Brian Wright “Christmas Ideas”

Listener Engagement Promotions

• 12 Days of Kindness: Each day, the station highlights good deeds, encourages listeners to share acts of kindness, and rewards select participants with sponsor prizes.
• Christmas Secret Sound: A daily game featuring mysterious festive audio clips for listeners to guess, with local business vouchers as prizes.
• Xmas Wish Come True: Listeners nominate children to receive their favorite gift they hope for this Christmas. Then you give your listeners the opportunity to make that dream come true with their donations that morning, or other daypart,
• Christmas Music Personal Playlist: This is where listeners call in and request their 3 favorite Christmas songs and you play them. You can have 2-3 each hour. WMG Christmas Music Guarantee: This is where you guarantee to play one of their all time favorite Christmas songs ever 15 minutes.
• WMG Holiday Ice Blocks: This branding goes in to a 2-3 song block of Christmas music. 
• Participatory Playlists: Invite your audience to co-curate the ultimate Christmas soundtrack through polls or social media votes.
• The WMG Great Holiday Gift Exchange: This is where your listeners exchange gifts with each other on the air and on line. ​This is where Jessica has a new Pickle ball paddle and ball set to trade and Kathy is the first to call in to trade her new toaster oven. 

Community Outreach and Charity

• The Great Christmas “Special Delivery”: Listeners nominate struggling families, and your team secretly fills their homes with gifts and essentials. You can record reactions for on-air storytelling. ​
• Christmas Wish Campaign: Grant small listener wishes daily. You can cover groceries, bills, or gifts, to bring the community together through heartfelt stories.
• The 12 Strays of Christmas: Partner with a local animal shelter to promote pet adoptions during December.
• The listener Treasure-of-Toy Drives: Partner with local charities for donation drives, encouraging on-air pledges and live event coverage. ​
• Sponsor Local Christmas Events: Collaborate with parades, concerts, or lighting ceremonies for brand visibility and goodwill. ​

Holiday Programming Specials

• Christmas Countdown Show: A daily December countdown featuring festive trivia, listener memories, and song dedications.
• Holiday Storytelling Hour: Air listener-submitted Christmas stories, children’s tales, or celebrity readings. ​
• Best of the Year Retrospective: Highlight your most memorable on-air moments, interviews, and listener quotes from the past year.

Localized & Sponsor-Friendly Ideas

• We Shop For You: Have listeners submit their hardest-to-shop-for friends; your station finds and gifts the perfect local product, sponsored by a retailer. ​
• 12 Trees of Christmas: Decorate trees at local partner locations, each themed by a sponsor, with listeners voting for favorites. ​
• Charity Concert or Virtual Carol Sing-Along: Partner with local musicians for a live-streamed or in-person holiday music event.
• Holiday Hampers Giveaway: Collaborate with small businesses for prize bundles of local goods promoted on-air and social media. ​

On-Air and Digital Enhancements

• Refresh your station imaging and jingles with holiday IDs and sound effects like sleigh bells or festive drops. ​
• Temporarily rebrand your social pages and website with Christmas visuals and interactive polls.
• Post daily holiday blogs or reels—like “Top 10 Christmas Songs” or “Behind-the-Scenes at the WMG Christmas Studio”.

Instead of having days of just music and imaging over the holidays, get the entire on air and promo team together to record a number of group conversations about the Christmas holidays. You can call it Back Stage at the WMG Christmas Party.

Brian is a 30 year radio veteran who has successfully served many companies over the years as Program Director, Operations Manger and VP of programming and consultant with Wright Media Group. For the last 15 years Wright has enjoyed building alliances with scores of stations in the US & Canada helping them grow in ratings and revenue.  Contact Brian at brianw6187@aol.com.