You now realize what total dick move that was, don’t you?
I heard the story that one of the Buffalo NY Tv stations did that. You sent in a postcard with your name address and phone number, they’d randomly draw and call. If you could tell them what was happening in the afternoon movie, you won a prize.
They’d announce “Today, we’re calling Mr. Smith at 123 Main Street” and then you’d hear the phone ring live in real time. They stopped announcing the address after they called, got no answer, and then someone broke into the house.
At a family Christmas party, where people randomly pick gifts - one girl drew a gift which included a scratch-and-win ticket which she scratched and instantly won $10,000. After she was done jumping up and down screaming, thinking her student debt was paid off, her brother had to tell her it was a joke ticket and the gift had actually been targeted at her older sister, who obliviously had not picked the gift he’d though she would go for…
They don’t do that gift thing any more.
Gee, SNL was his last job. I remember him mostly from the game shows where he would describe the item the contestants were playing for. “This luxurious sofa is covered in fawn brocade and features a built in liquor cabinet. It’s a Broyhill”. He always lowered his voice for the reveal, “It’s a Broyhill”, apparently as good as it got in game show land.
I have been known to throw that phrase into a conversation. Then everybody stares at me like I’m an idiot.
In Chicagoland…
…it was the contest that changed the way Chicago answered their telephones and sealed the station’s fame as the most listened to country station in the US. In order to win big money, listeners replaced “hello” with “WMAQ Is Gonna Make Me Rich!” At the time, it was considered the most expensive contest in Chicago radio history, with hundreds of thousands of dollars given away and over 1.5 million WMAQ bumper stickers attached to cars, trucks, bikes and busses. In one ratings book, the station went from 15th place to 3rd.
I don’t remember if you had to send in a postcard or not.
In the early days of radio, there would be a small number of high-powered AM stations which blanketed the market, and a lot of people would be accustomed to tuning in.
You do that well; I can almost hear it in Don’s voice.
When “Jeopardy” was on in the daytime, Pardo was the announcer – “… with your host, ART FLEMING!”
He was a very good fit for SNL.
In DFW, the station KVIL did a variation on this. They had a running total that you had to remember to get it. Every time someone missed, they added more to the prize. When someone won, a new starting amount would be picked. Amounts were always random, including dollars and cents, so you couldn’t calculate what the new total was.
It was very popular. When they ended it, they actually explained on air why they were ending it
On a very early “NBC’s Saturday Night,” Larraine Newman was reporting on some kind of disaster at the Blaine Hotel; later Pardo comes on with a PSA for the show, “Guests of ‘NBC’s Saturday Night’ stay at the fabulous Blaine Hotel in mid-town Manhattan. The Blaine, a landmark for almost a quarter century,” I thought I would never catch my breath, I was laughing so hard.
This happened at a Christmas party at work one year. The winner got REALLY excited and the boss (who gifted it as a sort of door prize) had to deliver the truth. Crickets. It really went over like a turd in a punchbowl.
I remember that. Wasn’t there one—some comedic news story, followed by Don Pardo saying “And the hijackers will receive American Tourister luggage. Amercan Tourister. Have we got a suitcase for you.” (Or whatever their tagline was; all I can think of is the gorillas commercial.)
Man, that sure sounds like something they would’ve done (that’s funny!). They did the Blaine Hotel thing three or four times over the course of a couple months, IIRC. Whoa, here comes one now (minus DP’s voiceover, durn it.)
And IIRC back in the day, the government went out of their way to ensure licenses were distributed so that there were a variety of interests, they were not all “Top Ten” pop radio. So there’s be maybe 2 or 3 of the rock radio stations in the market.
Things could get really concentrated in some places. E.g., KISN in Portland, rock station:
“During one rating book in 1963, the station held 86 percent of the audience.”
It’s dominance in promotions was considerable.
I’ve listened to plenty of comics talking about their time as DJs. Let’s just say some of the contests are not as on the up and up as you would hope. No one is looking over the shoulder of the night DJ to make sure he picks the 93rd caller. It wasn’t that tightly controlled to make sure it wasn’t the DJ’s friend that won that Motley Crue CD. I remember Ron Bennington talking about running a contest where the prize was a big trip to Europe. I’m thinking Ireland. As he tells the story he got to announce the winner, “Our big winner for the trip to Ireland is… my coke dealer!”
Now in the era of radio conglomerates they run some of the bigger contests like they run progressive slot machines. You think you have a better chance because you think at some point the jackpot will be hit. What they don’t make clear is that the jackpot is spread over hundreds of machines in dozens of locations and your chances of winning are almost zero. Some of the radio contests sound like it’s only in your city but are actually on in multiple markets with only one overall winner.
And then we have The Contest Nobody Could Win from WKRP. (I actually got #5!!)
Shades of Waking Ned Divine.
Jackie pays a late-night visit to the only absentee [of possible lottery winners]: the reclusive Ned Devine (Jimmy Keogh). He finds Ned in his home in front of the TV, still holding the ticket in his hand, a smile on his face and dead from shock.
A radio station in Baltimore did a contest like that, although they would play the sequence then you would call in. I think it was a nationwide fad at the time.