From Rock Art Shows to Ticket Stubs: Creative Promotions Radio Can Steal From Classic Rock

Let’s start this week’s post with a Classic Rock history lesson. I’m sure there are at least a few people reading this who remember 1992 when a gentleman named Scott Siegelbaum partnered with KSLX in Los Angeles for the first ever Rock n Roll Fine Art show. The event was a huge success. It gave the public access and an opportunity to purchase artwork both related to Classic Rock and created by Classic Rock artists.

After a five-year run in Los Angeles, Siegelbaum eventually took the show on the road. He partnered with stations across the country to give listeners a chance to buy unique, rare pieces of art related to the music they love while also generating non-traditional revenue for the stations.

I’m not suggesting that bringing the Rock Art Show back is the key to solving today’s revenue issues. But it wouldn’t be the worst idea either.

What got me thinking about the Rock Art Show is the video Pink Floyd released this week. It’s helping to kick off promotion for the Wish You Were Here boxed set which comes out on December 12th.

The video features the song “Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-9, New Stereo Mix)”. It is the first time all the pieces of the song have been together in one mix instead of split in half as bookends to the rest of the tracks on the Wish You Were Here album. The visual is British comedian, actor, and artist Noel Fielding, who has been a Pink Floyd fan since the age of twelve, painting an amazing likeness of Syd Barrett, the subject of the song.

If you haven’t seen the video you should. It’s mesmerizing. If you want to hear Fielding talk more about the painting you can see it here.

This release comes on the heels of “Dear Pink Floyd” a new poem written by Poet Simon Armitage. It was released last month as the first promotion for the boxed set. If you want to hear it, check out this video of Armitage reading the poem for the first time.

I also read an article in NME about a website that allows fans to generate facsimile tickets for any show. The idea came from Tim Burgess, lead singer of the band The Charlatans. He surveyed the group’s two thousand fans on X/Twitter where they expressed enthusiasm for the ability to create mementos of the band’s upcoming tour. Of course, with tickets being digital today, a true stub is not a common thing.

Burgess said the idea led them to look at old tickets where they learned there weren’t many templates that made it possible for the site to create a stub for nearly any show. Unfortunately, the band, and therefore the available templates, are British. But the idea doesn’t seem that impossible to recreate for the United States. If Burgess isn’t working on it, maybe someone can take the idea and create an American version.

I write all of this to hopefully inspire you. Too often in radio we think only in terms of audio when our listeners have five senses, not just hearing. When marketing budgets are low, we must rely on creativity to get attention beyond our existing cume. Maybe thinking in terms of art, like paintings and poetry, or other mementos like ticket stubs could lead to creative ways to create buzz without a budget. Whoever’s in charge of the 50th Anniversary Wish You Were Here boxed set certainly thinks so.

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Mike Stern

Mike Stern is a Classic Rock columnist and Features writer for Barrett Media. He has been with Jacobs Media consulting stations in the Classic Rock, Rock, Alternative and AAA world for more than a decade. Prior to that he programmed stations in Chicago, Detroit, Denver Las Vegas and other markets. He also worked as News/Talk Editor for Radio and Records, wrote about Top 40 Radio for Billboard Magazine and had his own radio talent coaching business called Talent Mechanic.