The Industry

Holy Aunt Josephine! It has been quite a break without some blog posts, however I am back and with a bunch of great stuff for you. One thing that hasn’t been shared for awhile is advice from industry professionals, so let’s start there.

A couple weeks ago Mr. Palmer (my supervisor at JACK FM) sent me this incredible write up as a behind the scenes look at the promotion realm of a radio station and I have to say I had no idea. I had no idea that Todd had his own promotions company or hosted speed dating (although, it doesn’t surprise me, he’s that diverse) or that it was even possible to lose a $7000 inflatable pig but more on that later. Todd sent me a lot of great stuff so I’m going to spread it out between today and tomorrow and if you want to read more from Todd’s brilliant mind you should check out his promo blog here: The Promo Report.

I want to preface the rest of this post with the fact that Todd is the equivalent of a Promotions MacGyver. Give him a paperclip, a garbage bag and a grilled cheese sandwich and before you know it you have a quality contest that no one else would ever think of.

“Mitch:

Thank you very much for this opportunity to contribute to The Radio Industry.  You have a lot of excellent content and I love that you’ve added a podcast component to your Sure Shots feature; outstanding work! 

I am definitely not the appropriate guy to give advice in regards to being on-air.  Most of my experience involves cut-ins or interviews.  I guess that’s kind of a lie; my lady and I co-hosted a hip hop show on 92.7FM the Trent University Radio Network in Peterborough, Ontario (ON).  Before that, my good friend iLL vibe and I co-hosted an internet radio show called Noizy North radio. Basically, my on-air experience is almost zilch.  But if you want to talk promotions, Todd Palmer is your man. 

My education involves a 2 year advertising Diploma.  The majority of my professional experience is in club/concert promotions and event planning. However, I have worked many different jobs from Randy River as a sales associate, to Canadian Forces Base Borden cleaning toilets, to Promotions Director/Host at a night club, to Promotional Rep on a National sampling tour for Imperial Margarine, to owning my own promotions company, to hosting speed dating, to booking promotional staff for Coors Light and Maxim… honestly, this could go on.  In 2007 I entered the radio industry as the Promotions Director of Central Ontario Broadcastings’ Rock 95.

This experience was amazing.  Dave Carr, the Program Director (also for 107.5 Kool FM) is the man.  He was my direct boss.  He empowered me to create a personal ownership over the promotions department which was truly inspiring and allowed me to perform my job better.  I present to you the 3 most notable experiences during my existence at Rock 95.

1.     The Birthday Bash: The most anticipated event of the year in Simcoe County, ON.  Over $100,000 in cash and prizes, 2 fairly prominent Canadian bands performing, 2 months of giving away passes to incredible listeners who would sell their souls to the devil to get in, 1100 in attendance, and it was my baby to run.  Obviously I couldn’t have done it without excellent team of on-air announcers,  amazing sales department, wicked creative and production department, an awesome promotional staff, and of course Dave Carr! Basically, everything else throughout the year was keep busy work until it was bash time, I LOVED this event.

2.     The Housing Winning Party: hahaha, we gave away a quarter of a million dollar house.  Seriously, not just for one year…total ownership for life.  So, myself, a sales rep, and of course Dave Carr were having a meeting about giving away an “extreme guys garage” type package for ratings. I cockily said “Why don’t we just give away what the garage is attached too?” which Dave and the rep responded to with joyous glee. The sales rep went and made a call; came back and said “The guy is in to it.” The next four months of our lives at Rock 95 was amazing.  We used the exact same structure as the Birthday Bash except instead of tons of people winning big prizes; one person would win a house.  The House Winning Party was at Georgian College in Barrie, ON.  1500 people gathered in front of a massive replica of the front of the house they might win.  30 names were drawn over an hour and a half.  Then those 30 people had to pick a key out of a fish bowl, walk up to the door attached to the façade of the house, insert the key in the lock, turn it and see if they could open the door to their new home. This entire experience was exhausting and amazing and if you want to hear more you’ll have to email me.  It’s way too long and involved way too much insanity.

3.     Losing a $7000 Inflatable Pig and turning it into National/International media exposure: Worst day of my life turned into, potentially the best exposure Rock 95 has ever seen.  So the owner, Doug Bingley bought a replica of the Pink Floyd inflatable pig. As the Promotions Director, I was like “yey…this will be dangerously exciting”. When fully inflated, it was the size of a small shed.  We had to transport it in the back of a Uhaul.  Seriously, this thing was a massive pink nightmare.  So, it’s Canada Day and we’re setting up at the downtown celebration; lots of people around.  We’re inflating the pig with the standard quadrillion gallons of helium. As this is happening, we notice there is a problem with the chains that secure the pig to the rope which we hold to fly it properly. It honestly looked like someone had added some random extra clip which had tied the chains in a knot which was causing the pig to float weird. Of course, I made the executive decision to get the clip the hell out of the way. I now realize that, the clip that had tied the chains in a knot; did so for a purpose.  As the pig reached the amount of helium it required to begin its majestic ascension, the knot in the chain untied (exactly where the clip I removed was), the ropes “came untied like a shoelace”, fell to the ground and off floated the pig on what would become a remarkable voyage.  Obviously, I felt like I was going to puke, then be fired, and then puke again.  However, the weeks following this ridiculous accident resulted in an interview on CBC, local newspapers across Ontario picking up the story along with a few of the majors The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star.  Plus, the story found its way to the UK and the US.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ACTUAL CBC NEWS CLIP

Todd PalmerPromotions Coordinator
Ocean 98.5/103.1 JACK FM

TO BE CONTINUED…(TOMORROW)”

Like I said Todd has had quite the interesting road to where he is now. I can honestly say that I have never had to chase an inflatable pig down the street. The closest I have ever got to a radio station pig would be this:

Beautiful right? This is just the start to Todd’s blurb, the rest will be up tomorrow so make sure to check back. If you want to get in touch with the Promotions Guru to pick his brain you can find him on twitter: @TPalms.

-Mitch