Radio Station Contests

Who says that radio station contests aren’t for real? Anyone?

Well, you do have to enter…. so last Friday I went to www.y1039.com and entered the National Gas Giveaway Contest for a $125.00 gas card. And then promptly forgot about it.

Imagine my surprise when Jim Shea called me Monday morning. I wasn’t surprised to hear from him, because just last week I had sent him an email about an advertiser whose website wouldn’t open when I (thought I) followed her URL. But Jim was calling to tell me that I was Monday’s Gas Giveway Winner. Yea! Whoopee!!! Huzzah!!!

One hundred twenty-five big bucks to go right down the drain; into my gas tank, that is.

So be sure to enter. And, every bit as importantly, listen to Y103.9. It’s a great station.

I was reminded of a radio contest in Denver 20 years ago, when the announcer said, “Send us a postcard, and we’ll send you to see Neil Diamond. So I did, and they did.

I had mailed in a postcard, and a couple of weeks later I was home on a Friday night when I received four calls to tell me my name had just been read aloud on the radio. I called in time to claim the prize: dinner for two, a limo ride to the concert, and the concert. And I ended up taking the assistant promotions director from the station!

Her instructions were to bring my wife to the radio station on Sunday night at 5:30PM. Sorry, no wife. “Well, bring your girlfriend.” Sorry, no girlfriend. And what did she say? “I’ll go!”

I hemmed and hawed, and she said, “You don’t know what I look like, so you’re not going to take a chance; right?” She invited me to meet her on Saturday at the grocery store where she was a week-end demo hostess. When I told her that I might, she quickly added that, if I didn’t introduce myself, then she’d know I went to the store but didn’t like what I saw. Before we hung up, we talked about an improvisational comedy group in Denver called Chicken Lips, where we both knew cast members.

She was demonstrating Grandma’s Egg Noodles at the store, and I noticed she was very nice looking and was having a great time with the customers. So I walked up and asked what was in the noodles. I noticed a flicker of possible recognition in her eyes, as she wondered whether I was the man whom she expected. She gave me a general answer and I said, “No, what’s in them?” So she named the ingredients. Then I said, “Oh, I remember eating those about two years ago. I got soooooo sick I had to go to the emergency room.”

Well, all the people standing around tasting the noodles were throwing away the samples, so I quickly added, “The only people who would eat Grandma’s Egg Noodles would go to see Chicken Lips.”

She (Debbie) made me explain who I was and then made me stand there for two hours and help her hawk the egg noodles.

When I showed up at the radio station the next day and greeted her, her fellow employees asked where my date was. “Right here,” I said. They told her she couldn’t go, because she was an employee, and she said, “Not tonight…” We had a great time, and 20 years later we are still friends.

So, enter those contests. Right now, go to www.y1039.com and Good Luck!