The 40th anniversary of the Live Aid concerts was a big story everywhere, but it continues to cast an especially large footprint in the UK, spawning a musical called Just for One Day in London’s West End and also prompting one of the 10 best promotions of the year, according to promotions chronicler Niall Power, also the PD/morning host of CHR Beat 102/103 Waterford, Ireland.
Power again presented his list of the Top 10 promotions of the previous year at Radiodays Europe, this year held in Riga, Latvia, in March. My favorite was Greatest Hits Radio’s Live AID Relived. The UK Classic Hits network, profiled several time in these pages, celebrated the Live AID anniversary by replaying the historic 10-hour concert in real time, punctuated with documentary audio from attendees.
With each year’s list, I always end up noting again the lack of North American radio promotions. The last U.S. station to make the list, pre-COVID, was XHTZ (Z90) San Diego eight years ago. While it seems that there’s less here to discuss in the text-to-win era, if you feel Powers is missing a great promotion, please leave a comment below, or e-mail him here. (There’s no need in this case for standard message and data rates to apply.)
Q Radio Netherlands: Wanted – One of two promotions that nod to reality TV (or, depending on how far you trace similar contests back chronologically, anticipate it). The Adult CHR’s afternoon host Damien had 100 hours to find morning host Marieke. Listeners bet on the exact time of the capture to win €10,000. At this writing, the UK’s Top 40/Dance outlet Kiss FM is doing a similar promotion with morning co-host and former Love Island star Chloe Burrows.
Willy FM Belgium: The Willy Chalet – The rock outlet has a playlist that spans Rolling Stones to Lola Young. Its entire airstaff lived together and competed on challenges at a station vacation house. The listener who correctly guessed the competition’s ultimate winner got to use the chalet for Christmas and bring up to 17 guests.
Today FM Ireland: Mayhem on Today FM – Ireland’s top comedian, Mario Rosenstock, also a morning-show member, became the “new CEO” of the eclectic AC network and announced that there would be “more chaos and less Sabrina Carpenter.” That meant various station hosts crashing each other’s shows — e.g., middayer Dave Moore walking in on 40-year morning host Ian Dempsey in an Elmo costume.
Radio 886 Austria: Tattoo-gether – The Austrian heritage-rock outlet brought in 20 tattoo artists to ink 100 listeners last summer with the station logo and slogan. (The listeners, at least as seen in the station video, were often middle-aged and getting their first-ever tattoo.)
Joe FM Netherlands: License Plate – The radio-station bumper-sticker stop may be gone, but the Classic Hits station did find hundreds of listeners who were willing to drive in to get a customized license-plate holder. The station’s current promotion has listeners waiting to hear the word “money” in any song lyric, which is their cue to enter via station app.
Beat 102/103 Waterford, Ireland: Daily Dilemma Uncensored Live – A benchmark feature of the Hot AC station’s morning show was first spun off into a podcast that allowed for edgier topics (“my boyfriend is loud during sex”), but then for heavily attended live tapings. The station has already announced a summer festival appearance, sharing the bill with the Human League and the Vengaboys!
Love 102.8 Crete: The Love Café – The AC station opened a live studio, not in the law offices of 1-800-INJURY, but in a hotel lobby. There’s also a podcast hub, which listeners can use for free, and a café. So far, there have been 20,000 visitors in a market of 140,000 people.
Hits FM UK: Match Ball — The Hot AC network’s Sam Thompson ran and cycled 260 miles to deliver the game ball for Soccer Aid, despite a calf injury. He raised €1.5 million and got a phone call from Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
KIIS FM Australia: Kyle & Jackie O’s $100,000 Ball Drop – The controversial morning team has been a staple on Powers’s annual listing, so their recent highly publicized breakup either means an extra opportunity for somebody else, or that they’ll be taking up two slots next year at their various stations. This was a relatively simple drop of tennis balls, redeemable for cash and jewelry prizes, at a Melbourne tennis court, part of the duo’s now ill-fated attempt to spread their show beyond Sydney. (The team previously appeared here with a giant mechanical rooster known as the “Cash C*ck.”)
I’ve already got one nominee for Powers’s 2027 presentation. Top 40 Edge FM New Zealand has teamed with a local glass repair shop for a morning-show promotion fueled, as it were, by skyrocketing gas prices. If a wheel lands on your car make, you win $5,000, which you can then risk for a second spin worth $50,000.
Funny thing is, totally independently, my “Greatest Hits” station (WISM/Eau Claire, aka “Greatest Hits 98.1”) did the same thing with Live Aid! We pulled together as many of the performances as we could that had decent audio (which was essentially everything), and played them all in real time from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Central time on July 13th last year. I do recall hearing about the U.K. Greatest Hits doing it after I was starting to plan our version and thought, “that’s what Greatest Hits radio stations do for Live Aid.” 🙂