How Border-Blaster Radio Station The Mighty 690 Led an Early-’80s Treasure Hunt

Image by Mercedes Del Real

As an 11-year-old kid in the summer of 1981, life was, by all discernible metrics, pretty cool. Even in the nascent months of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, very little seemed of consequence—or even important, for that matter—in the lives of Southern California teenagers. Except perhaps for radio. And just like the physical ecosystem in which they operated, local radio stations had their own distinct pecking order. There was KROQ-FM 106.7 for the cool kids, KMET for those who adopted their parents’ taste for classic rock and 91X from San Diego for the ultra-hip. But for the rest of us in the vast middle, there was the Mighty 690, a Top 40 station filled with booming voices of DJs with cool names such as Michael Boss and constant rotation of almost-caustic pop music.

Dating back to 1961, XETRA-AM, which advertised and branded itself as “The Mighty 690” during the 1980s, was one of many so-called “border-blaster radio stations,” transmitting on a 10,000-watt platform from a tower located on the outskirts of Tijuana. In 1981, the concept of listening to a radio station broadcast from nearly 200 miles away was about as close to globalism as was available.

On one Sunday night in late June of that year, Michael Boss announced that the Mighty 690 would hold a contest dubbed the “Summer of $50,000.” Details were to follow.

Radio contests were nothing new. But with the proliferation of new Southern California stations and formats, the ante had been raised, and listenership was competitive.

The station was going to literally bury $50,000 in cash somewhere between the international border and the San Fernando Valley, or as far as the signal would reach. Starting the following morning, the station would give out a series of cryptic clues that listeners would piece together to ultimately reveal the location of the buried treasure.

At its simplest, the contest had both the childish allure of a circus carnival and the sad sophistication of a technological medium realizing its limits. But for all of its possibilities, the contest was also a great equalizer. A listener from East LA had as much chance as an 11-year-old still trying to figure out sixth grade.

As I recall, the clues themselves were no more sophisticated than one of the Hardy Boys mystery books that were so popular in school libraries at the time. The first clue narrowed down the search area to “somewhere in Southern California.” Although I can’t recall with any specificity, the second clue was no more helpful than suggesting the money was buried either in downtown Los Angeles or near the water in San Diego. The third and fourth clues, as remembered, pointed to either dirt fields near Dodger Stadium or some unnamed sports venue in San Diego proper.

I do remember just as the clues began to narrow that I had convinced my grandfather, Max, to be at the ready sometime in the next week or two with his gold Oldsmobile Cutlass and a shovel. Just in case.

But I was too late.

On a Sunday that August, one of the DJs announced that the $50,000 had been found. I recall that the money was found by an immigrant family that figured out the clues and dug behind home plate at the old Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. But recollections like that are often rife with revisionist charm. I didn’t know if I had remembered it right.

As it turns out, I hadn’t.

The contest run by the Mighty 690 in 1981 actually had its origins a bit further east, in San Bernardino County. The idea for the “Summer of $50,000” was the brainchild of Ted Ziegnebusch, onetime station manager and program director during XETRA’s formative years and now an “on-air” talent for KOST-FM in Los Angeles.

Ziegenbusch says he would listen to KMEN-AM as a child in the largely undeveloped areas of Upland and Pomona, roughly 60 miles east of Los Angeles. “The local radio station [KMEN] would periodically run a contest called ‘Treasure Hunt,’ where they would bury either a key or a chest with cash in a local farmer’s field,” he recalls. “The DJs on KMEN would give clues as to its whereabouts, and my friends and I would pore over a topographic map of the area with a magnifying glass, trying to pinpoint where it was.” Local retailers would get in on the action by posting physical signs with the clues provided by KMEN in store windows or local garages for those who had missed the earlier radio broadcast. “You can’t do anything like that anymore,” Ziegenbusch lamented. “With the advent of social media, the secret would be out before the treasure was even buried.”

Desperate to beat the ratings of burgeoning competitors such as KFI, the Mighty 690 hired consultants for its contest, as well as to boost ratings. “But the station folks didn’t like much of what they had to offer,” Ziegenbusch says. “The concept for a buried treasure contest was gold.”

Along with Chris Torick and Frank Felix, two other members of the programming staff at Mighty 690 during the early 1980s, Ziegenbusch distinctly recalls, the station intended to “milk the contest for as long as they could.” As a result, most clues “walked a delicate balance between providing the exact location for the cash and stringing listeners along just enough that they would listen to what at the time were high-production-value commercials.”

Of course Ziegenbusch was right—the contest lasted nearly 12 weeks and interest was perpetuated by word of mouth. In a stinging twist of irony, the actual money was not buried. In fact, it was not money at all. As Ziegenbusch corrected me, the treasure was actually an 8.5-inch-by-11-inch placard with a phone number the winner would call to arrange the pick up of a $50,000 check.

And the winner wasn’t the immigrant family I had imagined, but rather an unemployed twentysomething who was still living with his parents. And the location? No digging required. The placard had been placed behind the license plate of an old Buick that had been parked at the Redondo Beach pier for nearly the entire summer.

So my recollection was not only off geographically by about 200 miles, but also the whole notion of buried treasure being unearthed in an archeological frenzy was totally wrong. But that’s okay. Current consensus suggests that, as a society, we now seem more interested in debunking urban myths than celebrating them. That’s too bad. When I regale my children with urban legends such as the Mighty 690 contest, their eyes tend to glaze over. But I’m hopeful that somewhere in between the Snapchatting and Instagram follows, they can pause—even if for a second—to look back at how cool inaccurate and faded memories can be.

Alex Cherin is an attorney and lobbyist based in Los Angeles.

20 Replies to “How Border-Blaster Radio Station The Mighty 690 Led an Early-’80s Treasure Hunt”

  1. 91X didn’t kick in its “ultra hip” format until ’83 – unless of course you had a special radio in ’81 that broadcast from the future.

  2. They say there are no ideas in promotion – only those that the market either hasn’t heard before or doesn’t remember. And this is one that locally goes back further than you mention. Probably further than I’m about to mention. In 1958 no San Diego station broadcast with 50kw. Geogrphically, it wasn’t necessary. But KCBQ decided it sounded good to national advertisers, so they celebrated their transmitter move to rural Santee and power increase to 50kw with a contest to find $50k “hidden” but not necessarily buried somewhere in San Diego. Don’t remember who won but the location turned out to be a lamp post near the waterfront at what used to be the Coronado Ferry landing.

    1. I remember the KCBQ Treasure very well! (At least I think I do! Lol). I believe it was around either Lincoln’s or Washington’s Birthday as we listened for clues as we drove back from The National Date Festival in Indio, Ca.
      My Mom drove my girlfriend & I all over looking for that! I think we thought it was somewhere in East San Diego. As I remember whatever it was we were looking for was in a lipstick tube. My Mom was always up for anything & we had a blast! (Now…. I wonder just how much of what I remember was actually true!)

  3. “…transmitting on a 10,000-watt platform…” Both 690 and the old XERB (later XEPRS) on 1090 did cover SoCal from the Tijuana area. However, both stations stated 50,000 watts of power, and transmitted with at least that much juice, if not a tad more.

  4. Spring 1957 brought us the original “Mighty 690” XEAC (later XEAK, later XETRA) with SoCal’s first “Top 40.” 50,000 watts from Tijuana. Then, January 1958 brought KFWB, KABC, KHJ trying in Los Angeles.

    1. If you are the same Ric Wayman whose dad was a big-wig at Magnasync/Movieola in North Hollywood … if you hung around nights (9 to midnight) at KDXU St George, Utah in 1977 … and if you were the best “gofer” the Bossman ever had… and if you witnessed his nightly experiment, known as “The Unidentified Flying Air Show” (a Frankenstein of programs that created an immediate cult following and caused listeners to build bonfires in the desert years before Burning Man) … then, YES, you SAW that FCC license!

  5. Alex, your article is a real kick and was a joy to read. However I would like to offer some clarification: Ted Ziegenbusch hired me as production director during the first week of January, 1981 (3 and a half months after The Mighty 690 went on air). Ted left the Noble Organization soon after that. He was long gone when we ran with the 50k thing. Treasure hunts had been a staple of radio for decades–even at that time. We could down several rounds of cocktails while Kris Anderson, Roger Agnew and Frank Felix discussed whose idea it really was. These are the guys who kicked off The Mighty 690 in the first place. By the way, Chris Torick was a great kid but he was never on the programming team. He answered telephones for us and assisted the promotions people. And we have him to thank for the Mighty 690 tribute “station” on the web. Frank Felix was THE programming genius. And he gave Kris Anderson and myself the job of writing all the clues for the 50k treasure hunt. We wrote them but had no more idea than you where the treasure actually was. What an irony! The clues really told you where the treasure was NOT located. Again, kudos for your literary effort. An enjoyable read. Your perceptions of The Mighty 690 as an eleven year old kid is a prime example of how old school radio could capture the imagination.
    Best Regards–Michael Boss (Mighty 690 afternoon drive guy)

  6. Alex, your article is a real kick and was a joy to read. However I would like to offer some clarification: Ted Ziegenbusch hired me as production director during the first week of January, 1981 (3 and a half months after The Mighty 690 went on air). Ted left the Noble Organization soon after that. He was long gone when we ran with the 50k thing. Treasure hunts had been a staple of radio for decades–even at that time. We could down several rounds of cocktails while Kris Anderson, Roger Agnew and Frank Felix discussed whose idea it really was. These are the guys who kicked off The Mighty 690 in the first place. By the way, Chris Torick was a great kid but he was never on the programming team. He answered telephones for us and assisted the promotions people. And we have him to thank for the Mighty 690 tribute “station” on the web. Frank Felix was the programming genius. And he gave Kris Anderson and myself the job of writing all the clues for the 50k treasure hunt. We wrote them but had no more idea than you where the treasure actually was. What an irony! The clues really told you where the treasure was NOT located. Kudos for your effort. An enjoyable read. Your perceptions of The Mighty 690 as an eleven year old kid listening is a prime example of how old school radio could capture the imagination.
    Best Regards–Michael Boss (Mighty 690 afternoon drive guy)

    1. I was there when the 50k was found. It was inland from Del Mar in San Diego County. I followed the clues with my daughters for over a month and drove from Westlake Village to the park it was found in. My daughter and I were the first in the park and unfortunately we only had our car radio to keep listening. It was found in the park and the round and round and round she goes where she stops only the mighty six ninety knows clue was the little merry-go-round that most public parks have. The final clue was 50 feet from The Green Monster…..that meant the baseball field. We arrived at the park around 10:00am and the prize was found about 4 hours later when at least 1000 people had arrived to the park. The Park was related to one of the early clues about “San Franquitos”. Thats all I remember and the guy who found it arrived 3 hours after us and had listened to his car radio as he drove south from Camarillo. With the clues he heard while driving he was able to locate the little treasure chest hidden beneath some leaves. It was fun ! We were not so dissappointed when we heard he would get 5k a year for the next 10 years.

  7. I remember back when I was a kid, I was calling in to one of those radio contests, they were giving away a Michael Jackson Off The Wall record. I don’t remember what caller it had to be, but I was the winner! And I never picked it up ? Well… I was a kid and I didn’t know how to get there. Hey Mighty 690 if you are reading this I would like my record, PLEASE!!!

  8. Okay I am here for complete clarification. I was 14 at the time and my brothers were 16 and 17. My mother, myself, and my 16 year old brother worked tirelessly on the clues that summer. If I remember correctly there were two $50,000 give awards that summer. I don’t remember the second one much because we couldn’t win. We had won the first. There were clues like X marks the spot and an elephant has one too. Low and behold it was waking the license plate iif a 1969 Buick Riviera parked on a side street on Balboa Island. The car was dirty and covered in leaves after being left there for so long. Before you guys think back and remember how lucky you thought we were you should know…. the pay-out was not $50,000 cash it was $500 a month for 100 months. An extra $500 a month was great until you realized it was taxable and that amount put you in a higher tax bracket. Lol. All this being said it was probably the most fun I had in all the summers as a teenager. That was a very long time ago but I still have great memories of the search. The second one that summer I believe was found at the Whittier Narrows Damn area. Thanks Mighty 690 for the fun memories.

  9. Great story. Back east, WIBG/Philadelphia had a “Phantom Phone” contest in 1971 where the winner would get $1000.00 if that winner dialed the Phantom Phone number and it rang in the studio. I worked for the phone company at the time and knew the installer that hard wired a black dial phone in the air studio. He would not tell me the number. Every hour the station would “open the phantom phone” and listeners would try to ring it. The station milked the contest for a good two weeks with simple clues, in the meantime hundreds of people in Philadelphia were getting calls at all odd hours of day and night. The phone company ordered the contest halted and changed the Phantom Phone number, but the ringer in the studio was left active. They milked the contest for another two weeks with this new number. I figured out the number was 825-3160. They opened the contest line at 7:10 am on a Monday and took a winning caller as I could not get through. The DJ was stunned when he had the winner on the line as I dialed the number and it rang loudly in the studio, drowning out the winners’ shouts of joy. The DJ answered the Phantom Phone and said “sorry” as I said an expletive.

  10. What a wonderfully written article, made it all come alive Alex. I am delighted to see this passion of yours and will no doubt buy the novel you are releasing and hopefully will get my own signed copy. I grew up in Northern NJ and listened to WPLJ in NYC during those one or two decades. I certainly remember being glued to the radio for so many contests, engaging conversations and awesome 70s and 80s music. To this day, no generation of music seems richer in lyrics and cords to me, buy hey, I am probably biased. It is delightful to see the comments and memories here of your readers including the DJ. Congratulations.

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