A Perth radio listener has objected to Austereo’s national $50,000 January cash giveaway competition, claiming it was deceptive and misleading for Perth listeners.
In a complaint letter sent to Western Australia’s Department of Consumer Protection, and copied to radioinfo, the man (who will remain unnamed at this time), claims Austereo’s 92.9 “deliberately deceived their listeners into believing that Christy was a Perth winner”.
National competitions of this type have been criticised before for not giving listeners a fair chance to win the major prize, but the current complaint is not objecting to that element of the competition, which is disclosed on Austereo websites in the Terms and Conditions section.
The Perth man’s complaint is that the winning call was bogus and deceptive because it led listeners to believe the winner was from Perth, although she was actually from Queensland.
He uses the on air transcript of 92.9 presenter Sal’s call to the winner at 4.05pm Friday 14th January 2005 to support his case:
Sal: All right, I’m not going to put you through the misery any longer, I’m going
to make the call right now to the person who has won $50,000.
(One ring)
Sal: Hello – is that Christy?
Winner: Yes it is
Sal: Christy, just wanted to know what your plans are for the weekend?
Winner: I have a christening on Sunday, but that’s about it for the moment.
Sal: Are you planning on going out and celebrating, or anything like that?
Winner: No, coz next week is a 21st and it’s going to be a huge one then
Sal: Right – right – well if I were you, I would -. Ah .. pencil something in for
Saturday night because you’ve just won $50,000!
Winner: are you serious!?
Sal: Oh my God Christy! What are you going to do?
Winner: I just bought a brand new Mazda 3, so I’m going to pay that off – and most
probably put a house deposit on.
Sal: And I think you might have to go to the pub, young lady.
Winner: Yeah, I think I’m going to be at the pub tonight with all my mates. My shout
for once, usually I bum off everybody else
Sal: Congratulations Christy – I tell you what, I finish work at 7 and I’ll be there.
Winner: Excellent. I’ll see you there. Look for the person with a huge grin and a
lot of money going around
Sal: Congratulations Christy!
Winner: thank you.
Sal: Aaah .. this is a favourite part of my job – handing out money that is not mine,
to people that are going to have more money than me.”
Defending the competition teasers and winner revelation, 92.9 Program Director Jason Walkerdon has told radioinfo:
“Most people understand this type of competition now and the fact that it is national is in the terms and conditions on our website. To be able to offer such a significant prize out of survey in a market this size we must make it a national competition and have only one national winner.
“In small markets we couldn’t afford to do it any other way.
Addressing the allegations put by the complainant, Jason Walkerdon says:
“Sal did call the winner just moments after she had got off the phone with Kyle and Jackie O, who were the voice of the competition in the other states. She went through the same scenario of telling her she had won for the Perth audience.
“Our audience isn’t aware of Kyle and Jackie, they are not heard on our station as regular presenters as they are in other states, that is the only reason we re-did it. We don’t take Kyle and Jackie on this station so their voices on the call would not have been recognized by our listeners.
“There may have been deception if Sal had asked ‘where are you working?’ or ‘what suburb are your from?’ and she had pretended the winner was in Perth, but we didn’t do that. [The winner] was still excited. It was real, we didn’t pretend she was in Perth. We don’t say she’s from Brisbane either… We were not trying to be deceptive, just doing a winners call.
“If this gentleman had played and won the same could have happened to him.”
Walkerdon says the station has not received any complaints about the competition.
The complainant however takes a different view, writing in his letter to the state’s consumer department:
“This call is the ultimate con for Perth listeners. The winner was in
fact Christy Zammit from Ormeau, just outside of Brisbane, who in fact
listens to B105 in Brisbane and had been called by B105 [earlier] and
congratulated on winning the $50,000.
”However, Sal and 92.9 weren’t to be deterred from pretending that it was a
Perth winner . Sal even suggested she was going to meet her at the pub, which
would have been a pretty neat trick, as it was about 4,000 km’s away!
”It’s interesting to note that B105 are on the air congratulating their winner
as Christy Zammit from Ormeau, and 92.9 are carefully avoiding any mention of
where Christy is from… Could 92.9 be any more misleading and deceptive to their listeners?”
The complainant, who is either very fast at transcribing text from the radio, or has a lifetime subscription to Media Monitors, has sent the text of all the teasers leading up to the 4.05 pm call as well. Here are his transcripts:
2.02pm Friday 14th January 2005.
Sal said:
92.9 Perth’s hit music station.
Hello –Sal with you this arvo.
Oh my god. I am so excited because this afternoon I get to give somebody
$50,000.
It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
I feel like Santa and sometimes I am sometimes I am mistaken for Santa from
behind.
2.40pm Friday 14th January 2005.
Sal said:
92.9 Perth’s hit music station.
Sal with you this arvo, and as Kath & Kim would say, I’ve got a feeling in my
waters that I’m going to be making a phone call to give someone $50,000 cash
within the next hour.
If you’re in the draw, you’d better be hanging out near your telephone.
I’ll do it soon here at 92.9.
2.49pm Friday 14th January 2005.
Sal said:
A lot of nervous people sitting out there by their telephones coz they all
know they are in the draw for $50,000.
And you know it’s a huge thing – it can completely change your life.
I’m just thinking – should I do it – should I do it now? Nah – I’m gonna make
you squirm a little bit more.
I’m gonna do it here soon here at 92.9.
3.01pm Friday 14th January 2005.
Sal said:
92.9 Perth’s hit music station.
Just had a massive barrel full of entries for the $50,000 draw been wheeled
into my tiny little studio.
If you are in the draw I’ll be doing it within the hour.
Start sitting by your phone people.
The complainant notes here that the terms and conditions say the draw will not actually take place in Sal’s studio: “The major prize draw will take place at 5pm AEST on Friday 14 January 2005 at
2DAY FM of Level 24, Tower One, 500 Oxford Street, Bondi Junction NSW 2022.
The draw will be an electronic random draw. The first entry drawn will win the
major prize.”
Further teasers continued:
3.49pm Friday 14th January 2005.
Sal said:
Sal with you this arvo on 92.9.
Hey – if you are in the draw for that $50,000 start hovering around your
telephone.
I’m going to do it in the next 15 minutes here at 92.9.
3.55pm Friday 14th January 2005. Sal said:
Deanne has got the news and traffic next, and somebody is going to win $50,000.
Oh my god I’m so excited!
The winner call came shortly after the news (as above).
radioinfo has received no word yet on whether Western Australia’s consumer affairs department will take the matter further.