Over the years, MJ and the crew have handed out a huge variety of prizes, from plastic surgery to Microsoft Surface Pro tablets to dash cams to Japanese rice cookers.
The MJ Morning Show’s contest this past week – dubbed “MJ Bill Pay” – was designed to kick off the new year by giving away a total of $20,000 to listeners to help them pay off their inflated holiday credit card bills. During every hour of the program, listeners could win $1,000 in cash by being a certain number caller and identifying the name of the previous hour’s winner.
During the 7 a.m. hour on Monday morning, a woman named Peggy called in and correctly identified the 6 a.m. winner to collect a cool grand. However, right before MJ was about to pass her over to Andrew, Fester piped up and asked Peggy whether they should mention who she actually was, totally throwing MJ for a loop. It turned out to be his 85-year-old aunt, his late mother’s sister, who happens to live in St. Petersburg.
Many radio station contests come with legal fine print about who is eligible to win. Because Peggy is related to Fester, the crew immediately investigated whether she was allowed to participate in the contest and win a prize on the station where her nephew works. It was determined that several categories of “immediate family” relatives were not eligible. However, aunts and uncles were not specifically included in the rules as being ineligible.
Later that morning after MJ and the crew signed off for the day, promotions director Tyson Jones sent out an internal email to the Beasley Media Group team which MJ read on the air about a new update to all contest rules. The language was updated to now include a mention of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Because this change was apparently made in response to Aunt Peggy winning, she still took home the money.
It just shows that you never know who is listening and calling in to radio stations. It also demonstrates that, on this rare occasion, Fester was actually honest about something for once.