As a radio fan growing up in San Diego it was impossible not to note some great radio promotions, and some not so great. I think the biggest success was the simple "KGB School Spirit Contest". Anyone in high school during that promotion will remember endlessly signing petition after petition to show that your school had the greatest spirit. It came to be a blight among educators. Petitions were seized, signing was banned. Education ground to a halt. I don't recall what school actually won, nor how many thousands of signatures they presented. Pity the person who had to count the entries! I think that promotion pre dated the Boss Radio days, it doesn't seem like something that would have fit in. One promotion that didn't click was from KDEO shortly after it went on the air--you taped "KDEO" on your back when you tanned, so KDEO would read white on your tanned back. Its memorable as a rather weird idea...kind of like dropping turkeys on Thanksgiving. Got any other memorable promotions?
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Memorable Promotions
- Thread starter Lopaka
- Start date
KCBQ's "The Last Contest" is probably the king of them all...but Q did a bunch of memorable stuff from 1971-1975 or so.
The KCBQ Reunion back in the early '90's at the Mission Valley Marriott. It was amazing the way they built the complete studio in the ballroom of the hotel and ran the entire station from there with all the old jocks coming in and doing an hour of their shows during their respective dayparts. The old jingles, old news guys, old music, etc. Then they had a "sock hop" afterwards, gave away a couple of 1964 Mustangs. It was a wonderful trip down memory lane and organized better than any promotion I had/have ever witnessed in San Diego radio. Happy Hare, Charlie & Harrigan, Phil Flowers, Mason Dixon, Shotgun Tom, Gene Knight, Jerry jackson, Gary Allyn, Jack Vincent, etc etc etc. Even had call-ins from Lee Baby Sims, Richard Mock, Bobby Ocean, Charlie Tuna, Buzz Bennett. If you were a San Diego radio fan then this was truly an amazing 18 hours of radio history.
michael hagerty said:
Hey, what about "KCBQ is about to become 'A thing of the past?"
I used to have that on an old aircheck tape somewhere.
Oh, I know this isn't exactly a "promotion" per se, but what about those "Remarkable Mouth" spots that seem to creep up every few years. I LOVE those! I remember when KBest95 brought them back in the 90s, and I hear KPRI used them back in the day. I've also seen them in other markets (WZLX FM in Boston used them in 2000).
And also, Star 100.7's "Its all you need to put on," spots. Those were pretty clever!
The KGB Chicken was incredibly successful. Also the KGB sky show and the series of Homegrown Albums. These were the kind of promotions that kind of went beyond radio, they became a part of or influenced the whole community.
The mom of a friend of mine had been the Chicken's (Ted Gianolous') teacher at Hoover. One day she was attending a Padres game and Ted in his chicken outfit recognized her and went up for a pleasant chat and a little clowning around. She was so totally middle class, so proper and straight laced, could pass for elderly, seeing her clown around with The Chicken was incongruity personified.
The mom of a friend of mine had been the Chicken's (Ted Gianolous') teacher at Hoover. One day she was attending a Padres game and Ted in his chicken outfit recognized her and went up for a pleasant chat and a little clowning around. She was so totally middle class, so proper and straight laced, could pass for elderly, seeing her clown around with The Chicken was incongruity personified.
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