{"id":3195,"date":"2025-05-19T20:11:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T03:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/?page_id=3195"},"modified":"2025-05-19T20:11:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T03:11:03","slug":"2025-0523","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/2025-0523\/","title":{"rendered":"Radio Waves: May 23, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

What’s the point?<\/strong><\/h1>\n

From a purely entertainment standpoint, radio station contests are similar in nature to television game shows. People generally like to play along, and see or hear other people win, even if its a relatively minor prize. Radio has the added benefit of allowing local listeners a chance to take part in the contest by just being the right caller, something television shows cannot do. Regardless, as long as the contests are fast and fun, they add an element of fun to the programming that sets a station apart from the rest.<\/p>\n

Examples of that abound \u2026 KHJ (930 AM) set a standard of almost constant contests beginning with Boss Radio in 1965; stations like KIIS-FM (102.7) kept the tradition alive for many years as well. They didn\u2019t even have to be big or complicated; calling in at the right time for an album or small amount of cash was always fun to hear (and drove parents crazy as kids dialed all but the last digit trying to hit it just right).<\/p>\n

You may remember them \u2026 the Magic Key, Camaro Couple, trips to Catalina Island, Zork, Walking Around Money, the Big Sign, answering your telephone with the Phrase That Pays. More recently, Alt 98.7\u2019s morning Woody Show has listeners call in to guess if a drunk person can answer simple trivia questions. All have in common essential elements: fun, simple rules even if it is extended over a few weeks, and the chance for an everyday listener to win. As mentioned, it\u2019s just fun to hear someone else win even if I\u2019m just a spectator.<\/p>\n

So I continue to be confused with contests that offer little \u2014 or nothing \u2014 for most listeners. I speak primarily of the keyword contests that run on iHeart stations, generally under a different name depending on the station. It\u2019s called \u201cAlternative Income\u201d on Alt, \u201cListen to Win\u201d on KIIS and KFI (640 AM), and similar names on stations nationwide. Yes, nationwide. You enter a keyword on a station website, and then presumably are told if you win.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it is not really intended as a contest, instead it works as a data collection system in much the same way that Shop Your Way brought demographic information to Eddie Lampert as he worked to simultaneously destroy Sears.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But as an entertaining part of a radio station\u2019s programming? A reason to listen? Hardly. It offers nothing to encourage a listener to stay tuned – it is not fun, you never hear if someone wins, and it is nationwide \u2014 spread over hundreds of stations \u2014 so other than being cheap for owner iHeart, it\u2019s just a waste of time. All it does is take up on-air time encouraging people to enter the keyword of the day, then going nowhere.<\/p>\n

Pretty lame compared with RKO giving away a car a day for a month on KHJ. Or even KIIS-FM\u2019s old Daily Cash Payoff, back in the pre-iHeart days. If any iHeart executives are reading this, I welcome the chance to have this explained.<\/p>\n

On the more positive side \u2026 Another contest I find interesting, for a different reason, is on Go Country (105.1 FM). Morning man Bruce Scott runs the Thousand Dollar Minute at 8:10 weekday mornings, in which listeners can try to answer ten trivia questions within a minute.<\/p>\n

I laugh to myself when it runs, reminding me of the episode of television\u2019s \u201cWKRP in Cincinnati,\u201d wherein Dr. Johnny Fever accidentally gave the wrong amount listeners could win \u2014 $5,000 rather than $50, if memory serves correctly, so they made the contest so hard no one could possibly win it. Of course someone did anyway \u2026<\/p>\n

Perhaps someone has won the Thousand Dollar Minute, though I haven\u2019t heard it. Think about it – you only get six seconds to think and answer \u2026 take away the time needed to ask each question and it probably comes down to three, making the contest extremely difficult.<\/p>\n

And yet, it\u2019s fun. I think it would be more fun if it was realistically win-able, perhaps offering $10 per correct answer and the full $1000 for all. But I find myself testing my own trivia knowledge as drive or bike to work; it definitely adds some fun to my morning.<\/p>\n

Record Charts Question<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cLove your weekly column in the LA Daily News. On May 9th you referenced the old KHJ Boss 30 charts. I\u00a0believe on Wednesday nights KHJ would play the latest top 30 and the\u00a0next day I used to go to a small record store that also sold hippie clothes (70 – 72) in Granada Hills called ‘Rags N Records’ as they would put out the latest chart. My first purchase was a 45 called \u2018Draggin\u2019 the Line\u2019 by Tommy James for 99 cents.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour reader Steve Lively mentioned he has all the charts from 1965 – 1977 and you responded you may have these as well. Is there any way readers like myself could access these lists? I tried looking online to no avail??\u201d \u2014 Rick Rodman<\/p>\n

I plan to scan what I have once I figure out an easy way to do it, but perhaps you would be interested in this site, thebig93.com, which has scans of all the charts from 1965 to 1973 along with much more, assembled by fellow KHJ fanatic Ray Randolph. Definitely a fun page to visit!<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it funny that you remember the first record you bought? I remember mine too \u2026\u00a0 <\/span>the first singles I bought with my own money were from the long gone Chuck\u2019s Sound of Music in San Pedro \u2026 \u201cDrift Away,\u201d \u201cThe Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia,\u201d and \u201cKnock Three Times.\u201d I believe mine were all 99 cents each as well! The first album I bought was from Licorice Pizza in Redondo Beach: \u201cWow Great Concert\u201d by the Beach Boys.<\/p>\n

Why can I remember that and I cannot remember what I had for breakfast? One is more meaningful, I guess. Keep the memories coming!<\/p>\n

\/\/\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What’s the point? From a purely entertainment standpoint, radio station contests are similar in nature to television game shows. People generally like to play along, and see or hear other people win, even if its a relatively minor prize. Radio has the added benefit of allowing local listeners a chance to take part in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3195","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3196,"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3195\/revisions\/3196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}