Cate’s Column #13

Radio Contest Withdrawals

I didn’t win KLPZ’s iPhone giveaway contest. It was probably all for the best, I mused as I sat dejectedly in my lifeless Jeep. I didn’t need another expense. I turned the key again. Click.

Dagnabbit.

Then the hood latch release broke off in my hand. DAGnabbit!

I wandered back to the house and turned on the radio. The KLPZ crew was taking calls for a You Call it Friday quiz and there were not many callers. Maybe all us listeners were going through contest withdrawals.

Keith said, “Okay, nobody else wants to get in? I guess we’ll just have to play with ourselves.”

That struck me as too funny to pass up and I grabbed the phone.

Keith answered, “Good morning, HI! You’re on the radio.”

“I can’t very well leave you guys playing with yourselves now, can I? I’ll play.”

“Cate, let me ask you a question,” I recognized John’s voice. “You played hard for the iPhone; do you think that now you will purchase one for yourself?”

“Naaah, John. I don’t think so. I need a new car. Me not winning the iPhone was probably all for the best.”

I had not considered buying an iPhone. John was right, I played hard — like an obsessed teenager — but the thrill was in the hunt. Just getting through on the telephone when I heard the Jimmy Buffett song was fun for me with my memories of growing up in a small town with little to do except call the local radio station.

Besides, it seemed the iPhone was more toy than tool. I know people say they use their iPhones for research but the results of studies they post are mostly odd facts about human anatomy; mainly the naughty bits.

I also feared the gadget was way beyond my skill set. I have never seen, much less sent, a text message. Techno-saur, yes, but willing to learn.

Keith won the Friday quiz for me and now I’m looking forward to eating a nice lunch. Yay, something I know how to do!

Monday I felt even more like a teenybopper. A KLPZ listener tallied the contest entries and gave a report on the radio. Out of more than one thousand entries, a dozen listeners only called once. The man who won the iPhone had 65 entries.

And the listener with the most entries?

“Cate — out there in Bouse. She had 80 entries. She played hard!”

Like an obsessed teenager, but now with a beet red face.

I wonder what KLPZ’s next contest will be?

# # #

Cate Mueller is a web designer, editor, reporter and photographer in Bouse, Arizona. To visit her website, click here.