Billboard Boys: The Greatest Radio Contest of All Time
99% Invisible19 Sep 2018

Billboard Boys: The Greatest Radio Contest of All Time

The year was 1982, and in the small city of Allentown on the eastern edge of Pennsylvania sat an AM radio station called WSAN. For years, it had broadcast country music to the surrounding Lehigh Valley -- an area known for malls, manufacturing and Mack Trucks.

WSAN was about to undergo a complete identity change, from a country station and to a "nostalgia" station -- meaning Big Band, and soft hits from the 1950’s. They wanted a gimmick to hook new listeners, so WSAN decided to launch a good old-fashioned endurance contest, reminiscent of the pole sitting stunts or dance marathons popular in the 1920’s. They secured a local sponsor, Love Homes, to donate a prize: a single-wide modular home worth $18,000.

It seemed like a simple marketing strategy, but WSAN had grossly underestimated just how much people would endure for a little economic security.

Billboard Boys: The Greatest Radio Contest of All Time

Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early.

Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Avsnitt(782)

Mine!

Mine!

Every year, fights break out on airplanes. They happen between the people who lean back in their seats, and the people who get their knees smooshed. Sometimes planes have to be grounded because of the...

29 Juni 202130min

Katie Mingle's Right to Roam

Katie Mingle's Right to Roam

We revisit Katie Mingle's Right to Roam episode as we say goodbyeIn the United Kingdom, the freedom to walk through private land is known as “the right to roam.” The movement to win this right was sta...

23 Juni 202134min

Flag Days: The Red, the Black & the Green

Flag Days: The Red, the Black & the Green

After Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd last year, tens of thousands of people all over the world took to the streets to protest police violence against Black people. And ...

15 Juni 202134min

Flag Days: Good Luck, True South

Flag Days: Good Luck, True South

Correction: Our staff producer pronounced the the Japanese word "ōbōn" incorrectly in this episode. It is pronounced OH-bohn not oh-BAHN.Let us be the first to wish you a Happy Flag Day, beautiful ner...

8 Juni 202144min

The Clinch

The Clinch

After Producer Katie Mingle's mom wrote a romance novel, Katie set out to understand the romance genre and its classic covers. There was a lot to unpack. The Clinch Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to ...

2 Juni 202138min

Pipe Dreams

Pipe Dreams

Most people probably don't spend a lot of time thinking about their toilets, but they are both a modern marvel while also being somewhat of a failure of systems design. On the one hand, it has created...

25 Maj 202136min

Matters of Time

Matters of Time

For the most part, we take time for granted; maybe we don’t have enough of it, but we at least know how it works --- well, most of the time. A lot of what we think about time is relatively recent, and...

19 Maj 202153min

Tanz Tanz Revolution

Tanz Tanz Revolution

Today, Berlin is one of the premier destinations for techno music fans. People come from all over the world to party all night to the rhythmic beat of Berlin's club scene. And this music that the city...

11 Maj 202144min

Populärt inom Business & ekonomi

framgangspodden
varvet
badfluence
rss-jossan-nina
rss-borsens-finest
rss-svart-marknad
avanzapodden
svd-tech-brief
uppgang-och-fall
fill-or-kill
rss-dagen-med-di
affarsvarlden
borsmorgon
bathina-en-podcast
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
lastbilspodden
rss-inga-dumma-fragor-om-pengar
tabberaset
24fragor
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet