Question for Ask The Experts: My station has no prize budget at all. I’m constantly begging sales to come up with something worthwhile to offer as prizes for games and contests but they usually come up with nothing or something worse than nothing. Is it okay to play games without prizes?
Answer: There’s a difference between contests and games. Contests are tactical events designed to trick likely rating respondents into listening more and spiking the ratings. Games are designed to engage the audience and make your show more entertaining.
The short answer is “yes,” but there are pros and cons to playing games without prizes. Here are the details:
