Be correct caller No. 98, and win, win, win! from the crates

Kelly McCoy is a veteran Atlanta broadcaster who writes about the days popular music only came on vinyl records, which often were stored in crates.

Before the interweb thing came along, the main way to hear music, get instant information and win cool stuff was from your radio.

I mean a real physical radio – one with knobs, buttons, antennas and other connections. In those days, “Buds” meant “friends” or cans or bottles of “the King of Beers,” not the tiny things we put in our ears these days.

And, of course, radio was king in the car. We needed it even before traffic reports! It was cool to control your own station for your favorite tunes, and the volume, when needed.

Most music stations had some sort of contest, giveaway, or promotional events for free stuff.

Over my many years of giving away said free stuff I’ve handed out thousands of items at hundreds of appearances.

The big serious giveaway things could mean cars, trips, limo rides and front row seats to concerts. Backstage after the show to hang with the artists, photos were included, and the listener got a taste of the showbiz side. I must mention these were real photographers. Phones with cameras hadn’t been imagined yet.

Of the gazillion things we gave away over the years, cash was king. A cold hard check.

Why do this? To increase listenership ratings. Without getting into a full-fledged analysis of the procedure to procure or determine “numbers” as they’re called in the industry, I’ll briefly explain. These days, terrestrial radio listening is measured by a small unit you have on your person that monitors everything you listen to via codes the station is transmitting. This data is uploaded to the mother ship. Results are quickly available or any designated time period.

Pre-digital world, the paper way of determining this feat was from actual diaries, or recorded time spent listening periods written by a human. The tabulations of these figures for the market determined who had the most people listening in every daypart, and demographic. A national firm that provided these services for all who subscribed did the numbers reasoning for major contesting and other happenings to keep listeners engaged with hopes that a magical diary would be in the household of station fans. These ratings results determined advertising rates for stations to charge. Big numbers in bodies meant big numbers in bucks.

During my amazing tenure in the market some of the best in the business were my mentors, bosses, and coworkers. I was blessed, and lucky to work with strategic minded people who knew what it took to get ratings and turn those ratings into revenue. What came out of the speakers was the most important thing. We were very successful. Giving away huge amounts of cash certainly didn’t hurt.

The “Three Songs in a Row” contest was designed to keep possible. Very simple. When you hear these three songs in this exact order, be the 98th caller to win. We promoted the contest verbally, and with recorded promos that included snippets of the songs to listen for. The cash amount increased each week. The lowly amount of ten thousand dollars was the starting prize. Each week, we’d increase it by another ten thousand. As a tease, we’d play one of the songs. As an even bigger tease, we’d play two of the three songs back to back. Imagine calling a radio station with an old-fashioned push button phone…some had rotary dials. Gasp!! We were the top at work office listening station. I would imagine supervisors would get a little annoyed with us when a major part of the staff would stop work to play a contest. The contest was live and local. Funds were from our enormous promotional budget, and not a nationwide contest from a big conglomerate with hundreds of stations involved and the chance of winning slim to miniscule. YES, all the incoming calls were counted. It would be morally wrong, illegal, and bad karma not to do so. There was always a witness in the room who was our immediate supervisor, or management from the promotions department. Once we were aware of how successful the contest was, we had a computer specifically designed to count the calls, and when the designated caller number was reached, we had a “winner only” line. With any contesting, there will always be someone to complain or say it’s rigged. Our jam up legal department had all the elements secured to ensure things were properly executed. It was a huge thrill for all of us to give away life changing money, especially when you sensed the person really needed it. Most were gracious and