Among the questions that I’m asked, like “Have you been drinking, sir?” and “Who does your hair?” is “What do you think the best promotion was?”
That’s subjective. If you asked a GM and a PD and a talent and a Sales Manager and a listener that question, you’d get five different answers. And they’d all be right.
My answer, today, at this moment, on a sunny afternoon in Minnesota as I take a break from trying to discern the directions for a new hammock, would be “The Xtreme Radio beach house in Honolulu.”
There was a point in history when MTV played videos and they did contests that should have been on the Radio. Giving away a pink house? Please. Totally a radio contest. Having Prince come and take you to a movie screening? Radio contest. So when they did a beach house in 1998, I immediately thought, “radio promotion” and quickly lobbed it at all of the Clifton stations.
It took a couple of months but Xtreme Radio in Honolulu took it on and hit it out of the park.
- They got a summer rental on the north shore from Memorial Day to Labor Day. And it was pretty amazing. It was surrounded by a wall, had a pool and grotto, was three terraced floors high, and had a basketball court and a huge lawn.
- They did one shift a day from there.
- 300 listeners were invited to come out and hang out every day.