Well my friends, I am a little disheartened tonight as I found a random blog page on z99’s website stating that on jan 9th “Buzz” announced the regional winner of the z99 radiostar contest.
Jeffery Straker
http://jeffstraker.com
It looks like Jeff has put a good deal of work in, and though he is now situated out of Toronto, grew up Sask. just like me. I want to congratulate him on the great opportunity he now has, and I will definitely be supporting him at CMW in Toronto in March where he will now go on to showcase and compete for the $10,000 prize.
My sadness mostly comes of frustration and exhaustion. Dec 12th was the due date to have songs in to Z99, and I drove two days from Vancouver to get mine in on time. I had worked crazy hard on these songs both in Nashville, and then recording in Vancouver, with the help of Tayo Branston, Neil Towers, and Gabe Boothroyd also playing on the songs. Not to mention Cody Guha putting in long 12 hour days at the studio, and all the students at Columbia Academy who helped make that session happen.
I came back to Regina full of hope that this time things looked pretty good. The contest rules said there would be a “combination of public voting and an industry panel of judges” deciding the winner. I knew that my friends and supporters and people both in Regina and elsewhere alike, would band together to help me try to win through their voting.
It wasn’t until about three weeks had gone by since dec. 12th, and nothing went up on the website, no one had contacted me from the station, and no one was returning my calls that I started to get a very bad feeling…that things weren’t going to go as promised. On Jan 4th I got this email in response to my queries about when the voting would begin for the contest from Carla in the promotions department:
“Hi Valerie,
Sorry that no one was able to respond to your inquiry until now.
There will be no voting system for this contest - we will be announcing the
local winner Jan. 5-14.
Best of luck to you!
Thanks,
Carla”
So with that it was clear that Z99 would be simply “choosing a winner” and with nothing about any entrants at all being listed on the website (as most of the other stations across Canada were doing), there was nothing I could do but stay in Regina, as late as Jan 14th if need be, and wait. Wait and see what happened.
Here it is January 13th, and I figured by tomorrow at least they would finally decide. I had been checking the contest page and the events page on z99’s website where the contest rules and advertisements were listed, and checking every single day for that matter.
Tonight I saw the random blog entry come up in the google search engine when I typed in the usual “z99 radiostar” keywords to search.
It showed they announced Jeff as the winner on the z99 Blog, not even where the contest info was posted, and they did it on Jan 9th. So no one in that time has bothered to contact me, while I continued to wait patiently everyday like a sucka ☺ And I suspect no one will be contacting me.
Overall, I can’t hold anything against Jeff, as he has obviously put a lot of energy into his career as well. So I hope he will do very well and wish him the best. And I can’t expect things to change and them to reverse the decision either!
But I am crushed at the way z99 handled this “contest”.
I put everything I had into it, which now looking back, makes me feel quite foolish. I really believed I had a shot this time… and I sacrificed everything from paying for an apartment down in Nashville for two months while I was up here working on this, working as a security guard in Vancouver again while I was there to keep the funds coming in, and in the end even having to watch a relationship that meant the world to me crumble as the peak of the pressure came from getting my entry just right, and in the nick of time, and continuing to pursue every chance like it could be the break I need.
It’s moments like these where you stop and look back, and wonder what things might be like now if you had done things differently.
Thank you for everyone who gave their support about this contest and who were willing to vote even though we never got the chance! It meant a lot to me, and so did being in Regina for a whole MONTH! I got to catch up with so many of you I haven’t seen in such a long time, I got to sing with Def3 at his CD release a song that was so close to my heart as a tribute to our fallen friends Dwayne Dejarlais and Edward Lugt, I got to see Jordan Eberle score an amazing goal on TV at the world Jr’s, and then I got to see him play in person at a Pat’s game, with friends and family there as well. I drank Mead at McNally’s, I played Jam night and chilled at the Gaslight, I had a great Christmas with my family, and a hilarious New Years with old friends.
I’m heading back to Nashville on Thursday morning. Now more than ever I want to kick ass. Everyone has been so supportive since I’ve been home, and I’m not about to let Z99 have the last laugh. I can’t say that everything that was sacrificed to enter that contest was worth it, but being in Vancouver for a month, and Regina for a month, and getting a chance to spend time with the people I love most in this whole world DEFINITELY was worth it. As always, I will really miss you guys 
Back to the south I go…