Calgary Radio Station Has Money To Burn

A number of Calgarians are expressing their outrage over an ongoing radio promotion which has resulted in $5,000 in Canadian currency reduced to a pile of cash instead of being provided to a listener.

CKMP 90.3 FM AMP Radio’s ‘$15,000 Bank It or Burn It’ campaign is polling the listening audience to decide whether a predetermined amount of cash should be destroyed or provided to a listener as a prizem according to calgary.ctvnews.ca.

AMP is encouraging Calgarians to vote either Bank or Burn by text message, Twitter, Facebook or by posting to AMP’s Radio app. Voters who selected Bank were asked to indicate their plans for the cash.

If the number of votes for the bank option exceeded the votes cast for burn, one of the listeners who chose to bank the money would be randomly selected to receive the cash prize.

Former AMP listener Candace Ortiz was shocked to see the initial video in which an employee of her favorite radio station destroyed a five dollar bill as a precursor to the contest.

On Friday, the result of the first vote was released and 54 per cent of the roughly 100,000 respondents chose to burn the $5,000 prize.

“Opening the envelope when it was handed to me on Friday morning was a heartbreaker,” said Ryan Lindsay, co-host of AMP Radio Calgary’s Ryan & Katie morning show. “We knew that the option was out there, but we never really thought that people would side with the burn side.”

The cash was transported to Pet Haven Crematorium and burned in the business’ incinerator. The radio station has posted a video of the burning of the cash on their website.



Listener Candace Ortiz was appalled to see the station followed through with their promise.

“As a person who has had moments in my life where I literally had to scrape change and pennies to buy milk for my son it kind of hit a nerve,” said Ortiz who believed turning the dial was her only recourse. “I was raised to respect the value of money and to appreciate the good that it can do.”

“It hurt me to see someone frivolously wasting something that could go to a better purpose.”

Starting today, the fate of the remaining $10,000 is in the hands of anyone with a cell phone or internet access.

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