This is one KAAY contest memory that sticks out in my mind, as a devoted station listener. A.J. Lindsey and others have told me that Pat Walsh loved this contest, and many times was the person manning the "Mobile Cash Cruiser," calling in the license number of a car or truck, giving them the opportunity to win money from "The Mighty Ten Ninety." Dale Seidenschwarz (Clyde Clifford) said that at times he thought Pat was a disc jockey wannabe.
This may not be the exact script, but it's from memory. Other former listeners or station staff members may recall it exactly, but here is an example:
This is the KAAY Mobile Cash Cruiser, driving behind a late-model blue Ford 2-door sedan, traveling West on Asher Avenue. If the driver of the vehicle is listening, and will pull over in a safe location, we'll award them $10.90--or--$100, if they have a KAAY For the People bumper strip, on the exterior portion of the automobile.
Contests and promotions were just some of the reasons people listened to KAAY. Before he died, Pat Walsh sent me several of these bumper strips for my use.
Richard Robinson
Richard, you remember Pat Walsh's Cash Cruiser spiel near-perfectly. Anything I could add would be hair-splitting, so here's a view from "inside."
ReplyDeletePat's Cruiser cut-ins always had the William Tell Overture (think "Lone Ranger" theme) playing in the background. I don't know whose idea it was, but I found it hilarious.
The Cash Cruiser was a huge green International Harvester vehicle. I can't remember if the designation was "TravelAll" or "Scout" (before the latter was re-introduced as a smaller rig), but it was an SUV decades before that concept appeared.
The phone system in the Cruiser was mounted on the transmission hump in the front floorboard. It had eight lighted pushbuttons, labeled A through H. In order to place a call, one had to be listening through the handset while punching through the buttons to find a channel that was not busy. Then, one had to use a rotary dial to call the station hotline!
I don't know how Pat did it all without crashing into other cars, but he did an amazing number of things that looked impossible to us mortals. The rest of us would generally do a Cash Cruiser run in pairs, one to drive and the other to work the phone.
Working for Pat Walsh was a wonderful experience after one got over being scared to death of him. There are hundreds of Walsh Stories, the great majority of them eloquently profane. I will search my memory banks to see if I've got one clean enough to post.
I know I say this too often, but it's especially true of Pat: We'll not see the likes of him again!
David B. Treadway
Doc Holiday VII