Giving away beer
New Orleans circa 1983. Every hour, every Thursday it was "Thirsty Thursday" at B-97. The correct caller won a case of soda and a case of DIXIE LONGNECKS. The beer truck arrived at the station each week and loaded our prize closet with 24 cases of beer. For three straight years this went on. In the politically correct times we live in now, it’s hard to imagine we were on the air giving away beer to the correct caller. Sure, the winner had to be "of age" to collect the prize, but this was on a station that had an Arbitron weekly cume rating among teens 12-17 of 78. Looking back, it seemed so matter of fact when sometimes I added "a carton of menthol cigarettes" to the package. Back then cigarettes were about $15 a carton. I simply gave the receptionist cash from my own pocket to give to the winner. One of our big advertisers at the time was DAIQUIRIS. This was a "Baskin-Robbins esque" daiquiri joint that sold daiquiris in giant go cups from drive up windows. Often I gave away these daiquiris too. I was giving away beer, cigs & tasty rum drinks on air. These were the days in the city that care forgot.
