“It Was The Dumbest Contest In Radio History”

Did I have you at the headline?

I know there are promotional gadflies like Paige Nienaber out there who might try to make the claim of coming up with the dumbest promotion in radio history.  But much as some of you will try to top the lamest of the lame, I guarantee you’ll come up short.

That’s how bad this promotion was.  Even dumber is that along with my colleague in contest crime, Max Tolkoff, we actually talked the station general manager and owner (Noble Broadcasting) into paying for it.  The details are fuzzy but I’ll do my best to fill in the blanks caused by the fact this all took place more than four decades ago.

But before I give you my recount of the sordid details, there’s a motivation behind this story – the reason why I’m exhuming it for today’s blog post.  It was the news that broke out of the UK last week.

The ThisIsMoney website opted for this bombastic headline:

“‘WORST CAR EVER RETURNS”

For those of you who are Gen Xers and Boomers and taking your Prevagen regularly, you likely know where I’m headed.  Those of you who are younger JacoBLOG readers may not have heard of this monstrosity on four wheels, but soon you may.

That’s because the world’s cheapest car – both in price and quality – from the 80s is set to make its dubiouos return.

Yes, it’s the Yugo, manufactured between 1981-1991.  It is set to be resurrected in 2027.  According to writer, Rob Hull, the original Yugo was designed to undercut the cheapest vehicles of that era, like the Austin Metro and Ford Fiesta.

Here’s a blessedly short video about the Yugo:

Hull reminds us Great Britain was in the throes of a serious recession, so the price point of cars sold there mattered greatly.  The Yugo retailed for just £3,000 (or about $3,900 US).  Even so, the Yugo bombed.  Early on, thousands were sold, but it became obvious to these unfortunate owners the vehicle left much to be desired.  You couldn’t keep them running.

And that takes me back to that contest I teased you about at the top of this post.  The station was 91X, it was the late 80s, and we were on a roll.  Originally, one of Rick Carroll‘s early “Modern Rock” clients, 91X successfully carved out a niche in San Diego radio.

I was fortunate to consult the station, working with “Mad Max” Tolkoff  (pictured) to deliver a strong sounding station with promotions designed to cut through.

Our best contest to that point was “Expose the X!” which I’ve written about here before.  The station put up $20,000 to the listener who came up with the cleverest, most creative way of promoting the station.

Back then, the audience was in the 15-30 year-old zone, the perfect age group for attempting wild, crazy, and mostly irresponsible antics.

It worked. Maybe too well. People parachuted out of airplanes unfurling a 91X banner and other not-so-smart stunts that often bordered on breaking various municipal laws.

I remember conversations with Noble lawyers about the wording of rules and disclaimers, urging entrants not to put themselves or others in harm’s way.

The actress Valerie Bertinelli (wife of Eddie Van Halen and eventual mom to Wolfgang) was somehow convinced (or coerced?) into prominently wearing a 91X button while hosting “Saturday Night Live.”

The winner turned out to be a claymation 30-second TV spot the creator unveiled by buying avails on local television and cable access stations.

In those days, 91X was owned by John Lynch, a guy who understood a viral promotion when he saw one, before there was an Internet or social media.  The station produced a half-hour compilation of the best entries for “Expose” and bought time on local TV to air it.

So, the biggest problem Max and I faced in the wake of this contest was how to top it.  Many of you have been there.  It is SO hard to recreate the magic again.

So, we did what every “out of ideas” team does in situations like this one – we repeated “Expose,” hoping to recapture the buzz of the original. And of course, it didn’t work.  While the second time around paled in comparison, it made some noise. But few in San Diego were buzzing about “Expose II.”

The pressure was on to do something really different, maybe even a little stupid, in order to grab that “Can you believe they’re doing THIS?” image.

To this day, neither Max nor I can recall the circumstances or even the exact author of our next contest.  My guess is it was over chips and salsa in a dingy restaurant in Old Town sometime in early 1987.

However it happened, definitely without the aid of alcohol or artificial stimulants, 91X’s next buzzworthy promotion was hatched:

WIN A 6-PACK OF YUGOS

How did we strongarm Lynch and GM Norm Feuer to actually go through with this inane promotion?  My memory is we probably didn’t have to.  We likely had 25-grand to spend during the rating period and how we doled it out was our problem.

In the case of the Yugos, at about 4 Gs apiece, we had just enough to buy a half dozen of these gas-fueled monstrosities.  But rather than give them away to six winners, we thought it would be much more absurd to give them all to ONE WINNER.

The promos wrote themselves…sort of.  We asked our audience what they would do if they won the entire 6-pack.  I remember there were ideas like “Give one to the mailman” and other madcap ideas.

We had a lot of fun with it, continuing the perception that 91X was “the station that dared to be different.”

As Max reminded me the other day, those Yugos did not spur 91X onto ratings greatness that book.  Sadly, those cars did not move the needle.  But they did serve as a reminder to our audience and the San Diego radio market that pretty much anything could happen on 91X – and probably would.

The contest was a brand-building effort, and it helped pave the way for 91X to pull off more standout, bigger than life, and yes, at times ridiculous promotions.  In a crowded radio market like San Diego during those halcyon radio days, differentiation and the ability to get attention were major assets.

Max recalls a local event where the Yugos showed up:

“During the promotion we decided to take all six cars and put them into some parade the city was having. The jocks were supposed to drive them in formation in the parade. Two of the cars overheated immediately and had to be turned off. And a couple of cars had other problems; one of the jocks was driving and waving when the seat back collapsed and created an instant day bed. Eventually we all got out and had to PUSH our giveaway cars in the parade.”

Like so many radio stations from that era, most promotional appearances were relatively successful.  Even the Yugo contest drew huge crowds for 91X and its sponsors when it was time to give away those six ignition keys to just one lucky listener:

After all that drama and weeks of promotion, the winner – Sonja Rodrigez – was announced.  As you can see in the photo below, the “jubilant” Sonja looks a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of having to drive six Yugos home, much less what to do with them. It is literally “a deer in the headlights” moment. Dwight Arnold, who was on the staff in those days, believes she ended up selling them, assuming she could keep them running.

The contest attracted much buzz and attention, even a story in the LA Times.

The most fun I’ve had working with a radio station over the last 4+ decades was most definitely 91X.  Among other things, I learned the power of being different, strategic risk-taking, and building unconventional brands – all skills that are now especially important given media competition and the state of radio today.  The experience taught me your brand isn’t determined by the new music you add, getting the jocks to shorten their breaks, or how many songs in a row you play at 4pm.

So, you might be interested in the Yugo’s “second coming” in less than two years.  You can read about it in Forbes.  While no prices are mentioned, the story indicates these new Yugo versions will adhere to the budget conscious principle that guided the original.  Hopefully, the quality will be much better.

Sounds like a promotion for 91X and maybe some of you?

If you’ve got a “dumb & dumber” contest example, tell us about it in the “comments” section below.

And if any former 91Xers have any photos or ads from the “6-Pack of Yugos” contest, email me at [email protected]