A couple of weeks ago I was teaching a video storytelling workshop in Nashville, Tenn., for the Tennessee Broadcasters Association. I was chatting with Dennis Banka, a participant from a small radio station (WUCZ-FM/WKRM-AM) in Carthage, Tenn.
Dennis told me about an idea he dreamed up that:
- Costs nothing to produce.
- Makes money from tapes that would otherwise be sitting in the drawer gathering dust.
- Makes everyone happy.
For decades, Dennis' station has been broadcasting Friday night high school football games. And for all those years, the station has recorded the games as they aired live.
Dennis wondered if anybody would listen to those old games. So in the off-season, the station began playing football games from, say, 20 years ago.
It turns out that the 40-year-olds of today love to listen to their glory days. And those 40-year-olds now are the community business leaders, so naturally they buy ads for the flashback games.
I recorded a quick little interview with Dennis during one of the breaks in our workshop. Take a look:
