Back in the 70's, WGR had a simple cash give away called Hi-Lo. Each hour a caller would guess the amount and be told whether the amount was too high or too low. Listening all day allowed you to zero in on the correct amount. The amount given away each time was usually less than $500 but the contest ran for a number of years.

Some more details on "The Last Contest" and some interesting comments.

https://reelradio.com/ricky/lastcon.html#lastcon

I always remember "your basic Red Knight" on CFTR would extro EVERY music set with "CFTR $30,000 button time.." CHUM had the very popular CHUM Starsign that ran for a few years.  Another promotion which was a little before my time listening to radio was the CHUM Walking Man.  Announcers gave clues where the walking man in Toronto was and the first person to spot him and go up to the CHUM Walking Man would win a prize.  I understand a few times traffic was jammed up downtown since hundreds if not thousands of people would gather around the walking man when his location was found out. 

The "Break The Bank" contests by various stations have been on for decades (during ratings) and are still popular. 

CHUM's Walking Man contest was held in the late summer of 1959. The initial prize was $1000., but listeners never found him, so the prize money kept going down to $500 and finally station management wanted to end the contest and at that time, the prize money was $250. Program Director Allan Slaight sent all the CHUM DJs down to Yonge & Queen at noon on a announced day, dressed exactly as the station said on-the-air that the Walking Man would be wearing. There was indeed a major traffic jam at Yonge & Queen. Toronto police were not amused. CHUM aired an editorial apologizing for the problems the contest caused.

 

Last edited by Doug Thompson (October 26, 2024 5:44 pm)