Pop-quiz, hotshot: how long does it take to develop and execute an engaging, multifaceted interactive strategy that keeps your fans engaged, is fully integrated with multiple social media platforms, and gives you the ability to communicate on every level, ranging from individual messages up to mass announcements?

If you replied 3 weeks, you must work here. That’s right – just over 3 weeks ago, San Diego’s preeminent morning drive time radio show, Jeff & Jer, approached Bailey Gardiner with a problem – how could they keep their fans engaged with the show while they were off the air and looking for a new radio station to call home? The urgency of their need was driven by the fact that the show was only as valuable as the size of their audience – which would rapidly decline without constant updates and the ability to engage with the show outside of its primary vehicle, the radio.

That Jeff & Jer had a sizeable fanbase was obvious – their sudden departure from Star 94.1 around the end of August made headlines in the morning news and was the dominant topic of conversation around many a watercooler. The question on everyone’s mind was “What now?” Well, the folks here at BG burned a lot of brain cycles and came up with the answer: get Jeff & Jer “in the cloud” before they get back on the air. If we could establish a big enough and responsive enough online presence for the show, we could keep their fanbase ticking over and perhaps even grow it while they looked for a new station.

Thus, our work began (if this was a movie, the training montage scene would begin right about now).

• We trained them how to use Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and good blogging techniques
• We rebuilt their website, JeffAndJer.com as a flexible, fully multimedia-enabled blog that not only keeps their fans up-to-date, but also gives visitors plenty of ways to get their daily fix of the Jeff & Jer team’s antics
• And for that something extra, we remade the format of their show into something not seen since Wayne’s World: we swapped a cushy radio station studio for a garage, turning the show into “Live From Jerry’s Garage” – a weekly, half-hour show streamed live via webcam directly to their website. The show debuted Friday, October 2, to a live audience of hundreds, and so far has racked up over 2,000 post-broadcast views!

Despite all this, the question still remains: what now, for Jeff & Jer? We can’t say, but we did notice that they seemed to perform even better in front of a camera than they ever did with a microphone!