When conducting a phone-in contest, radio stations pretty much always award the prize to the seventh, the ninth, or the hundredth caller (or some other number) rather than the first. Why? The first caller is the obvious one to take, but it is rarely done.
Not taking the first caller makes sure that someone isn’t screwing around with the phone system to get in before everyone else.
Mostly, though, I think it gives the illusion of fairness.
The first caller might not be calling in for the contest. It could just be coincidence that they dialed the number at just that moment. On the other hand, if you stack up the incoming calls, a casual caller will hang up and not try right back, so you’re much more sure that the xth caller will actually be calling for the contest. The last thing you want is to say, “Congratulations! You won!” and have the person say, “Won what?”
WAG quotient of this post: 31.4%
I used to be in radio, and what’s been posted so far is correct.
I worked as an announcer at a fairly powerful station with a large broadcast area. When I even hinted at a contest the phones would light up instantly.
So in my case it was also the fact that I couldn’t possibly answer the phone that quickly. You see, unless a show is being run in delay (thereby allowing you to “bleep” inappropriate words) you can’t answer the phone live. You take the call after going off the air, perhaps recording it for replay later.
Isn’t a WAG broken down to tenths of a percentage point officially a SWAG (Scientific Wild-Ass Guess)?
Then there is the part that they want to take the caller that sounds excited so even if you are the 7th caller, if you sound like you don’t give a shit about winning, the DJ is going to tell you sorry… you are #6, try again and then take the next caller that will sound good on air.
I get my facts from a former radio man.
I had a friend who used to be in radio. He once told me that when you are told you are the ____ caller, you may or may not be the actual ____ caller. They had one contest in which you had to be the 1230th caller (matching the station’s frequency). They has already estimated how long is would take to answer the phone that many times and randomly answered with the appropiate number. Since all the lines were busy, the callers had no idea what caller they actually were.
I would not try to call to be the first caller. I know that since I don’t have the radio station on speed dial I will not be the first caller. I could be the seventh or tenth or what ever.
Assuming that was an a.m. station, they would have actually been at 1,230 kilohertz. They should have taken the 1,230,000th caller.
I remember that this was introduced in my teenage years because the same few people were always first caller for some reason. The radio station just started picking the fourth caller from memory.
I work in radio - I am in my 7th year in the biz. What has been said so far is correct. There is no real fairness in taking caller #1. If thats what we did it would likely just be whoever happened to be calling in to request a song at the right moment. By making it a higher number you give listeners who might not be sitting right by the phone a chance. Yes, we do have “professional prize winners” and taking a higher number decreases the chances it will be one of them. Ideally we strive to give our prizes away to the largest group of people possible - not the same 5 guys who have us on speed dial.
There has been a trend in the last 20 years or so to take “caller ___” based on the stations frequency. Its just another way of promoting the station.
Also the bigger the prize the higher the number. If I am giving away movie passes it will be “caller 8” - if its an around the world trip or something it will be much higher . . . say “caller #100”. This increases the excitement and tension (and amount of time I can hype it on the air at that moment).
BTW Mr. Blue Sky is dead on. Say I am supposed to take “caller 12”, what I do (and most jocks do) is go through ten callers or so and then listen for an excited caller. I have to play this back on the air . . . its not going to work if the winner sounds like they are on morphine. Sure the “hot” listener may be caller #11 or even #13 . . . but guess what ? “You’re caller 12 !!” Its the business.
I have thought of starting an “ask the radio jock” thread but wasn’t certain if there would be any interest. What do you think ?
Whoops, I gave Mr. Blue Sky credit for what cadolphin said.
My fault, sorry cadolphin.
Could you clarify this? I’m not quite sure I understand. You can’t really tell how excited someone is going to get by winning until they actually win. So if you pick up the phone and say “YOU’RE CALLER 12!” and the person just says “oh,” it’s not like you can take his prize away from him and give it to a more excited caller, can you?
Or do you just try to make a little bit of conversation with everyone on each line to see who’s the perkiest caller?
I know I’ve called radio stations for contests in years past, and when I didn’t win, but did get through, the DJ would just say “caller 4” or some other non-winning number in a breathless voice and immediately hang up on me, not even waiting for me to say a word.
neutron star,
For the purposes of this exercise lets say I am a DJ at “Hot 88.9” giving away a compact disc.
I am going to take caller # 8 for my winner.
The first five callers or so I answer the prize line by saying “Hot 88.1 you are caller (1 - 5) try again”.
Once I get up to a high enough number then I answer the phone by saying simply “Hot 88.1”. Invariably this leads to whoever is on the other end saying “did I win ?” or “what caller am I ?” or “you still giving away that c.d.?” I only need to chat with someone about 10 seconds to know if they are who I am looking for. If I want I can tell 5 callers in a row that they are “#6”, then move on to one or two "#7"s. Yes it is tricky - but I am very good at recognizing callers voices. (Radio people give great ear.)
The truth is that if you can actually get through when a station is giving away stuff, just sound excited and knowledgable about the station (“Hot 88.1 rawks!!”) and it will increase your odds of winning dramtically.
Does that help ?
It does indeed, NothingMan, though I have worked at stations small enough (250 watt AM) and long enough ago (35 years) that we would put the number at no higher than “Caller number 3” because it’s embarassing if you announce a contest and don’t get enough callers to win. OUCH!
Let me encourage you to add start an “ask the radio jock” thread. It’s always fascinating to see what questions folks have about the business.
While we’re on the topic of radio, perhaps I can also conduct a small survey of popular radio station “names”. I know that within 200 miles of my location, there are two “Power” station, two “Hot” station, and three “Rock” stations. Of course, we’ve also got “The Groove” and “The Edge”. Are there any that tend to come out the winner as being the most common names?
Personally, I’m all for creativity, and I swear I will be the most loyal fan of the first to claim, “You’re listening to The Fridge Magnet, 89.9 FM!”
If giving head is fellatio, giving ear would be …
:eek:
Audioerotica?
One of the local radio stations around here always takes the 97th caller; the number they gave out for one of the BIG prize competitions was a premium rate number, so they earned revenue on the calls.
Cecil on giving ear.