{"id":146665,"date":"2025-09-16T05:33:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T05:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/146665\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T05:33:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T05:33:16","slug":"the-low-budget-bangers-that-worked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/146665\/","title":{"rendered":"The low-budget bangers that worked"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

In radio \u2013 as in life \u2013 sometimes the cheapest and simplest ideas end up being the most effective.<\/p>\n

A sausage in a pot plant is a far cry from five million bucks buried under the sand at St Kilda Beach. But some of the most successful radio promotions of all time didn\u2019t rely on big ideas, big prizes or big budgets for that matter.<\/p>\n

Today we look back at a couple of classics you may or may not have heard of.<\/p>\n

Hide The Sausage<\/p>\n

Former radio and TV host Rob Elliott fondly remembers this thrifty and cheeky little promotion with a particularly memorable name.<\/p>\n

Hide the Sausage \u2026 and Win a Meat Tray was a contest which famously played out at both at Triple M Melbourne and KROQ \u2013 as it was then known \u2013 on the Gold Coast.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hilarious and very popular, the old sausage,\u201d Rob tells Radio Today.<\/p>\n

The promotion required some fancy footwork from legendary fellow Triple M announcer \u2018Captain\u2019 Karl van Est.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaptain would hide the sausage somewhere in Melbourne, we\u2019d give a clue every 30 minutes, then after the 6pm news, we\u2019d give a clue that would pretty much give away the location,\u201d Rob explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cKarl and the Thunders would be there waiting and whoever found the sausage first won a meat tray.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a classic case of radio mind games, Rob says the funniest place they hid the sausage was in a pot plant in the reception area of rival station 3KZ.<\/p>\n

Fair to say it got a few people off-side.<\/p>\n

\u201cApparently people were running through the station looking for it,\u201d Rob remembers. \u201cWe were threatened with legal action after that one. Priceless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broadcasts from the Islands<\/p>\n

3XY\u2019s Broadcasts from the Islands was another budget-friendly promotion which promised listeners a tropical experience at various islands with members of the on-air team.<\/p>\n

Perhaps hoping for a holiday to the Whitsundays or the West Indies, the winners packed their suitcases, all set for a tropical getaway. As it turned out, the \u2018islands\u2019 in question were traffic islands around Melbourne.<\/p>\n

The 3XY jocks were each assigned a different \u2018island,\u2019 and hosted their shows from there.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This promotion was a favourite of former 3XY presenter and now ARN host Craig \u2018Huggy\u2019 Huggins, who remembers \u201cWe did set up the islands like tropical resorts with blow-up palm trees and sun lounges. It was hysterical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fun and memorable. The very reasons these events, promotions and stunts are held in the first place. None of us really expect to win the Powerball jackpot, but a meat tray or a sun-filled holiday? Yes, I might be a chance.<\/p>\n

The simplicity of the promotions mentioned is also worth noting. There were not a lot of Ts &Cs involved.<\/p>\n

Times have changed but the underlying objective of radio promotions has not: keep the listeners you have and get them to listen longer \u2013 albeit with an ever-decreasing promotional budget.<\/p>\n

It is a challenge, but it is one that radio has always been good at.<\/p>\n

Is that hunger for the next great idea still alive and well?<\/p>\n

*Images: ARN and Facebook<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In radio \u2013 as in life \u2013 sometimes the cheapest and simplest ideas end up being the most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-146665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}