I had forgotten all about it, particularly since I don’t recall listening to Y-93 since the late 1980s. Those were the cool days of KYYY, with people like Bob Beck, Olivia DeYoung, Loren Gray, Pat Buchella, and Bruce Elscott. Obviously Bob and Lori are still around town, but they’re no longer at Y-93.

Anyway, back to the cash call. I was poking around in the storage room as I often do, and I forget what I was even looking for. Among the things I found, however, was this old tape from my high school days. Appropriately labeled, this tape contains a recording of when I won the Cash Call on Y-93 one morning during my sophomore year.

The way it worked was: they’d pick a dollar amount, always with 93 cents, and announce it periodically throughout the day. Then at 5:30 or so they’d pick a random number from the residential section of the phone book. If you were the lucky recipient of a call and could tell them the correct amount, you’d win it! They’d do the same thing through the evening with a winning call made early in the morning. That’s when Bob called me. He woke me up, but I was a faithful winner and blurted out the correct amount.

One other thing they would do is record the call and use it to promote the next Cash Call in a promo later in the day. I had a boom box ( in those days we called ’em “ghetto blasters” ) handy and was able to record the promo of the call that Bruce Elscott played in the afternoon. Wanna listen?

Click here to play the Cash Call and hear my groggy teenage voice (it will open in a new window and launch Windows Media Player).

I actually did pretty well on Y-93 contests. I won tickets, a promo copy of the Miami Vice Soundtrack on vinyl, the aforementioned Cash Call, etc. The winning stopped when I joined the Meyer Broadcasting team in 1990, though. I’m not sure if they were even doing the Cash Call at that point, but I was ineligible for any of the contests on any of the stations.

I still see Bob Beck, Loren Gray, and my other radio friends Brian ( “B-Man” ) and Crystal Reeves every now and then. Bob’s an avid motorcyclist, by the way, and the only guy I know who’s had a run-in with a buffalo with his Harley and lived. It’s fun to refer back to the good old days of the Meyer empire…but I think we’re all doing pretty well for ourselves these days too. And the $109.93? I did what any 15 year old kid would do: I spent most of it on my girlfriend and wasted the rest.

EDIT: I forgot to mention my “other” radio friends – Jason Hulm, Phil Parker, Mark Armstrong, Sid Hardt, Al Gustin… since I was in the mindset of “DJs” I overlooked these guys. Not that there’s anything wrong with being “just” a DJ. Oh heck, now I’ve dug myself ANOTHER hole… I love all you guys, okay? I’m just kinda scatterbrained, I guess.
🙂