Cool Cars

74° - scattered clouds at 12:30pm

In the last few months - we've seen lots of Harley giveaways, Jeep and Hummer promotions - even boats and jet skis.

While there's no doubt all those make great giveaways - I think a classic car makes for a cool giveaway; and the right one can stir up some emotions and memories in your listeners.

Vehicles also make for a great sales opportunity as they can travel from remote to remote - generating revenue during the summer months. Here's a few promotions currently happening in Classic Rock radio:

KKCD/Omaha has classic '71 Monte Carlo for their listeners to win. If it wasn't "cool" in '71, it can fall into that class now. More here.

In Kalamazoo, WRKR has an awesome vehicle: a '67 Camaro. Very sweet and very cool. See here.

Maybe a '75 AMC Pacer could be cool enough to giveaway to listeners. Just thinking. Hey - there's no bad ideas when you're brainstorming....

Live tracks & a rewind weekend

Partly Cloudy/61° at 8:20am

Good Morning.

I wrote yesterday that I did some listening while on the road over the weekend. Caught WDRV/Chicago's "Live Drive" Weekend. Pink Floyd's live version of "Run Like Hell" was the right song at the right time on I-80!

Doing "live track" weekends in the past, its been nice to throw in some surprises. I've got a collection of radio concert broadcasts and pulled individual tracks from it the past (promoted on-air as "live bootlegs"); including gems such as The Police performing "Message In A Bottle" live for the first time.

Add the proper staging and it makes a great classic rock radio experience.

Also listened a bit to the WLS/Chicago "Big 89 Rewind" special; a Top 500 Countdown on WRKR/Kalamazoo - and A to Z on WRCC/Battle Creek.

The WLS/Chicago "Big 89 Rewind" - which was a one-day revisit to its Top 40 past complete with much of its legendary air talent (though missing a few names as Dave Martin pointed out last week) - got me thinking how classic rock radio could pull off something similar.

Imagine bringing together a market's legendary AOR talent together to revisit the past - complete with old airchecks of stations that have come and gone.

In my head I hear the veteran air talent sharing stories of meeting the bands that now make up classic rock; great concerts that took place in the market - and perhaps remembering some great promotions. Disco demolition is one that comes to mind.

Apologies if you're from outside the Windy City - but having grown up there - I could imagine a station bringing together talent from the early days of WXRT, likewise with WLUP; perhaps the Bob Pittman AOR era of WKQX - the long-defunct WDAI, WGLD and WMET.

Perhaps add talent from the soft AOR days of WBBM-FM - or even Saul Smaizys - who had the long running "Triad" prog rock show on brokered WXFM (along with Triad Magazine).

There's so many names that come to mind between all the stations; maybe more than practical - but more than enough to make it work.

If your market has a cool AOR history - what could you do? And when its all over - what could you recycle for future use - either on-air or on your website - to enhance your image as the classic rock station in your market? All just a thought.

Later this week:

Wednesday (5/30) Ozzy Osbourne on ABC-TV's Jimmy Kimmel
Friday (6/1) Lindsey Buckingham on NBC-TV's Conan O'Brien