***Use Your Imagination--and vast resources of internet. Got a spaghetti dinner coming up at your church that you want to plug on air? Are you wondering just how you give a spaghetti dinner some radio "sex appeal?"

"Go to internet," says veteran morning drive personality Sonny Melendrez. "Look up spaghetti. Talk about history of spaghetti on air. Keep your tongue firmly planted in your cheek, and make up whatever you want. Look up food jokes. Church jokes. Put it to work for you in a fun way."

And don't worry, you'll get your chance to give important details...date, time, place phone numbers, etc...

Do these things and you'll be amazed how often you're invited back...and how often you start getting invitations from other stations. Remember what Reggie Jackson said about "birds on a wire." Keep that in mind, and you'll soar to new heights as a popular radio guest.

Among news decision-makers this is called, selling store, not story.

In other words, people who want publicity often try to sell their product (the store), when they should be trying to sell a story connected to their product.

Getting media coverage on any given day is something of a crapshoot. But you’ll increase your chances enormously if you offer media stories that contain one or more of following elements:

They’re controversial and/or timely. They raise eyebrows. They affect large numbers of people. They deal with pocketbook issues. They feature dogs and kids. They show David beating Goliath. They highlight milestones, records, and firsts. They introduce new ideas and technologies.

When I worked as a TV anchor at KMSP TV in Twin Cities in late 70’s, one of our competitors, WCCO, ran a great promotion campaign that I’ve never forgotten because it reduced nature of news to its essence.

They boasted, "We tell you what you need to know, and what you like to know."

When you’re pitching an idea to someone in media, ask yourself "Why is this something people need to know or would like to know?"

If you have a good answer to that question, you'll find it easy to "sell story, not store" to news decision-makers. And when you accomplish that, they'll get that story on air or in print--where thousands of potential customers will see it.