Thanks to Jeff Crilley, an Emmy Award-winning TV reporter from Dallas, Texas for letting me excerpt this tip from his ezine:
A disc jockey in Dallas named Alan Kabel knew he couldn’t fight the media attention being given to opening day for the Texas Rangers. So he came up with an angle to complement the coverage–and suddenly it was a whole new ball game.
Alan sent out a news release announcing that in a show of support for the Rangers, he and his morning show co-host would be sitting in every seat in the ballpark on the day before opening day.
Pure publicity stunt, right? You bet it was. But you know what? It was so timely no one could pass it up. To use a baseball analogy, Alan hit a grand slam. Every TV station in town showed up to cover his stunt.
Alan knew the TV folks would be out at the ballpark that day anyway doing a preview of opening day, and all of them would be looking for an angle. It was either get video of Alan going from seat-to-seat in the 50,000-seat ballpark or interview the head groundskeeper on field conditions.
He had the right story at the right time. If he had tried it on opening day, the game itself would have overshadowed his stunt. Two days before–he would have been too early. The day after opening day? Too late. When it comes to news, timing is truly everything.
Jeff’s book Free Publicity, chock full of ideas just like this one, is available at http://www.jeffcrilley.com
OK, Hounds, so you’re going to steal Alan Kabel’s idea. No problem. Just make sure you know how to get through to the right person at your local TV station. “How to Get Booked on the Local TV News Tomorrow” tells you how to know exactly which person inside each TV newsroom makes the decision about what gets on the air. The CD or electronic transcript explains how to pitch, the kinds of other ideas TV stations are hungry for, and how to get great coverage for holidays, seasonal events and even business topics. Read more about what you’ll learn at http://tinyurl.com/4zpuz
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