RadioActive wrote:

CFRB is presently conducting a contest called "A Grand In Your Hand," which appears to be a syndicated money giveaway that's also airing on other stations across North America. The idea is simple - they give out a special key phrase at 7:10 and 8:10 AM and another duo at 3:10 and 4:10 PM, taking the 10th caller each time to repeat the phrase for entry into the prize draw. One caller per hour qualifies, with a one in four shot at winning a thousand dollars. 

OK, simple enough. But my problem is this - the prize is handed out at 6:10 AM the next morning. I haven't seen the numbers lately, but it doesn't take a lot to guess that there aren't that many people tuned in at that specific time of the morning, since it's still pretty early. 

Why would you present the payoff for this contest, both literally and figuratively, at a time when so few are listening? Wouldn't it make more sense to give out the prize at 5:10 PM, when the potential audience is much bigger? I really don't see giving it away when there are so few ears to hear about the lucky winner. 

Does anyone else see this as being a bit odd for a contest designed to attract listeners to your station at specific dayparts? 

By the way, this thing will be here for a while. It's scheduled to run until November 18th, according to the station's webpage.

I have known programmers who run contests in lower performing dayparts to boost them.  

cash wrote:

i hate radio contests with a passion.

Some listeners do, but I honestly admire the well thought out ones. They can add a lot of excitement to a radio station or spread the word if they're either well done or well publicized. 

I can think of two that are among the best remembered in Toronto radio history. 

CHUM's "Don't Say Hello, Say I Listen To CHUM" became a sensation, possibly because it ran for so long and was so simple. The odds of anyone actually being called were slim to none, but people answered their phones that way anyway. With cell phones and a reduction of landlines, this thing would never work today. CFTR had a clever response - they'd call someone at random and give them $6.80 just for answering "hello."


Speaking of CFTR, I have to credit them with bringing the greatest radio promotion ever to town - The Last Contest. I believe it was developed out of KCBQ in San Diego and it was pure genius - air slickly produced mini-spots about the prizes you could win, with outrageous items like expensive sports cars, trips around the world, your own yacht, an airplane and other impossible awards and experiences. The trick? You keep the contest going for months, but you only give out the "secret phone number" about two or three times, if that.

So you offer these amazing prizes and you award almost none of them. Back that up with the great Jack McCoy (not the Law & Order character!) voicing the "prize packages" and it was a winner. In San Diego, the station's ratings shot up to an incredible 23 share with the help of the promotion.   

It was and remains to me, a work of genius. All the promises, almost nothing given out.  

So, yes, I don't mind radio contests. Probably because I won a trip to Florida on one of them in the early 70s, just after CFTR turned Top 40. Hard to hate them after that!

The Last Contest. Tribute to Jack McCoy

It became so famous, McCoy even parodied it with "The Ultimate Contest." The prize - God! You can hear that below.

Just by sheer coincidence, this came out online on Friday:

DJ reveals how radio contests really work