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Thursday, August 12, 2010

True Life: I'm a Professional Radio Contest Winner

I don't know if winning radio contests is considered a profession, but if it were, I would totally win a gold medal.

In the past 2 years, I have won 12 radio contests.  I listen to the radio a lot since I'm in my car roughly 3 hours a day commuting to and from work.  The prizes I have won have ranged from small things like a t-shirt to bigger things like front-row concert tickets and even an emerald ring!

The key is: timing. Usually, radio DJs will announce beforehand what time a contest is scheduled, so I usually start dialing a few minutes before the scheduled time. There is 45-second to 2-minute delay on the radio (longer if you're listening to the station online), so it definitely gives you the upper hand if you start calling earlier. Also, I have the phone number to 5 different radio stations programmed into my phone (all part of my speed dials), and that totally helps because I don't have to manually dial or search through my contacts each time I'm ready to call.

I was really into winning prizes last year, but after winning front row seats to a Brad Paisley concert that he eventually cancelled, I was bummed and decided to take a break from entering contests.

Until today!

Our local Top 40 station, Movin' 99.7, has been giving out tickets for Lady Gaga's concert all week long.  Ever morning they have a "celebrity trash" segment where they discuss the latest news about our favorite stars, but this time, they announced that after the break they would be giving out tickets to the Lady Gaga concert to the first listener able to correctly answer a trivia question based on the celebrity trash they just went over. 

After the break, they went straight into a song, so I waited until the last chorus before dialing the number.  The phone started ringing, but I didn't even know what the trivia question was at this point!! I was super nervous that they would answer and I wouldn't have anything to say.  Then, the DJs came back on the air at the same time as someone picked up my line!  I had to say something before they hung up on me, so I said, "Hello! I'd like to answer the trivia question" as slowly as I possibly could while simutaneously trying to listen to the radio.  The DJ on the radio finally said, "Which reality star makes $250,000 an epis...." and that's all I needed to know the answer:

KATE GOSSELIN!

The lady on the line told me I was right and that I won the tickets!!! Woohooo!!! 


I'm not a huge Gaga fan, but I do like her super catchy songs and think her concert will be ah-maz-ing!

What was the latest thing you won?