Speaking of giving out names over the air, I found this from 1973. Can't say I remember them doing this, but then I rarely watched City TV in those very early days. 

Things have changed, but Canadian game show prizes used to have a limit. No one would ever leave with a car or a boat or something really valuable. Now some shows, like Canada's Got Talent," will shell out up to a million bucks. 

But it certainly wasn't always that way. Back in the mid-1960s, when I was still a kid, my mother took us to see a game show being shot at CFTO in Agincourt. It was called "All About Faces," and the idea was to confront someone on the street with a silly situation and then ask the contestants what they thought the person's reaction would be.

It was a terrible show, and it wasn't on the air long. But I still remember the top prize: a mattress!

To add insult to injury, the warm-up guy asked the audience to deliberately go "oooh!" and "ahhhh!" when they unveiled this "prize." I was really young but I recall thinking even then that it was an absurd request and no one would react that way. But most people sitting on those uncomfortable audience benches went along with it. 

Things have really changed in regards to privacy. If you tell young people today you used to receive a huge book every year that had the name, phone number, and address of everyone in your city - except for a few people who paid not to be listed - they won't believe you. 

If you read old newspapers, letters to the editor would include the writers home address and even as late as the 1990s references to people would often include the street they lived on (especially if they had been arrested).

Last edited by Hansa (August 6, 2024 12:11 pm)

newsguy1 wrote:

"You get a car, and you get a car and you get a car!!"
Except YOU have to pay the taxes, insurance, shipping, maintenance, etc.
 

That is true.  Back in the 70's when CHUM was giving away vehicles (and some of them quite nice) you got the car.  If WLS or WABC did the same thing, you would pay tax on the car since the IRS treated it as income.  I don't know if there were other charges or fees as well.  To this day lottery winnings in Canada still are not taxed directly.  If you invest the money and make interest, you would be taxed on the interest since it would be income.  But the winnings themselves are not taxed. 

paterson1 wrote:

newsguy1 wrote:

"You get a car, and you get a car and you get a car!!"
Except YOU have to pay the taxes, insurance, shipping, maintenance, etc.
 

That is true.  Back in the 70's when CHUM was giving away vehicles (and some of them quite nice) you got the car.  If WLS or WABC did the same thing, you would pay tax on the car since the IRS treated it as income.  I don't know if there were other charges or fees as well.  To this day lottery winnings in Canada still are not taxed directly.  If you invest the money and make interest, you would be taxed on the interest since it would be income.  But the winnings themselves are not taxed. 

One of the dangers of U.S. lotteries is that when you get that monster oversized cheque and pose for the tv cameras the Federal Government has taken 24% of the winnings. Only problem is they are entitled to 37%, which means the winner has to pay the remaining 13% plus, depending where you live, state taxes. On a 900M Powerball victory, that is a sizeable amount of money still owing. First expenditure should always be a competent accountant.