"Jackpot Bingo"

[Michael Galante]

Back in the summer of 1986, a locally produced game show named "Jackpot
Bingo" aired here in Detroit on Channel 2. It was hosted by WHYT "Hot
Hits" Morning Man Bobby Mitchell and Ellie Smith-Litt.

People could stop by places like Arby's and Discount Video and pick up
Bingo Cards, then at 7:30pm watch as 60 numbers were called. If you
covered all the numbers on your card you could call in and win $100 -
$25,000.

I just got done watching my tapes of the show the sponsors were hoping
would beat WOF. I have the last show where the hosts almost admit it
was impossible to win the top prize! Does anyone in Detroit remember
this program? Did any other city air a program like this?

Michael

[Zach Horan]

>Does anyone in Detroit remember
>this program? Did any other city air a program like this?
>
>

>Does anyone in Detroit remember
>this program? Did any other city air a program like this?

Pittsburgh's WPXI NBC Channel 11 aired Jackpot Bingo at 7:30 From
February-December 1986. Top prize was $25K($50K if the jackpot doulbing number,
which was determined by spinning a wheel) was called. The most anyone ever won
was a $12K Mercury Cougar. One had to cover their entire card within 42 numbers
I think to win the top prize, and no one ever did that as far as I know. Bill
Cardille, WPXI weather guy, and Kate English were the hosts. For the Record,
Jackpot Bingo went up against Evening Magazine and the $1,000,000 Chance of a
Lifetime in Pittsburgh.

[JCS290]

WTAE Channel 4 in Pittsburgh also aired $25,000 Bingo Mania at about the
same time. Customers at Foodland got bingo cards printed on newsprint and
were valid for one week (trust me, Foodland had phenomenal business those
four weeks). The format was plain. Two news anchors would call numbers
one
at a time until someone called in the winning cover-all. There was also a
studio audience of about fifty people playing along.

[Mebranden]

In response to the following from "Michael Galante", which was posted to
a.t.g.s. on 9-8-1999:

»»»Back in the summer of 1986, a locally produced game show named "Jackpot

Bingo" aired here in Detroit on Channel 2. It was hosted by WHYT "Hot Hits"
Morning Man Bobby Mitchell and Ellie Smith-Litt.

…Does anyone in Detroit remember this program? Did any other city air a
program like this?
»»»

Assuming this game was played with standard Bingo cards (with 24 numbers
from 1 to 75), and the object was to get a cover-all Bingo in 60 called numbers
or less, it really wasn't that hard to win _anything_ on the show. I'm
assuming, though, that the prize went up from the $100 minimum if you got a
Bingo in fewer than 60 numbers.

You might head for your bookstore or public library and look for John
Scarne's _Complete Guide to Gambling_ — the "Bingo" chapter in it presents the
calculated odds of getting a cover-all Bingo in 50, 51, 52, etc., called Bingo
numbers.

By the way, we had the same game (called _TV Bingo_ at the time) in
Cincinnati in the early 1960s. It aired weekday afternoons on WKRC-TV, Channel
12, and they called 54 numbers out of the 75 in each day's game. You got the
cards for it at Parkview and IGA supermarkets in the area, and at one period,
you could also use the same cards to play "Musical Bingo" (a single-line game)
that aired weekday evenings on radio station WAEF-FM (now "Warm98/WRRM-FM).
But the prizes were much smaller back then (though my mother did win $100 once
on the radio game.)

Michael Brandenburg
(IRS employee since 1984 — and around here today, the high-stakes Bingo
games are "scratch-off" lottery games sold in both Ohio and Kentucky.)

[John Menjes]

We had a version of the Jackpot Bingo here in South Florida in the
mid-80s (?). It was called "$29,000 Blackut Bingo"--the odd number was
because the show aired on channel 29, WFLX, from Palm Beach. There were
in-studio players and home players. You won the jackpot if you filled
your card in 49 draws, and each successive draw was worth less money, up
to the end of the game on the 60th draw. Can't recall if anyone
actually won the jackpot, however.

John -- Welcome to my email,
where everything is made up
and the points don't matter.

[Mark Sinsabaugh]

I don't know of any "Jackpot Bingo" series in Rochester or Syracuse, but
was a version of your tradtional, straightline Bingo that ran for 2
years in the early 80's on Cable 12, the local access channel in
Canandaigua, NY (where I was living at the time).
Prizes were cash or gift certificates to local merchants/eateries.

If I can go OT for a moment. Since the subject of scatchoff lottery
tickets has been brought up here before, I'll mention that the New York
Lottery introduced Blackout Bingo, another spinoff of their popular
Bingo scratchoff game, a couple of weeks ago. If you can "darken" a
card in ~30 (?) "draws", you win $50,000 (You still win if you get a
line, "X", or the corners).

===============================================
Mark Sinsabaugh
http://www.redrival.com/baugh17

NET HIGH ROLLERS: RETURNING THIS FALL!!!

Visit My Net Games In Progress...Net Cross Wits
(http://www.geocities.com/televisioncity/stage/1199/net_x-wits/board.html)
and Net Caesar's Challenge
(http://www.geocities.com/televisioncity/stage/1199/net_caeschal/board.html).
===============================================
"I am serious. And don't call me Shirley"
- Leslie Nielsen (Airplane, 1980)

[John]

Outside of WIRED, I cannot name a bingo game in New York. (WIRED is tied to
the state lottery and has nothing to do with the 5x5 square 75 number game.
The lottery DOES have a bingo game, but it is not televised.) WIRED is a
project to get schools connected to the Internet. You ask me, it's a bad idea.
The Internet is an adult vice, even without www.sex.com, www.nazi.com,
www.beer.com and www.finecubancigarsbutdon'ttellthefeds.com, and should not be
encouraged otherwise. Pushing the Internet on kids is like pushing beer and
fine Cuban cigars on kids. Yes, there are some sites where kids can benefit,
but they are in the overwhelming minority.

http://members.aol.com/cyberjohns

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[Mark Jeffries]

And in Chicago at about the same time, WCIU, which was at that time a
Spanish-language station at night and had just lost SIN (now Univision) to
WSNS, had a bi-lingual Bingo show--I forget the actual title, but the hosts
were WGCI-FM personalities Bob Wall and Irene Mojica--Wall called the letters
in English and Mojica in Spanish. Some commercials were in English and some
were in Spanish (including a dubbed Saxon Paint Stores spot featuring the very
Anglo president of the company!).

It didn't last long--and neither did Wall's career after that show. Shortly
after the show ended, WGCI had to fire him after it was revealed that he and
his wife were having their way with kids in the neighborhood around their home.
Last I heard, he's in Arkansas but I don't know if he's in radio. Mojica's
still at 'GCI doing middays and runs a construction business building homes on
Latino communities in Chicago on the side.

Mark Jeffries--What *is* that song? It's driving me crazy!