RELENTLESS RADIO

 

Author:	Dave Cruse
Published:	September, 2000

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I don't want you to panic, but there are now less than 90 shopping days until Christmas! Now that might not sound like anything to be concerned about for many of you, but consider that when I originally sat down to right this article there were over 100. Now you begin to understand.  Time is passing me at an incredible rate these days. I'm nowhere near ready for the holiday season. My wife, on the other hand, has already gotten several gifts crossed off this year's list. That's why she's in charge of Christmas shopping. She always gets the right thing and with plenty of time to spare. I'm responsible for buying one gift, hers, which I did manage to purchase early last year. I bought it on December 21st. She loved it, by the way. The truth is, I love Christmas. The problem is, I live in Florida. Right now, it's 85 with nearly 80% humidity. The high today should be about 92. We're having a cool spell. It's hard to get in the Holiday spirit when you could roast the Christmas Goose in your Honda. So how do I inspire myself to come up with some good Christmas prep before the first hint of autumn [which should be somewhere around the next ice age]? The answer my friend is: music. Yes, music is the key to putting me in the Christmas mood. In my CD player right now are three of my favorites, Bing Crosby's White Christmas, Phil Driscoll's Heaven and Nature Swing and The Glen Miller Band, In the Christmas Mood . With the tunes cranked and the thermostat set at about 62, I can almost smell the logs burning in the fireplace. Now, lets find some ways to help our listeners find the Christmas fuzzies in the midst of the Holiday hustle and bustle. Christmas is the most sentimental and nostalgic of all the Holidays. It's also, to many, the most sacred. The problem is that it can be just as hard for our listeners to capture the joy of the season, even after Thanksgiving, as it is for me to find it in the midst of the Florida tropics. There are just too many distractions today. Add to that the pressures that modern man places on himself and you'll see that people have a real hard time slowing down long enough to enjoy the most wonderful time of the year. You can help. Create a "Holiday Oasis" on the radio. Make your show a perpetual Christmas Party, and I mean a family gathering, not an office party. When I was a kid, there was a shopping plaza in Baton Rouge [my hometown] called Delmont Village. Every year they put up an elaborate window display that recreated Santa's workshop. They used simple motorized elves and it was a must for the kids to see every year. Dress the "windows" of your show. Do some holiday edits on your jingles. You can do anything from adding sleigh bells to using drops from classic Christmas specials or movies or even taking the beds from a music library and editing them right into the front end of your jingles (provided the keys match). Now get into the swing of things yourself and share your enthusiasm for the holiday with the listeners. Sure there are always a few Grinches in the audience, but most people love Christmas and are just in need of your help to escape the holiday stress and revel in the cheer. We don't want to be Scrooge; we want to be Tiny Tim. Here are a few of the ideas for creating that holiday atmosphere that I've come up with while the CD's cycled through. I present them in their raw state. Take anything you like and run with it. If something really works for you, I'd like to hear about it. 1. Bring a VCR into the studio, invite some guests and watch a great Holiday classic during the Morning Show. You don't have to play much of the audio on the air, maybe favorite scenes, "as they happen" then push it back into the background. Just let it run as a sub-text to the show. Do trivia questions from the show and use the audio to verify the correct answer. Discuss with co-host and guests why this is one of their favorites. Open phones and let listeners chime in with favorite shows of their own, or favorite scenes from the show you're watching. Get someone to cater breakfast or you cook it in studio and call it Breakfast and a movie.   2. Have listeners call in favorite Christmas memories and have a few on hand from artists to sprinkle into the mix.   3. Send your partner or a "monkey boy" from the Morning Show to the biggest Mall in town on the Day after Thanksgiving. Have them drive the station van and reserve the best parking space in the lot, then give it up to the first shopper to show up with a station sticker or special holiday phrase or something. Keep the van in the lot for the duration of the show, circling and calling in every time they find a great spot to giveaway.   4. Give 2 listeners with some personality and shopping pride each $50 and see who can put together the nicest gift package. Then use them as prizes and give each of the shoppers some gift certificates from the mall merchants for their trouble. Alternate idea; have them present their packages to each other.   5. Ask listeners to help you come up with the perfect gift for your spouse/boss/mom, whatever.   6.Spend a Morning at the mall wrapping presents for free. See if you can get someone to create special wrapping paper for your station. 7. Offer a gift exchange program on the Morning Show.   8. Bring a recorder to the mall and record your own shopping experience. See if you can find a "Personal shopper" to help you. Turn it into an on air bit a la Letterman.   9. Bring a group of Carolers into the studio to sing you in and out of breaks. Offer to call someone at home or work and have the carolers sing for him or her on the phone. It takes the door to door caroling idea to a whole new realm.   10. Ask listeners to phone in with tips on where to find the hard to get items and best prices on the hot toys.  Well, there you have a few ideas. I'd probably come up with a few more, but the CD's have all run out and I'm fairly certain that the AC has frozen up. Do what you can to help people find the Christmas Spirit this year. Have fun, rejoice in the warmth and fuzziness of the memories, but most of all, make sure that you don't lose the sacredness of the season as well. In the middle of it all, we can sometimes end up like Charlie Brown, shouting at the top of our lungs, "Doesn't anybody know the real meaning of Christmas?" Now, a free Christmas CD to the first person who can tell me who answers the question and where that answer is found.

 

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