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

It’s only in the past twenty years that the All Christmas format has conquered markets across America, sending ratings through the roof for the lucky channel that did it first and earned the critical mass fame for it, usually AC or sometimes Classic Hits or Christian Contemporary.

A magazine survey last month found St. Nick ranked number one, based on popularity and the money consumers spend each year. Thanksgiving comes in second and Halloween is a close third. Most interesting? The demographic most likely to consider Halloween their favorite and spend the most money on it, whether on decorations, a costume or supplies, is millennials, especially women (that’s consumers between the ages of about 25 and 45) . Like Christmas in pop culture, the traditions of celebrating Halloween, spooky hit songs, television and film are endless and largely date back to the 1950s.

Legendary AC consultant Gary Berkowitz recently shared in his newsletter the wise idea of ​​sprinkling in some Halloween-themed images and songs in the days leading up to and especially on this day. Observing the absolute explosion of Halloween in the culture, I think radio is missing a major opportunity, especially for older or wavering stations, to potentially reach a younger audience. (Sidebar: The House of Mouse completely transforms the Disney parks and rethemes many of their attractions annually).

Certainly, radio could use Halloween more forcefully to generate NTR with additional sponsorship, events, concerts, website/studio overhauls, special station vehicles, broadcast booths in a haunted house, the possibilities are numerous. As for music, there are some bona fide Halloween classics that also test many secondary and oh-wow tunes.

It’s easy to say there’s no parity with Christmas music, but there are about twenty of them that test as superpowers and then a whole bunch of alternative versions and fillers; Halloween is no different. Now, I’m not sure if an all-Halloween format will last six to eight weeks, as most holiday stations will, but I do think two weeks, maybe October 1-31, is worth the gamble.

The fun of all the creepy images using clips from the huge amount of horror films, specials and TV, the music beds and sound effects, real theater of the mind that harkens back to the early days of radio.

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

Here is an example of a sample hour:

Ghostbusters – Ray Parker Jr

Spooky Classics IV

Bad Moon Rising-CCR

Vampire-Olivia Rodrigo

Devil Woman-Cliff Richard

Evil manners-Santana

Monster Mash – Bobby Boris Pickett

Someone’s watching me, Rockwell

Werewolves of London – Warren Zevon

Disturbia Rihanna

Strange Magic ELO

The Purple Man Eater-Sheb Wooley

Robby Bridges works for Press Communications, where he is 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.

Before arriving in New Jersey, Robby spent decades working across the country in many top markets for many highly successful brands. Among them are Z100, WPLJ and Q102. He has also worked in Detroit, Boston, Providence, Portsmouth, NH, and was an exclusive guest host for Scott Shannon on the True Oldies Channel.

To contact us, you can reach Robby by email at [email protected].