MONTH-LONG prizestravaganza, purely coincidentally coinciding with annual survey of radio ratings. Format thus – breakfast DJ of the time (usually Simon Mayo) would announce ‘cue record’ at 8am, along with big prize of day (usually a trip to go and see Michael Jackson in Bucharest); when cue record played, all mayhem would break loose, as thousands of listeners grimly tried to get through (on 01 637 4343) to answer simple quiz questions. Plenty of Monkhouse-style suspense-baiting from 1FM’s resident jocks, to wit “so Linda, for a trip to go and see Simple Minds live in Houston, you’re saying that their lead singer is Jim Kerr…[pause]…Linda, do you really want to see Simple Minds?…[pause]…well…I can tell you…[pause]…You! Are! A! Winner!”.
Scary
August 23, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I don’t remember them using a cue record, it was an alarm that went off supposedly randomly at some point in the day – hence John Peel was once forced to run the competition in his show.
May was chosen apparently because it co-incided with a radio ratings survey
Matthew Rudd
August 23, 2009 at 7:37 pm
They did both. The alarm initially, then it was later changed to a cue record. When Peel did it, he had to play Teenage Kicks to open the lines.
Paul
December 23, 2010 at 10:22 pm
I think it was Trevor Dann who came up with the format, and he got a £500 bonus because it had a big impact on ratings. Shortly afterwards he was hauled before the BBC governors who demanded to know why the station was giving away big prizes to win an audience.