with a conflict to agree to let you hear their case, and your
decision is binding. If you get the right people this is hysterical. They can
start hitting each other and you go to commercials, stuff like that.
PEN PAL
As a standard feature on the show, we mention a
"Pen Pal" everyday. The idea is to have owners/operators of small
businesses send their company's logo pens to the station in return for us
mentioning their company's name all morning long. It's kind of like a free
plug, and we're never short of pens in the studio!
GOOFY PHOTO
We're taking advantage of the web site with the
"Goofy Photo" contest. Every week we post a picture on the morning
show page and give a prize to the most creative/funny caption. Chances are you
have a load of stupid photos you've taken over the year, or get the Polaroid
out and snap a few.
WHO'S NEVER
Here's a game/phoner called "Who's
never..." Just fill in the blank with a common occurance. Who's never got
pulled over? Who's never eaten fruit? Who's never had a haircut? Who's never
left this town? The freaks will come out for this one.
MYSTERY WORDS
We come up with a set of "Mystery
Words" that one co-host will use to describe to our contestant, who has 30
seconds to guess what the "Mystery Words" are. The catch is, another
co-host, provides a list of words that ca not be used. If the listener guesses
the word, they win.
TELL ME SOMETHING I DON'T KNOW
We're always looking for odd facts, inane
trivia, urban legends, old wives tales, etc. We ask listeners call with a fact
that we don't know. If we do know, we'll introduce them to "Mr.
Dial-tone." If, however, they tell us something we don't know, they win.
ID THE DNA
Each morning, we give out "audio
evidence" and "word evidence" as clues for listeners to help
them identify a person, place, or thing. The first correct caller to ID the DNA
wins a fabulous prize.
THE TUNNEL SONG
It's just as if you were singing along to the
song on the radio while entering a tunnel, underpass, etc. in town. When the
song fades to static, you have to keep singing. Finish the next line of the
song to win.
DIRTY JOKE FRIDAY
This works great if you can find a dirty (or not
exactly air quality) joke with no four-letter words in it. We tell the set-up
at 6:50 am and do the punch line at 9:05 am. That seems like a long time for
listeners to wait, but they do. Who knows, it may add a few extra quarter hours
to your next book.
WHAT ARE YOU WEARING RIGHT NOW?
Something we do early in the morning every now
and then, "What are you wearing right now?" We give out a prize to
the first how ever many callers who call us and tell us what they're wearing
(however we really only give the prizes to people who are only partly dressed,
or are naked).
WHO YA LOVE FRIDAY!
It's an opportunity to call in and boast about a
business that has treated you right or maybe an individual who's been
especially kind. It's great for locality and a positive note to end the week
on.
WEB PICTURES
We post dorky pictures on our web site and
encourage listeners to write an appropriate caption. We give away a prize for
the best or funniest of the week. It's a way to get them to check out the web
site.
WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU?
Go on the air and say that your listeners are
always doing nice things for you, now you would like to do something for them.
What can I do for you? Make a few suggestions. Maybe you and your spouse had an
argument, pick-up flowers, maybe you could go to where they work to apologize.
My most recent two were, a single mom of two called and shared with me how she
had let her two kids down by not cominmg through with a promise. I asked her if
a couple of Happy Meals for McDonalds would help, and by the time my producer
had pulled up to her house in the station van, she had the kids make a big sign
for us with our call letters and thanks, a warm and fuzzy.
WHAT WILL I SAY NEXT?
A prize to the winner who can predict what I'm
going to say next! Have your sidekick moderate the calls. People will
stereotype you and if you have a thick skin it's a hoot.
TUNE TORTURE THURSDAY
Take a song in heavy rotation, edit out the
vocals at strategic points and fill in the gaps with your vocals. People can't
get enough of it, our PD thinks we should do it every day. (Just go nuts, try
and impersonate the artist the best you can. When they know you're really
trying - it's funny.) Take the XX caller, when they think they've
"identified" the tortured tune. This one's fun.
TATTOO YOU
Tattoos don't seem to be just for bikers
anymore. As a 25-54 oriented station, we're finding that more and more
professional people are getting tattoos and piercings. We're kicking off a
promotion next week with a local tattoo joint and two winners will have their
tattoos done on the air during our show the following week. If you haven't
explored this topic, it's surprising hip and hot with professionals these days,
especially women.
PREGNANCY TESTS
Here are more tests are to determine the sex of
the baby so pregnant women only need apply. #1) Ask a pregnant woman what color
her nail beds are. If she holds her hand out with the fingers pointing straight
up, then the baby's a girl. If she turns her hand over with palm up and fingers
curled in, then it's a boy. #2) This in an Italian test. Take a fork and wrap
it in a napkin and then take a spoon and wrap it in a napkin. Place two chairs
in the center of the room. In one chair you will put the napkin covered fork on
the seat and the spoon should be placed in the other chair. Now ask the
pregnant woman to have a seat. If she sits on the fork, it's a boy. If she sits
on the spoon, it's a girl.
COFFEE MUG OF THE DAY
Listeners, businesses, etc. are asked to send
in, or bring by their personalized coffee mugs. Each day or week, we will
select one and make several mentions of the days mug. For one, this helps build
your stash of mugs, and two some new potential businesses can be added to your
nest marketing or sales call lists.
FUNNIEST HOME STORIES
(Your city's) funniest home stories. Explain
that since you can't show videos on your radio show, ask people to call in with
funny stories, pick the best one and award prizes. Stories can be about
anything, but must be funny!
USELESS TALENT SHOW
Have listeners, that do stupid and pointless
stuff that they consider talent, come in and do their thing. Like tying a
cherry stem in a bow with your tongue, or playing a song with your armpit. The
funniest thing is when the listeners start dogging them.
TEN ITEMS OR LESS
Listener goes into a supermarket, loads up a
shopping cart with a bunch of stuff, then goes to the express check-out and
tells the checkers "I know I have more than 10 items, but it's okay
because you see my name is Les." (Leslie if it's a girl)
TV HUM OFF
Have two contestants hum any TV theme
(instrumentals didn't count). We had to be able to figure out what theme it
was. Both were great, so we had a "hum off" to decide the winner. Not
only did they win some cool stuff, but we declared them as the best hummer! The
winner was proud.
BUSINESS BATTLES
We've started doing a game that is sort of
"Family Fued" meets "Scattagories." Two callers, ideally
with some co-workers on hand, go back and forth trying to name as many items as
they can from that day's category. We'll get callers during a break and then
usually give them the category 30 or 60 seconds before we put them on the air.
Don't give them too much time, or they can get on the Internet. It's usually
easy to come up with a somewhat timely topic. Aside from the daily winner, we
also pick one to be a weekly winner for a catered office meal. We use Mills
Lane doing his "let's get it on and get it decided" line from his TV
show and the "Rocky" theme, but different beds to match the topic is
also an idea.
TOTALLY USELESS TALENT CONTEST
Get your listeners to phone in some totally
useless talent contest, hopefully something that plays well (with sound) over
the radio. A couple of good ones we got was a guy that made his false teeth
sound like they were tap dancing (weird, and we target 18-34 females). And
another was a lady that could whistle through her nose. Good stuff.
BABY BOND
Offer a 100 dollar savings bond to anyone who
calls your show during the birth of their child. Just a throw away but it would
be really cool to have a baby being born on your show.
EARLY MORNING WHACK-OFF
Have listeners take their phone and whack
something with it. If you can figure out what their whacking they get nothing.
If they stump you send them a prize. People were taking their phones and
whacking: construction hard hats, eggs, refrigerators, ceiling fans, even a
school bus. Sounded great!
LIARS POKER
We ask a question to the listener and then we
play back 5 different answers for them to chose from. The other characters on
our show give answers to a question and of course my co-host and I answer the
question and the listener has to decide which one of us is telling the truth.
It's alot of fun and gets everyone from our show involved, real or fiction.
NAME THAT NOISE
Take a caller, give them thirty seconds to make
any noise they can using only their mouth. If you can guess what it is, they
win. Simple and fun, just hope they don't all try to do the "gassed
up" signal.
OLD SCHOOL CLASSIC SING ALONG
Ask listeners to call in and sing along with an
old school song. Then turns off the music and then turn it on again. If the
caller is still on beat with the words and music of the song, they win a prize.
STUNT BOY DRIVE-THRU
Send stunt boy through a couple of fast food
drive-thrus. When the drive-thru person comes on the speaker, he's just going
to keep saying, "I love you." Have listeners guess how many times
he'll have to say "I love you" before the person working the
drive-thru says "I love you" back. Give them free gift certificates
for some fast food if they win. You could turn this around and have a
contestant go through the drive-thru and say, "I love you." If the
drive-thru attendant says it back, they win.
THE MATING GAME
We're having a blast with "The Mating
Game." It's a take off of "The Newlywed Game." We get a couple
on two separate lines, ask the woman three questions while the guy is on hold,
then ask the guy the same questions. Match all three and win. We specify the
couple has to be in different locations -- a separate phone number that we'll
call and conference. And of course it's taped so he can't hear her answers on
the air. You'd be surprised how many couples can't match answers to simple
questions like "what color are her eyes," or "what's her
favorite drink."
DEAD GUY IN A CAN
Today we played old reliable "Dead Guy in a
Can," had John Candy in the can, and I don't know how this happened, but
some 12-year-old got it with the 6th guess, and the only clue we gave was
"He's dead." Big!
LET'S MAKE A DEAL
Listeners call in with stuff to trade with other
listeners, or for what's behind the (Your Morning Show) prize door! You might
even set it up more like the TV show "Let's Make A Deal" by giving
them a choice of prize doors. Take this one step further by sending stunt boy
out with prizes and looking for oddball things: Pictures of Britney Spears,
colored paper clips, etc.
MORNING GAS PACK
During the course of normal on-air banter, the 4
of us on the show try to fart. Right afterwards, we play a little bell that
signifies that yes, you did hear a fart. Listeners call in and guess who farted
and when. We give the correct caller a "Morning GASpack (dinner for 2,
whatever). Come to think of it, dinner at a Mexican joint would be great!
GREAT MATE DEBATE
Women call in with an ongoing disagreement
between them and their husband or boyfriend. Conference hubby for his side of the
dispute. Let the listeners decide who wins. Loser has to beg for forgiveness.
Send them to a nice hotel and dinner, concert or whatever.
MAKIN' WHOOPIE
Conference a caller and their grandmother on the
phone. Caller tells you in advance the last year they think grandma and grandpa
did the wild thing. If their answers match, caller wins. Make the caller ask
the question to the grandparent. Makes it funnier and you're off the "Oh
no I've offended a little old lady" hook.
WORKPLACE OF THE DAY
Ask listeners at work to fax in their request on
company letterhead explaining why their office should be named the
"Workplace of the Day." We have a new winner every day, it's a fun
and easy way to give away tickets to concerts and sporting events. Plus, all daily
winners are in the running for a grand prize, a mini-vacation at a ski resort.
WHO'S PAYING ATTENTION?
Great mini-focus group to find out exactly what
it is your listeners are really retaining from the show. About 7:40am, take two
callers, first one asks the second one any question about your show that
morning. The correct answer means caller two does the asking now, this goes on
until we get a winner. After awhile, they are quoting news stories. Try it,
you'll like it.
YOU'RE IN THE MOVIES
Try getting your listeners to cast you in a
movie about your show. You and all the supporting players. Ours chose Andie
MacDowell for my partner and for me John Goodman, ugh! We took sound bites from
Andi MacDowell from "Groundhog Day" and John Goodman from "The
Flintstones" and edited them together as a movie trailer. Pretty funny to
see how your listeners picture you.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?
If you live east coast or central time zones,
get on the net and find a classified for an item. The call and inquire about
it. The listener has to guess how long it'll take them to say the words,
"Do you know what time it is?" We did it 3 times on a show 6am,
7:30am, 8:45am and each one was funny!
CHAMPIONSHIP GLASS BREAKING
Get several listeners to call in and break glass
over the phone for a chance to win fabulous prizes. We ran it all morning as a
competition, then played the best glass breakings at the end of the show
(loudest most impressive display of glass breaking wins) and awarded a massive
prize pack to our winner. One guy sent pictures via e-mail of his work shed
with all the broken glass including a portable TV, unbelievable! One thing we discovered
was that land lines work better on-air than cells or cordless phones.
Apparently, they don't transmit the high pitch of glass breaking as well.
CHIPMUNK CLIP
We've had lots of fun with something we call the
"Chipmunk Clip." You simply take about a minute of dialogue from a
popular movie and speed it up. It's a great variation on the old flick idea.
Your listeners will love this one!
THE PEPPERMINT CHALLEGE
We try to think up the most heinous things we
can do to our stuntboy. We decided to see just how many of those round
peppermints candies we could get in his mouth, and we let the audience bet on
how many he could get in there. The closest one, got front row concert tickets.
The total: 73! We were amazed. Then we had him attempt to sing a nurset rhyme,
and the first listener who could actually identify it, won their own bag of
peppermints, and tickets. Golden. Word of caution however... a lot of drool is
involved in this stunt, so have some towels handy!
THE CLASSIFIED ADS
From time to time check what people are selling
and more importantly what they are looking for under the wanted ads. Amazing
finds from time to time that are worth talking to these people about. We're
sure there's some real finds in your local paper just waiting to be called! Fun
bit and about as local as you can get!
SECRET SOUND
Spent the entire morning on this one secret
sound. "Slowly slicing through a stale loaf of Italian bread." We
gave clues it was a kitchen-dining room sound. Something you eat. They were
convinced it was breaking-slicing-or opening a head of lettuce. They can't get
enough of that contest.
PIC OF THE WEEK
Here's another chance to use the web site to
super-serve your listeners. Post bizarre pictures that hard to make out on the
site, first person to e-mail you with the correct answer wins! We give them a
CD, and they have to come pick it up.
TRADE FOR TICKETS
What to do with an extra pair of concert
tickets? We might as well get something, right? We played "Trade for
Tickets," and as the cliche goes, "the phones exploded." Our
rule was "no personal services," which kept the 'I'll bring you
breakfast for a year' calls to a minimum. Everything from autographed NASCAR
merchandise, to wedding rings, to next of kin was put on the table. We
determined the winner by flipping a coin and whatever it landed on got the
tickets.
PERSONALS FROM HELL
Read a personal ad just like it is, then say,
"But they really mean..." Then, make up a much wilder version of the
original. We did this and had everyone absolutely rolling.
IT'S IN THE MAIL
We do a contest where we ask listeners to mail
us something weird. That's as specific as we get. We award prizes for the most
outrageous things that we get. We've gotten coconuts, a single potato chip, a
flag pole, etc. Lots of fun and it creates a ton of talk. Everybody always
calls to ask "What's the weirdest thing you guys got this week?"
JOB SWITCHAROO
We asked listeners to e-mail and fax us a short
description of their jobs. We then sifted through and picked the job that
sounded the most fun. The winner will trade jobs with one of the morning
co-hosts and the co-host will do that person's job for the morning.
ASK THE PRO
Get a guy who does whatever he does on the air.
Lawyer, mechanic, garbage man, court stenographer, weather guy, anyone, and let
them ask him or her questions. If you find the right person this is funny.
SUPERSTAR FOR A DAY
If you're looking for an easy promotion that you
can tie into just about anything, do a "Superstar For A Day" thing.
We had people send in postcards telling us why they deserved to be a superstar
for a day, picked one and showed up at thier house, unannounced at 7am. It was
very Publishers Clearinghouse-like. Lots of excitement as the winner found out
live on the air that they had won. Basically, all it involved was getting a big
limo for the day, free lunch, free hair-do and make-up artist and a $300
shopping spree at the mall.
OLD BOSS REVENGE
Conference a listener with an old boss and let
the listener tell the old boss what they really think of them. You could do it
too, with an old PD.
RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS
Every once in a while we send out our stunt boy
to do random acts of kindness. We give him some cash and he'll buy people's
gas, food, wash windshields, etc. This time we added a twist to it... we had
him do it all in a super hero outfit! We also had people call us with requests
of what they'd like him to come and do for them. He went to somebody's house to
change a diaper, went to serenade a pregnant school teacher, and went to just
hang out with some old lonely lady. We answered phones non-stop for 3 hours as
people called to make their request. If you do this, make sure you get the
super hero's theme song.
FOLLOW THAT CAR!
One day we were talking about all the catch
phrases you hear in movies. So we had our stunt boy jump in a cab, and yell
"Follow that car!" The cabbie, of course, asked "What car?"
Our guy's yelling "That car!" Made even funnier with a foreign
cabbie. Shouldn't be too hard to find.
SPATULA JOUSTING
Got a bunch of people working hard at a home
kitchen to take 5 minutes and play the stupidest game of all time -- Spatula
Jousting. (Sounds good on the phone!) Here's how it works -- You need:
Two contestants.
Preferably two phones in the same room - one for
each contestant.
Arm each contestant with a spatula.
Have each contestant place a metal salad bowl
over their heads.
CELEBRITY SLAPFEST FRIDAY
Ask your audience who they think should get
slapped for getting on their nerves or whatever. We had everyone from Madonna
to a local car dealer who always gets on peoples nerves. All you need is a SFX
of a man, a woman, and a group getting slapped. Drop it in with the request all
throughout the show. It sounds great and it's a blast to do. We promoted this
as part of our "Anger Management Program." The response was
tremendous, which led us to believe that there is a lot of pent up anger out
there in audience land!
FAT BRIDES
Solicited calls from women married 25 years or
more and asked them one yes or no question each. We then had to determine if
they could still fit into their wedding gowns. If they fooled 2/3 of us they
won a prize.
KNOW YOUR MORNING HOSTS
We play "Know your (male co-host) and
(female co-host)." We come up with goofy questions about us that listeners
have to answer to win prizes. Here's some that you could probably use. It's fun
and gives our listeners a chance to learn some stuff about us.
(Female co-host) is...
35
43
Suffering from PMS
(Male co-host) drives...
A truck
A Harley
His wife crazy
HOW DO DAY DO DAT?
This is a bit we do 3 or 4 times a year. It
works especially well at the beginning of the new TV season, again for
mid-season and ahead of summer reruns. We claim that we can come up with new TV
shows just like the networks do. We're going to show you, "How do day do
dat?" Here is how the bit works. Take 3 big envelopes. Mark one of them,
"Name of Show." On the second envelope, "What's it about?"
And on envelope number 3, "Stars." Then take 3x5 file cards and start
getting silly. Write down really stupid things that fit the categories. Pull
one card from each envelope and the result should be hilarious.
TICKETMAN
We are starting a bit called Ticketman featuring
our new character who is a guy named George dressed up in Kiss makeup. We send
him out on the streets and give him concert tickets or cool prizes of whatever
and we just him just like stand at a bus stop or sit on a bench or stand in the
median or whatever. The point is that it's just kinda funny to be driving down
the road during morning drive and then all of a sudden you drive by some guy in
full Kiss make-up. It's definately a visual effect but will work on the radio
with a good bit attached.
SINGLE OR STUD
Have your female partner or a caller try to
guess the color your thinking within 2 guesses. More women will win than lose.
So I said how about a real manly challenge? Get three guys on the phone and one
woman. Two guys are single and one guy is a married stud. Using only 2 yes/no
questions for each and the infamous female intuition, the woman has to tell
who's the married guy and who's the single guys! It's tougher than it sounds
and we had fun for two breaks or so.
BACK TO YOU
Get two people on the phone and give them a
topic (household appliances, cars, etc.) and they have 30 seconds to go back
and forth naming them. If they stumble, they lose.
BEAT MY BABY
Ask listeners to call in and give you amazing
talents their toddlers have and then each caller after that has to say, "I
can beat her baby!" Lots of fun, and you'll get some funny clean moments
out of it.
THINK LIKE A GUY
Easy, take a tape deck to your next remote, ask
a guy three questions and the listener has to guess his answers. Example
questions:
"Your wife asks your opinion of her new
party dress. It's hideous, but you tell her what?"
"Oops, your wife catches you staring at the
young hottie in the mall, how do you respond?"
"She walks in right during the climax of
your favorite TV shows and claims that 'we need to talk', what do you do?"
HOTTEST LOOKING TV NEWS ANCHOR
Have a fake survey of who is the best looking/hottest
TV news anchor and go to that TV station and present that person with a bouquet
of flowers, a crown, and the fake results of your survey. Fun radio and TV.
Make sure you get it all on camera!
DO YOU KNOW ME HOMEY?
We give three names of would be rappers. You
tell us which is a real rapper and which we made up and you win. Amazing but
the more outrageous we get with the names, the more the fake ones sound like
real rappers! Great fun when mom asks her kids for help.
SINGING WORKOUT
We started looking for an exercise buff to
"workout" on the air to give us all an inspiration to keep up our
"fitness" routines. Got someone who said they could do 50 push-ups.
No problem. Of course, he didn't know he had to sing while doing them. Had the
contestant's brother hold the phone by his face and count for him while our
"guru" sang "Jimmy Crack Corn." After about 20 push-ups,
this guy was gasping - took him nearly 4 minutes, but he finally did 'em. Funny
bit with great audio. Good for any early morning.
RADIO WHEEL OF FORTUNE
We tell them the category, how many words,
number of letters in each word. Callers have to get a consanant before they can
ask for a vowel, and they can't guess two vowels in a row. A wrong guess at the
answer, or a wrong letter means "goodbye" and we hang up. Usually the
answer is something or somebody we have talked about on the show recently.
REVERSE CUPID
This is probably one of the best stunts we've
done in a while. Huge listener response! We solicited for people that wanted to
break up with their boyfriend/girlfriend the day before the actual stunt. The
next day we sent stunt boy out dressed in a ridiculous costume, that was way
too small, to the victim's door. We had him read poetry with "break
up" verses. The lady's response was great.
WORD TENNIS
Conference two people on the air and give them a subject such as "vegetables." The first player gives the name