Lackadaisical Dialing

We’ve covered what I would do if I had control of the morning drive-time radio. When I was a kid driving to high school, I got angry when all I could find on the FM dial was talk. Hell, as recently posted, it caused me make some minor improvements to the Volvo’s “system.” But now I’m in less of a need to hear music and more of a need to hear comedy…or sports. Or perhaps comedic sports. (But not that terrible show in the Ballston mall. That one’s as funny as a monkey with a cold.)

So switching between Elliot on DC101, the Junkies on WJFK, and ESPNRadio’s Mike and Mike in the Morning, I’ve done a fair job of enjoying my commute and preventing myself from going postal on rush-hour traffic. While my allegiance lies with the Junkies, if there’s a commercial, I’ll flip stations. Which is why I end up on Elliot every now and then.

The nice thing about DC101 is they have a far bigger promotions budget that the other two. Well, I suppose ESPN’s is larger than either of them, but when it comes to giveaways, their syndicated nature makes it a national audience. Chances of winning go from 1 in 100,000 to, let’s say 1 in Eleventy Billion. No matter, if I won a plasma TV now from them I’d just have to move it in four weeks. Stupid moving.

Like I said, Elliot has some pretty impressive things to give away to his local DC market. The big things come and go (boats, beach houses); but it’s a certainty that at some instant on my commute, the mad cackler with give away some tickets. And I, armed with a cell phone and plenty of time on my hands, occasionally call in for tickets.

Don’t misunderstand me – I’m not a crazy dialer where the local radio station is at the top of my speed dial, beating out wives, voicemails, and emergency response agencies (I don’t know why wives was plural. It means nothing.) Nor do I wait in my car for a contest to come up and wait for its conclusion long after I’ve pulled into my office parking spot. I take a more laid-back approach. If I’m in the car and the tickets seem appealing, I’ll call. If the winner hasn’t been announced when I get to work, I abort the cause. I don’t necessarily want the tickets; I’d just like to add some interest to my commute.

Such a mentality can explain why I’ve never won tickets from DC101.

Crazy people win tickets. People who can sit by their radio and with pinpoint precision dial at the perfect instant to attend something without having to offer any monetary compensation. I once won tickets to the Y100 (rip) Feztival in 2000. But they were giving away tickets every hour on the hour and I worked in an office that got decent FM reception. (By office, I mean the basement, some three stories below the surface of the earth at the Hendu Group. But hey, that’s where I first found Guster.)

So why was this morning any different?

In terms of the end result, it isn’t any different. I’m at work, and I have no new ticketed events to add to my Outlook Calendar. But I was on hold for ten minutes as a potential selection for tix to an acoustic Foo Fighters show in DC later in June. After getting through on the first try, I was told to wait and they would pick a winner at random. So I did. And when Random’s name wasn’t Chris Condon ten minutes later, the phone clicked and the improbable dream was over.

Eh, that’s okay. I had to turn into my parking spot.