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Post by John Quincy on Mar 2, 2005 8:57:20 GMT -5
Do you remember any cool WAKY promotions or contests? Did you ever win anything from WAKY? Anybody have any WAKY t-shirts?
In this thread we'd like you to tell us about the prizes and contests your remember from WAKY's glory days. How about "The Last Contest?" What about "Treat Street?"
Thanks to former WAKY DJ Tom Prestigiacomo who suggested this topic. Tom writes: "Dude Walker will back up the fact that I was the very first winner of the WAKY 'Be a DJ' contest in the winter of 1971. I got a 15 minute show on a Sunday morning a-n-d promo mentions, too.
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Post by Mike Griffin on Mar 2, 2005 10:08:35 GMT -5
We have a near pristine "Grab Me I'm Going Waky" tee shirt. This shirt has images of hands reaching around and grabbing the breast area. I'm going to send you a picture as soon as my daughter takes it.
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Post by John Quincy on Mar 2, 2005 17:55:17 GMT -5
Tom Prestigiacomo wondered if anyone remembed these contests:
I wonder if anyone will mention "The Last Contest" or "The King Kong/Ping Pong" weekend -- winners got a Pong video game and tickets to the movie King Kong -- or the "Whine For Your Wine Bag" contest?
Then there's the concert promo where WAKY presented: "Strawbenwolf and the Steppenberry Alarm Clock" -- and the five-week-long tease: "WAKY's Going Country" that turned out to be vacation giveaways to other countries.
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Post by Travis on Mar 2, 2005 21:52:29 GMT -5
The button which says "Thank WAKY it's Friday" (photos, page 7) reminds of one that the Weird Beard once promoted. Teens were his target audience and at the beginning of one particular school year Weird could be heard, almost nightly, promoting a button which said, "I had to get my haircut for school and the Weird Beard sympathizes with me." I never got one (probably because I never cut my hair in those days) so I never saw the button. But, those were the actual words on it.
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Post by Travis on Mar 2, 2005 21:57:00 GMT -5
The Kentucky Home Life Building "Love Chains" Speaking of the Weird Beard and WAKY promotions, I seem to recall that when WAKY was ready to make its move from the Kentucky Home Life Building to its 4th street showcase studios, Weird spent about two weeks asking listeners to make "love chains" and to bring them to the station. These were the typical paper chains that kids made by cutting paper into strips and then gluing or stapling the strips end to end through another strip and so on, creating a very flexible paper chain. Listeners were told that the chains could be as long as they wished, any color, design, size, whatever. My memory's a bit fuzzy on this part, but I do believe that listeners were asked to write "WAKY" on each link and they could write their name on the links as well. I believe the person creating the longest chain was to win a prize, thus the need for names. Now, if memory serves, the goal was to receive enough chains that when linked together, end to end, would actually surround the Kentucky Home Life Building (can you even imagine?). There was to be a ceremony, with the mayor in attendance, because not only was WAKY saying goodbye to relocate to its 4th street studios, but the building had supposedly been condemned and was going to be torn down. To my knowledge, it's still there today (say wha..?)  Help me with this one. Were enough chains received to completely surround the building? Was there a small ceremony with WAKY personnel and the mayor in attendance? If the Kentucky Home Life Building is still standing, was it actually condemned around the time of WAKY's move to 4th street? If so, why is it still there and would you take a job working in that building today? ;D I don't know why I can't remember, but maybe someone else does. |
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Post by Mike Griffin on Mar 5, 2005 0:09:28 GMT -5
There was a contest just after the River City Mall opened for the biggest "WAKY Loves Me" sign. The winner was a huge sign made out of sheets sewn together and hung off the top of the 4 story parking garage over Walgreens accross the mall from WAKY. It came about half-way down. Seems like the winners were from a frat house...but I don't remember.
"WAKY's Last Contest" was a lot of huge prize packages that were dangled before the listeners ears. There were a number of smaller package winners but only one winner for the big package. If you were the right caller you got to pick your package. Randolph tells the story of the "Last Contest's" almost grand-prize winner. The phones were jammed with people trying to get in then suddenly there was a clear voice on the line. Randolph thought it sounded too good and so asked if the caller worked for the phone company. The poor guy was dumb enough to say yes. Not only was he disqualified, he wound up getting fired. I have no idea who won or what package was chosen but there it is. I just don't remember.
Name it and claim it was a regular. Listeners who were the correct caller when the name it and claim it record was played were sent a post card that let them get the 45 of their choice at (probably) Vine Records. I just don't remember.
The WAKY loosing it's marbles contest had a big 55 gallon metal drum with a microphone stuck in it. DJs would turn the mic on at various times and throw one or more marbles in. The listene who guessed (or counted) closest to the actual number of marbles in the barrel at the end of the contest got something...but I don't rememeber what.
When the WAKY Is Going Country contest started at 3AM one morning, of course two or three country records were played before the announcement that a listener would win a trip and WAKY was still WAKY. But was the trip to Paris France or Paris Kentucky, Cario Egypt or Cario Indiana? I don't remember.
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Post by bruiser on Mar 5, 2005 9:33:22 GMT -5
Hello WAKY. That was another contest. Calls were made to numbers selected from the phone book. If the person who answered said "Hello WAKY", they won a prize. This caused a bit of a stir in the medical community, especially with those involved with mental disorders.
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Post by Travis on Mar 5, 2005 18:22:26 GMT -5
WAKY's "Name it and claim it Weekends" were quite popular. When I first heard John Quincy's "WAKY Remembered" on reelradio.com, I was surprised to hear the name of an old friend of mine in an excerpt taken from one of Johnny Randolph's airchecks. In the excerpt, Randolph can be heard announcing that Steve Cochran had just correctly named & claimed Sweet's "Little Willie Won't Go Home." I can remember when Steve had told me that he had won that record over the weekend. Seems like only yesterday.
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Post by Mike Griffin on Mar 5, 2005 23:46:37 GMT -5
Of course a common groupie trick was to call up on a name it and claim it weekend and say the DJ's name.
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Post by WillNich on Apr 11, 2005 8:32:57 GMT -5
When St. X was still downtown in 1960-61, WAKY held a St. Patrick's Day contest which involved hiding some kind of Irish gnome in various spots around town, and the first person to find it won a prize (I forget what the prize was). Shortly before the start of school one day in March 1961, WAKY announced it had hidden a gnome in the area of St. X around 2nd and Broadway. You can't imagine the pandemonium that broke out among all of us freshmen as we started running off campus and all around the block, trying to find that gnome! I don't think anyone found it, and anyway the bell rang and the school forced us into the classroom. But it was a great practical joke by WAKY on St. X because it created so much confusion at the school. Forget math and physics: it was all anyone could talk about the rest of the morning!
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Post by Sam Sample on Apr 11, 2005 10:29:37 GMT -5
The one contest we "won" was the hidden flying saucer. They would give clues on the radio of where to look .My two friends and I were looking and I found one at the foot of the second street bridge in Jeffersonville.We were so exiceted the ads said "Major prizes ,cash, freezers,tvs,and many more.So you can imagine how excited 3 boys about 14-15 were .we took the bus to the studio bubbling with excitment we were going to split it 3 ways only to have them bring out on a hot summer day a purple long sleeved sweatshirt with WAKY 790 in white letters on the front.From total excitment to total dissapointment in 5 minutes.
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Post by StevePfalzer on Apr 17, 2005 14:26:06 GMT -5
I came out of the Navy in 1973 and went to work for Ma Bell. No, I wasn't the guy who got fired  . I did work the downtown switching office for several years. I quickly found out that the radio station contests were a real problem for Ma Bell. In those days the downtown office was what we called a Step-by-Step office and for every ten telephones there was only one initial switch. The assumption was that normally only one in ten people used the phone at any one moment. This worked great until some radio station had a contest. Typically everyone would dial all of the radio station number except the last digit and then hit it when the DJ called for the contest. The result was a massive jam at the switch. Working in the office it was like hearing a big clank as all the switches lifted and tried to fall at the same time. The result was that no one got through. For a while it looked like Ma Bell was going to try to outlaw the contests. The radio stations soon figured out that the way to fix this was to have the seventh, or tenth, or fifteen caller be the winner, instead of the first. That distributed the calls a bit. As a frameman working there though, you could still tell when any downtown radio station had a contest. |
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MadJokerofPRP
New Member
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Posts: 10
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Post by MadJokerofPRP on Apr 18, 2005 12:19:29 GMT -5
In 1975 I won the WAKY 250 Kawasaki. It was candy apple red and came from Vista Kawasaki. They had a song contest that ran for several weeks. At the end of the contest they allowed listeners to vote for 4 or 5 finalists. I tried to call but ended up on line with about 10 other people. We all got a kick out of it especially since I was trying to vote for my own song:
chorus:
I'm gonna get down it's a WAKY night
I'm gonna feel real funky, feel allright
I'm gonna get down it's a WAKY night
I'm gonna feel real funky, feel allright
I turn my dial to the super 79
Don't cha know I'm gonna blow my mind
I listen for Coyote at 6 oclock
Don't cha know I'm gonna rock rock rock
Chorus
I listen to Graphitti on Sunday night
Don't cha know It makes me feel alright
they play Waylon Jennings, It gives me nightmares
I get unwound, I slap some grease in my hair
Chorus
The Mad Joker gets on and tells a bad joke
People say he's the guy I'd like to choke
But don't you know he's singin' this song
So now ya know he can't be all wrong
Chorus
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Help me with this one. Were enough chains received to completely surround the building? Was there a small ceremony with WAKY personnel and the mayor in attendance? If the Kentucky Home Life Building is still standing, was it actually condemned around the time of WAKY's move to 4th street? If so, why is it still there and would you take a job working in that building today? ;D I don't know why I can't remember, but maybe someone else does.
. I did work the downtown switching office for several years. I quickly found out that the radio station contests were a real problem for Ma Bell. In those days the downtown office was what we called a Step-by-Step office and for every ten telephones there was only one initial switch. The assumption was that normally only one in ten people used the phone at any one moment. This worked great until some radio station had a contest. Typically everyone would dial all of the radio station number except the last digit and then hit it when the DJ called for the contest. The result was a massive jam at the switch. Working in the office it was like hearing a big clank as all the switches lifted and tried to fall at the same time. The result was that no one got through. For a while it looked like Ma Bell was going to try to outlaw the contests. The radio stations soon figured out that the way to fix this was to have the seventh, or tenth, or fifteen caller be the winner, instead of the first. That distributed the calls a bit. As a frameman working there though, you could still tell when any downtown radio station had a contest.