Re: free cell phone numbers for stations?

[Eli Sherer <eli@tiac.net>]

Most of the deals are indeed barter for mention deals. I think it was the 
old CellOne who was doing the original deals with 'BZ (and in fact, the 
deal was with Metro Traffic/'BZ for the mentions associated with reporting 
traffic). The deal fell apart a couple of years back but they scrambled and 
found another vendor. No one pays anything for it in cash (though I have 
heard of some of these set up as reverse charge to a toll-free number... 
i.e. the * or # code is translated to a toll-free number that the talk 
station may have set up. to get more listeners to call in).

Most stations will do one of these deals with one carrier, thus the 
confusion when it doesn't work on another carrier's phone.

On the other hand... not all of these calls are free! sometimes air time 
charges apply unless the station says specifically they don't. Might want 
to check your bills when they come in!

At 12:13 AM 8/9/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>Date: Thu, 08 Aug 2002 23:57:55 -0400
>From: Ron Bello <RBello@BelloAssoc.com>
>Subject: Re: free cell phone numbers for stations?
>
>Don't know whether Mel paid anything but *1030
>is mentioned on air during traffic reports.
>
>
>At 12:39 PM 8/8/02 -0400, Garrett Wollman wrote:
> ><<On Thu, 08 Aug 2002 10:13:05 -0400, Ron Bello <RBello@BelloAssoc.com> 
> said:
> >
> > > *1030 does not work with Voicestream
> >
> >All of these deals are negotiated individually by each station with
> >each carrier.  If you don't hear any trade-out Voicestream spots on
> >WBZ, chances are pretty good they don't have a deal.  (I would be
> >shocked if Mel were willing to actually pay cash for this service as
> >the state does.)

-Eli