How about a spooky Halloween format flip?

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It's the scariest day of the year; no election day is next week; It's Halloween of course!

Only in the last 20 years has the Christmas-only format taken over markets across America, hugely increasing ratings for the station that was lucky enough to do it first and achieve critical mass recognition for it, usually AC or sometimes Classic Hits or Christian Contemporary.

A magazine survey last month found St. Nick to be number one in terms of consumer popularity and annual spending. Thanksgiving is a close second and Halloween is a close third. Most interesting? The demographic most likely to rate Halloween as their favorite theme and spend the most money on it, whether on decorations, costumes or accessories, are Millennials, particularly women (consumers aged approximately 25 to 45). Much like Christmas in pop culture, the traditions of celebrating Halloween, spooky hits, television and movies are endless, mostly dating back to the 1950s.

Legendary AC consultant Gary Berkowitz recently shared in his newsletter the clever idea of ​​sprinkling in some Halloween-themed images and songs in the days leading up to, and certainly on, the day. Observing the absolute explosion of Halloween in the culture, I would suspect that radio is missing a huge opportunity to potentially reach a younger audience, especially for stations that tend to target older or more pushy stations. (Sidebar: House of Mouse completely transforms the Disney parks, theming many of their attractions for two full months of the year).

Certainly radio could make greater use of Halloween to generate NTR, with additional sponsorships, events, concerts, website/studio renovations, special station vehicles, broadcast booths in a haunted house – the possibilities are endless. As for the music, there are some real Halloween classics, with plenty of side and oh-wow tunes thrown in for good measure too.

It's easy to say there's no equivalent to Christmas music, but there are about 20 of them that turn out to be superpowers, and then lots of alternate versions and filler; Halloween is no different. Now, I'm not sure an all-Halloween format is sustainable for six to eight weeks, as most holiday networks dare to do, but I think two weeks, perhaps from October 1st to October 31st, is worth the gamble .

The fun of spooky images with excerpts from a variety of horror films, specials and television shows, musical beds and sound effects, true mental theater reminiscent of the beginnings of radio.

At a time when radio is struggling to capture attention, particularly among listeners under 50, an innovative effort like an all-Halloween radio station would be a calculated risk that would attract press and buzz and a lot of otherwise non-existent revenue and marketing opportunities would likely lead to a bump in ratings, particularly during Halloween week itself. A direct transition to Christmas on November 1st could be a strong one-two punch. Truck or treat!

Here is an example for an hour:

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

Someone is 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 VP of Programming for 99.7 and 107.1 The Boss. He also hosts the morning show “Robby and Rochelle” with his wife Rochelle. He has been with the company/stations since September 2021.

Prior to coming to New Jersey, Robby worked for decades across the country in many top markets for many highly successful brands. These include Z100, WPLJ and Q102. He has also worked in Detroit, Boston, Providence, Portsmouth, NH and served as exclusive guest host for Scott Shannon on the True Oldies Channel.

To get in touch with us, you can reach Robby by email at [email protected].