GREENWOOD — How far would you be willing to go to win a new car? Four Hoosiers put their eardrums through the wringer in a radio station contest 25 years ago this month.
WZPL-FM kicked off its second Live In It To Win contest at the Greenwood Park Mall on March 22, 1997.
Contestants had to sit inside a new Plymouth Breeze and listen to nothing but the Macarena for two weeks straight.
Contestants were allowed to take a five-minute break every three hours, but they weren’t allowed to change their clothes.
Each participant raised money for breast cancer research and if more than one person made it to the end of the two-week competition, the person with the most money raised would win the car.
Barry Inskeep, Shawn Jones, Adam Larkin and Debra Waldrup were all up to the challenge.
“I'm getting married in June so I'm going to concentrate on that,” Adam Larkin told WRTV.
In a follow up interview a few days later, Larkin told WRTV, “The Macarena is starting to get on my nerves a little bit. It’s blaring in the ear a little bit. It’s hard to sleep, especially at nighttime. The mall’s so quiet it’s loud.”
Debra Waldrup was the first and only contestant to be eliminated from the competition during its two-week run. Waldrup returned late from a break.
After two weeks in the car, Jones, Inskeep and Larkin had listened to the Macarena more than 5,000 times.
The three men raised nearly $10,000. Shawn Jones raised the most money totaling more than $4,000 which meant he was the lucky winner of the Plymouth Breeze.
Jones told WRTV, “My wife's at home she had to work, but I love you, we did it honey, we did it!"
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