…and win 50 thousand dollars." So how does this work? here in Atlanta we have one radio station which is known for its huge cash giveaways, but I have always been curious about the mechanical logistics of such a contest. Anybody know?
Thanks
Quasi
I’ve always just assumed that they had a phone with 4 or 5 lines on it, which isn’t nothing unusual. And then they generally go through them pretty quickly. They pick it up say “Sorry you’re number 15” and then hang up. Maybe they say something nice before they hang up. And they just count up. Should take more then a few minutes. They just have to have a song that will definately cover the time. They go through till 98 and say congrats.
Yeah, it’s pretty much…
“KROK…”
“Hi, I-”
“-You’re 25.”
“Oh, f-”
click
“KROK”
“Hi-”
“You’re 26.”
“h-”
click
“KROK”
“Did-”
“No, you’re 27”
“oh.”
“Sorry.”
click
“KROK”
“…um-”
“You’re 28”
click
“KROK”
“…u-”
“You’re 29. Try again.”
click
…
“KROK”
“Hi. Did I get it?”
“This is gonna kill you… yyyyyou’rrrrrrrre 97!”
“Agh!”
“Iknowitsucksgottagobye.”
click
“KROK”
“Hi. Can I make a request?”
(Obviously someone’s not paying attention)
“Sure, go ahead.”
“Can you play some Skynnrd?”
“Sure, I’ll throw that on in a bit anything else?”
“Oh, uhh, maybe some AC/DC?”
“Uh huh” (Yeah, right!)
“And, can you dedicate it to my girlfriend?”
“Sure.”
“Cool, thanks!”
“No problem. Bye.”
click
“KROK”
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
“…uhh, what caller am I?”
“…Oh, you’re calling about the contest…”
“Yeah!”
“Well, you’re caller number 98.”
“REALLY?!?!?!?”
“Yup. Congrats! Hang on for a second, and I’ll get your details…”
I almost won one of those contests. Had to be caller 100. I called up and got “Z100, you’re 97. Click.”
I was devistated for weeks.
This might seem like a wierd suggestion, especially to radio programmers but it just seems that if you were to play the music people wanted to hear then you wouldn’t have to pay them to listen to your crappy station.
In defense of radio programmers, since i used to be one…
How many radio stations do you have preset on to your car and home stereo? I assume they’re all playing the music you “wanted to hear.” Now, how do I get you to choose MY station?
Radio programmers need defending.
In answer to your question Kunilou, exactly none of them. That’s just me though, I have unusually diverse and discriminating taste in music and the music I like has never gotten it’s due at radio, not due to it’s lack of commercial potential but more so to the lack of foresight (and, dare I say it, working ears) on the part of radio programmers and the consultants who claim to know what I want to hear. But not only are they unable to play the music I want to hear, they seem to specialize in music I DON’T want to hear. And I guess when you have 5 stations in one market playing the same freaking song I guess you need to resort to bribes to maintain your listenership.
Personally I think radio is why they invented car cd players.
As others noted, for the larger contests they just repeatedly pick up the phone and count the number of calls answered. However, I’ve seen a number of reports by DJs that sometimes, for smaller contests like the proverbial “Two tickets to the Foghat concert”, they might be swayed by your enthusiasm enough to decide that you in fact deserve to be “caller number X”, if it sounds like you’ll be so excited that you’ve won that you’ll make a good recording for them to play when they announce the winner.
Nowadays in the U.S. it is getting more common for numerous stations in different cities to combine to offer a single large prize. The individual stations usually don’t publicize this detail too much, but one clue is that you only can use a toll-free number, which allows them to take calls from multiple locations simultaneously.
Thanks for your responses.
Having worked in broadcasting myself, I know how important the “book” (ratings) is to a station. This will allows a station to get better advertising money and therefore hire better talent and generate more revenue.
I worked in a “small market” station years ago, and even then I knew that the listener can be very fickle. If you are giving something away, they will listen (Some even call and ask if you are giving something away in a particular hour), but a station will have to “buy” its listenership much of the time.
I asked my question because when I was a DJ at my little hometown station, we {i]did* pick up the phone and say, “You’re caller number 7, try again” etc.
until we got a winner. But I was wondering if with advanced communications systems, if one calls in to a “bank” of mechanically answered phones or if the further one is away from the station (yet still within toll-free range) makes a difference in getting through.
Thanks
Quasi
I used to be a DJ in a small market. Whenever we had contests I would say, “Be the x caller to win.” Then I’d just say “you’re 1, you’re 2” etc. But I hated that job, and thought the contests were stupid. So I would just take the second or third caller and say “You win”.
I always wondered if we could get in trouble for not holding an honest contest that way…
Heard that for the first time the other day.
“Be caller number pi at 1-800-555-AMFM to win!”
I instantly thought to myself, “WTF chance to do I have of being caller whatever now? They’re obviously running this contest simultaneously on all of their affiliates.”
Glad to hear I guessed right. 
I think I’d more worry about how I was going to make myself caller 3.14 