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It’s the most frightening day of the year; no Election Day is next week; it’s Halloween, of course!
It’s only the past 20 years or so that the all Christmas format has swept markets across America massively bolstering ratings for the lucky station first to do it and earn the critical mass awareness for it, usually AC or sometimes Classic Hits or Christian Contemporary.
A magazine survey last month showed that, based on popularity and money spent annually by consumers, St Nick is number one. Thanksgiving is second and Halloween is a close third. Most interesting? The demographic most likely to rank Halloween as their favorite and to spend the most money on, whether it be decorations, a costume, or supplies, is millennials, particularly female (that’s consumers aged roughly 25-45). Much like Christmas in pop culture, the traditions of celebrating Halloween, spooky hit songs, television, and film are endless and date back to the 50s mostly.
The legendary AC consultant Gary Berkowitz recently shared in his newsletter the wise idea to sprinkle in some Halloween theme imaging and songs in the days leading up to and certainly on this day. Observing the absolute explosion of Halloween in culture, I’d suggest radio is missing a major opportunity, especially for older-skewing stations or flailing ones, to reach younger audiences potentially. (Sidebar: The House of Mouse completely transforms the Disney parks and rethemes many of their attractions for two full months annually).
Certainly, radio could be harnessing Halloween more forcefully to generate NTR with added sponsorships, events, concerts, website/studio overhauls, special station vehicles, broadcast booths out at a haunted house, the possibilities are numerous. As far as music, there are some bonafide Halloween classics that test plenty of secondary and oh-wow tunes as well.
It’s easy to say there is not an equivalence with Christmas music, but there are about 20 that test as superpowers and then lots of alternate versions and filler; Halloween is no different. Now I am not sure an all-Halloween format is sustainable for 6-8 weeks as most holiday stations will venture but I do think two weeks, maybe October 1-31 is worth the gamble.
The fun of all spooky imaging using clips from the vast swath of horror movies, specials and TV, the music beds and sound effects, true theater of the mind that harkens back to the earliest days of radio.
At a time when radio is struggling to grab the attention, particularly of listeners under 50, an innovative attempt like an all-Halloween radio station would be a calculated risk that would generate press and buzz, create lots of otherwise nonexistent revenue and marketing opportunities + likely lead to a ratings boost particularly the week of Halloween itself. A transition straight to Christmas following on November 1 could be a strong one-two punch. Truck or treat!
Here’s a sample hour example:
Ghostbusters-Ray Parker Jr
Spooky-Classics IV
Bad Moon Rising-CCR
Vampire-Olivia Rodrigo
Devil Woman-Cliff Richard
Evil Ways-Santana
Monster Mash-Bobby Boris Pickett
Somebody’s Watching Me-Rockwell
Werewolves of London-Warren Zevon
Disturbia-Rihanna
Strange Magic-ELO
The Purple People Eater-Sheb Wooley
Robby Bridges works for Press Communications where he serves as the VP of Programming for 99.7 and 107.1 The Boss. He also hosts the morning show ‘Robby and Rochelle’ alongside his wife, Rochelle. He’s been with the company/stations since September, 2021.
Prior to arriving in New Jersey, Robby spent decades working across the country in many top markets for many highly successful brands. Among them include Z100, WPLJ and Q102. He has also worked in Detroit, Boston, Providence, Portsmouth, NH, and served as an exclusive guest host for Scott Shannon on the True Oldies Channel.
To get in touch, reach Robby by email at RobbyBridges@hotmail.com.
