Back to School

I’m sorry to remind you of school while it’s still nice and warm. In my mind, we still have over a month left of summer, because school always started after the long Labor Day weekend. But my daughter starts her senior year next Friday, August 9th, and many schools are starting then or soon after, so here we are…

Back to school is a new beginning for anyone in school. And September always feels like a fresh start even if you aren’t in school! Now is the time to revisit those New Year’s resolutions or goals for the year and recommit to your most important priorities. 

Back to school ideas: 

  • If someone on the show has a child starting kindergarten, let them leave early to take their child to school. Do call-ins to share the emotional experience. I have heard too many hosts talk about missing important days like this. Instead, share an emotional experience that will deepen the connection between you and your audience.

  • Cash giveaways: Even if you don’t do a specific promotion for back to school, any giveaway of money can be positioned as helping with back to school. (Between electronics and school supplies, clothing and accessories, electronics and shoes, K-12 families spend an average of $800 on back to school shopping, according to the National Retail Federation. College students and their families will spend closer to $1360.)

  • Promotions: Give away a shopping spree; free haircuts; a limo ride to the first day of school; pimp someone’s dorm room. 

  • Socials: Buy a first day of school board and have each show player fill it out and post a pic. Have every show player show up on the first day of school with a new outfit, backpack and haircut. 

  • School movies and shows: Incorporate questions about school-themed movies and shows in your established benchmark games.  (High School Musical, Hairspray, The Holdovers, Good Will Hunting, etc.)

  • Name That Tune: Did someone on the show play in the band in high school? Bring the instrument in (trumpet, tuba, clarinet and sax work well!) and play songs from your station playlist. Listeners have to guess…

Back to school topics: 

  • What was the most important thing you learned how to do in kindergarten? (Tie your shoes, learn your right hand from your left, finger painting, etc.) 

  • Before you start college, learn how to ________. 

  • What does someone starting what you just finished need to know? 

  • What can you recite from school to this day? Examples: The order of the planets, or notes in music. (Is it Every Good Boy Does Fine or Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge?) 

Back to school advice: WRONG ANSWERS ONLY. 

  • What did you learn the hard way on the first day of school? 

  • Tales from the bus: If you took a school bus, what’s a funny memory? 

  • Is it a good idea to break up with a high school boyfriend before going off to university? 


Great topic for a college town: What do incoming students need to know? (For example, the best place to study, cheapest parking, best coffee, etc.)

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