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Just a question about on-air contestant participants

  • Thread starter TightwadSquarepants
  • Start date

T

TightwadSquarepants

Guest
I have worked in radio for almost 16 years, nine of which I have been on-the-air almost daily in some capacity. In that capacity, I have done a lot of contests. I have noticed the following when you do a contest. Why is it that listeners hear you announce you're looking caller number 5, 9 or 10 or whatever, and know to call you to win. So you know they're listening. Once you get a winner, you get their information and edit the recorded phone call or just give the name of the winner and their prize. Why is it then that even after you announce the winner...people still call the station and ask if they're caller #X? Are they stupid or what? I am sorry, but it's never made sense to me. Seems like they go brain dead between asking for calls and announcing the winner!

"Uhh, you heard me announce the contest, so obviously you've been listening to the station. Did you completely go into a coma when I announced that Joe Public or what?" I know it's a petty and stupid thing to get irritated by this, but I have talked to other jocks about this and they get just as annoyed by it.

Any ideas or theories as to why people do it. Are they just in denial about not winning a Celine Dion greatest hits CD and a Big Mac or is it something else? Thanks for indulging me.
 
My theory on this is, they listen UNTIL you announce said contest, run to the phone, and totally zone out on whats on the radio after those magic words "Be a winner".. ::).hence they miss out on what you say after...mainly cause they are in some type of coma... ;)
 
Want to further iritate yourself.......ask your winner if the know what they just won. 4 out of 10 will have no clue!!! Oh well, at least they're not listening to xm or i-pod.

Do you all get the one guy that starts calling about 2 weeks before the races and starts asking exactly WHEN your giving away tix because he works the night shift and wants to stay up to win? Thats the only quarter hour he listens out of the entire year!!
 
TightwadSquarepants said:
I have worked in radio for almost 16 years, nine of which I have been on-the-air almost daily in some capacity. In that capacity, I have done a lot of contests. I have noticed the following when you do a contest. Why is it that listeners hear you announce you're looking caller number 5, 9 or 10 or whatever, and know to call you to win. So you know they're listening. Once you get a winner, you get their information and edit the recorded phone call or just give the name of the winner and their prize. Why is it then that even after you announce the winner...people still call the station and ask if they're caller #X? Are they stupid or what? I am sorry, but it's never made sense to me. Seems like they go brain dead between asking for calls and announcing the winner!

"Uhh, you heard me announce the contest, so obviously you've been listening to the station. Did you completely go into a coma when I announced that Joe Public or what?" I know it's a petty and stupid thing to get irritated by this, but I have talked to other jocks about this and they get just as annoyed by it.

Any ideas or theories as to why people do it. Are they just in denial about not winning a Celine Dion greatest hits CD and a Big Mac or is it something else? Thanks for indulging me.
Click to expand...

All of us need to park our egos and realize that for the average listener...we're just background noise. Most listen to radio at a very low level and don't hang on every word we say....which would certainly play into your complaint.

TK
 
I am not saying they should hang on every word I say, but if they want to participate, they need to pay attention...that's all I am saying. It's what your teacher taught you in elementary school. It's what my wife harps on me about when I am watching TV and zone out everything else. Ya' know...just paying attention...that's all I am saying.
 
Also, TK, if they are listening on a low level to begin with, how do they know to call to win? I mean, they must have been listening at some point if they knew to call me. Seems like they would've kept listening to see what the outcome was. I don't know, but that only makes sense to me. Before I worked in radio and tried to win a contest, I listened until I heard there was a winner. Maybe it's just me and I am missing something. I guess my huge ego is making my judgment poor.

Trust me, I have gone from a full-time program director and full-time jock to a part-timer working every weekend and filling in for the full-timers. It's hard to have an ego with that, not that I really had one at HVBC. Don't take that as an "I hate my new job" cause I really don't. If anything, I feel more needed as a part-timer at Citadel than I ever did in a middle-management position at Holston Valley. It's just that little fact of not being full-time anymore that really makes you feel like someone kicked you in your man-business!

Plus, Anyone that knows me will tell you that I have some of the poorest self-esteem you've ever seen. And even if I didn't, I still wouldn't let myself get my ego inflated too badly because that's when people get lazy. Sorry, I just had to add that to my last post.
 
Plus, Anyone that knows me will tell you that I have some of the poorest self-esteem you've ever seen. And even if I didn't, I still wouldn't let myself get my ego inflated too badly because that's when people get lazy. Sorry, I just had to add that to my last post.
[/quote]

Just to be clear...I wasn't talking about you or anyone's personal ego. I was speaking of the fact that all of us as radio people think listeners are hanging on to every word...when in fact, they are only half paying attention with their busy lifes...pretty much the attention span of a knat. (Notice how people will call a contest and not know what they're calling to win...or they will ask you to repeat something you just said, etc.) We do serve a purpose, maybe just not as high on the radar screen as we might think...

That's all....

TK
 
Maybe the better question for this discussion is "are contests worth doing?" We have all experienced the contestant who is not really a listener of the station, but simply a member of the Gimmie family - those who scan the dial looking for radio contests and collect the loot! We've al written contest rules to try and thwart them, but we seldom succeed. Is it really worth it?
 
Anyone who works in radio, or gets behind any kind of mic, has some sort of ego or they would'nt do it. Its a matter of keeping it check.

If you really want to see how insignifigant radio is in listeners lives, go to Maryland and review some diaries. Thats a big fat bitter pill for anyone with a swelled up head.

I'd love to take a station through a book or two with a "no contests, no b.s." positioning statement. Just to see. Just talk about the music, pop culture, local stuff, etc. that the listeners of "fomat X" want to hear.
 
Well, bored-op, then I am the exception to the rule. I have no ego. You can ask anyone that knows me...they'll tell you the same thing. Ego is something that swells heads and I have no use for it! I can always be better and the day I stop thinking that I can do better is the day that I quit! I don't think I am that good, I just like radio.
 
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