1954
In my many years of radio hosting, I gave away innumerable tickets to concerts and movies at locations throughout Cleveland. I myself haven't called any radio station but my own as an adult, but I did win a prize as a kid back home in North Dakota.
I no longer recall which station ran the contest or the precise year that it happened, but the trivia question that I answered would never be used in the internet era, as a simple Google search would undoubtedly bring up the correct answer in seconds. As it happens, I more or less did the 1980s equivalent. My father's childhood copy of the 1962 World Book Encyclopedia had ended up in our house and was right at hand when the question was asked: "In what year did Roger Bannister become the first person to break 4 minutes in the mile?" I grabbed the letter 'B' from the encyclopedia, flipped some pages and called in with the correct answer, 1954. I won a gift certificate for Mike's Pizza in East Grand Forks. We actually swung by the radio station and picked up the prize, but due to some paperwork snafu they also sent us a gift certificate. As far as I can recall, those were the only two pizzas I ever ate from Mike's Pizza. I think it was pretty mediocre.
That is the one and only time I ever won a prize from commercial radio. My mother did win a prize once, possibly from the same commercial station. I don't remember if she answered a question or was the correct number caller, but we got to go to the radio station, where the DJ greeted her and urged to select a prize from a cabinet full of records. She selected a copy of Cloud 9 by George Harrison.
I read that World Book Encyclopedia all the time. It was only about 25 years or so out of date when it ended up in our house, and I wouldn't be surprised if I read 3/4 of it over the years. In other words, my addiction to Wikipedia is unsurprising.
I no longer recall which station ran the contest or the precise year that it happened, but the trivia question that I answered would never be used in the internet era, as a simple Google search would undoubtedly bring up the correct answer in seconds. As it happens, I more or less did the 1980s equivalent. My father's childhood copy of the 1962 World Book Encyclopedia had ended up in our house and was right at hand when the question was asked: "In what year did Roger Bannister become the first person to break 4 minutes in the mile?" I grabbed the letter 'B' from the encyclopedia, flipped some pages and called in with the correct answer, 1954. I won a gift certificate for Mike's Pizza in East Grand Forks. We actually swung by the radio station and picked up the prize, but due to some paperwork snafu they also sent us a gift certificate. As far as I can recall, those were the only two pizzas I ever ate from Mike's Pizza. I think it was pretty mediocre.
That is the one and only time I ever won a prize from commercial radio. My mother did win a prize once, possibly from the same commercial station. I don't remember if she answered a question or was the correct number caller, but we got to go to the radio station, where the DJ greeted her and urged to select a prize from a cabinet full of records. She selected a copy of Cloud 9 by George Harrison.
I read that World Book Encyclopedia all the time. It was only about 25 years or so out of date when it ended up in our house, and I wouldn't be surprised if I read 3/4 of it over the years. In other words, my addiction to Wikipedia is unsurprising.