Radio contest winner sues over offer of 100 Grand candy bar instead of cashLEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A woman who won a radio contest that promised the winner “100 grand” sued after the station gave her a candy bar — a Nestle’s 100 Grand — instead of $100,000 US.
Norreasha Gill filed a complaint Wednesday in Fayette District Court against Atlanta-based Cumulus Media, which owns WLTO-FM in Lexington, Ky. Gill, 28, says the station and its parent company breached a contract to pay $100,000 to the contest winner.
Night host DJ Slick sponsored the station’s contest to “win 100 grand,” Gill said in the lawsuit. Gill won by listening to the radio show for several hours and being the 10th caller at a specified time.
She went to the radio station the next morning to pick up her prize, but was asked to return later. When she got home, she found that the station manager had left a message explaining she had won a 100 Grand candy bar, not money.
Later, he offered her $5,000, Gill said.
“I said I wanted $95,000 more,” she said. “Nobody would watch and listen for two hours for a candy bar.”
DJ Slick did not return an e-mail from the Herald-Leader, but he said on his website that he had left his job. WLTO and Cumulus declined to comment, identify DJ Slick by his given name or say whether he was fired.
Experts said the radio station could face action by the Federal Communications Commission, which licenses radio stations.
FCC regulations say contest descriptions can’t be false or deceptive and stations must conduct contests as advertised. Stations in two other states have been fined for contests that told listeners they’d won cash prizes without specifying they were in the Italian or Turkish lira, not the U.S. dollar.
Before her family went to sleep that night, Gill says, she promised her children — ages 1, 5 and 11 — that they’d have a minivan, a shopping spree, a savings account and a home with a back yard.
“What hurts me is they were going to get me in front of my children, all dressed up, and hand me a candy bar, after all those promises I made to them,” she told the Lexington Herald-Leader. “You just don’t do that to people.”
A prank in Florida led to a similar lawsuit that was settled in 2002. A former waitress claimed Hooters promised to award her a new Toyota car — but instead gave her a toy Yoda.
― Huk-L, Friday, 24 June 2005 18:34 (twenty years ago)
djs think they're so fucking clever.Yeah, despite the fact that anyone with even a passing familirity with the law could grok that this is deceptive practice, and quite illegal. And then if taken to court, there's no way they could win. The "I was only joking" defense doesn't generally go over so well. And there's precedent to this! This is not the first time a radio station has tried this exact same shit, been sued, and lost. And not one station manager or company man anywhere stepped in and said, "You cannot do this. It's illegal." Instead they apparently greenlighted it. It's obviously a whole organization of morons, from the bottom up.
― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Friday, 24 June 2005 19:32 (twenty years ago)
Hey what does the lex vegas crew have to say about this?
My guess is that the DJ did this on his own, spur-of-the-moment, and later got fired for it. If the station manager had signed off on it (which no mgr worth their salt would have) this woman would have been dealt with in a different way--it seems obvious that instead she showed up at the station and nobody had any idea what was going on, so she was told to come back when the DJ was there. Meanwhile, the PD calls the DJ, asks him what the hell is going on, gets the story, and then calls the woman.
― teeny (teeny), Friday, 24 June 2005 19:44 (twenty years ago)