
Forty years ago, a radio competition began in the Lehigh Valley and resulted in a worldwide media frenzy.
In an attempt to gain publicity, the staff of Allentown radio station WSAN-AM, which was undergoing a rebranding, decided to hold a contest on September 20, 1982.
It was dubbed a “endurance contest,” with three participants competing to see who could spend the longest on the platform of a WSAN billboard located in Whitehall Township, across from the Lehigh Valley Mall, off of Route 22.
A new mobile home would be awarded to the winner.
However, the competitors turned out to be more serious than anticipated, and it took 261 days, a drug bust, and entreaties from government officials to bring the competition to an end.
Ned Teter, a WSAN radio DJ who worked the entire competition, said, “We were all taken a little off guard.”
“You do realize that this occurred long before social media, cell phones, or anything else like that? In 1982, nothing becomes viral. However, this was picked up by a few major publications, and after that, there were waves upon waves of coverage.
A housing crisis
The contestants were:
Mike MacKay was a newlywed in his first year of marriage and had a job. In a 2017 documentary titled “Billboard Boys,” it is stated that MacKay submitted 47,000 contest entries to WSAN, stating that he was unable to afford housing even with a steady job. In 2006, MacKay passed away.
It is purported that Dalton Young entered roughly a thousand contests shortly after his release from the United States. military. While residing on the billboard, he was ultimately taken into custody by an undercover police officer for marijuana-related offenses.
There are rumors that Ron Kistler submitted 4,004 entries to the WSAN office. He claimed in the documentary that he was only competing for a house, not for attention.
For more than a year, the competitors occupied the billboard platform equipped with space heaters, tents, toilets, phones, radios, and even a pulley system that allowed loved ones to bring them food and other necessities.
Housing shortages in the Lehigh Valley in the early 1980s contributed to the competitors’ devotion. Mobile homes were not affordable because the region’s manufacturing industry was in decline, despite their valued $18,000 (roughly $55,000 today).
Teter remarked, “These were three guys that, you know, they’re out of work.” These unfortunate people served as a symbol of the era. In 1982, we were in the epicenter of the Rust Belt, where jobs were limited.
One person who is familiar with the story well claims that the Lehigh Valley’s current affordable housing crisis isn’t all that different.
The 2017 documentary “Billboard Boys” about the radio competition was directed by Pat Taggart.
According to Taggart, “there isn’t enough housing on the market, and prices are sky high. We have a different housing crisis today.” “Thus, while different, there is still a significant gap between the wealthy and the poor, as well as extreme economic stress both then and now.”
Public opinion sours
According to Taggart, the Lehigh Valley’s public sentiment toward the men on the billboard grew sour during the competition.
After about six months, the police accused Young of being a marijuana dealer while residing on the billboard. The Lehigh Valley residents then began to grow irritated with the competition.
“People’s perception had significantly changed from finding this fascinating and cool to thinking it was a disgrace to the Lehigh Valley,” according to Taggart. People driving by stopped to stare at the men on the billboard, saying, “You know, guy’s dealing drugs up there, and there was fender benders constantly,” Taggart said. Taggart said bystanders also used to hang out and party at the base of the billboard all night long and it was common to find empty beer bottles and other garbage underneath it in the mornings after a weekend.
An abrupt end
The competitors on the billboard were a constant source of pressure.
Following Young’s arrest and elimination from the competition, Taggart remarked, “You have two guys left – Mike MacKay and Ron Kistler.” “And they just stayed, making it very evident that they had no intention of leaving without a place to live.”
According to Taggart, the competitors’ focus shifted toward the end of the competition from competing against each other to competing against the radio station.
On June 7, 1983, WSAN and the contest’s sponsor, Love Homes, gave in to public and political pressure.
They offered a free vacation, a Chevy car, and a mobile home to each of the two surviving competitors.
That was the end when MacKay and Kistler descended from the billboard simultaneously.
The story will hopefully still be made into a feature film, according to director Pat Taggart.

Martin Couney, Saved Thousands of Premature Babies Wasn’t a Doctor at All
Martin Couney never qualified as a medical doctor. However, in the 1900s, he saved thousands of premature babies by exhibiting them in incubators at his Coney Island sideshow. Over the course of his career, he is said to have saved about 6,500 babies that had previously been written off by mainstream medicine.

What Was the Beast of Gévaudan?
Between 1764 and 1767, a mysterious animal called the Beast of Gévaudan terrorized the French village called Gévaudan. It attacked and killed about 100 adults and children. While most believe it was a wolf, some say it may have been a wolf-dog hybrid, hyena or even a lion, but without any genetic evidence, the beast will remain a mystery forever.

Saudi Arabia camel carvings dated to prehistoric era
Archaeologists were shocked to discover that a series of camels carved into desert rock faces in north-western Saudi Arabia are actually prehistoric, dating from 7,000-8,000 years ago - before either the Pyramids of Giza or Stonehenge were built.

The true story Of The Radium Girls that change US labor laws
Hundreds of young women worked in clock factories during World War I, painting watch dials with luminous radium paint. The company lied about the risk of radiation, claiming there was no danger, which resulted in the death of the young women.

Iranian inmate dies from happiness after finding out he will not be executed
An Iranian man who was convicted of murder reportedly died from happiness after learning that his death sentence was being commuted.

The Bizarre (And Magical) Duel Between Chung Ling Soo And Ching Ling Foo
Ching Ling Foo and Chung Ling Soo were two magicians from the early 20th century who were bitter rivals. While Ching Ling Foo was genuinely Chinese, Chung Ling Soo was actually a New Yorker named William Robinson.

Louis Le Prince Invented the motion picture camera, and then he mysteriously disappeared
Louis Le Prince, the inventor of motion pictures, vanished without a trace in 1890. Thomas Edison quickly claimed the title of "first and sole inventor of cinema," even taking Le Prince's son to court to dispute it. A few years later, the son also dies under mysterious circumstances.

Terry Fox, a 21-year-old one-legged cancer patient who ran 143 days before dying
Terry Fox was a 21-year-old one-legged cancer patient who ran 3,339 miles across Canada in 143 days before dying.

Tunnels Dug by ancient giant sloths, A South American Megafauna
For years, scientists didn’t know what caused mysterious cave networks in South America. In 2010, they learned that the caves were actually tunnels dug by ancient giant sloths

The worst blizzard in recorded history: the 1972 Iran blizzard
The deadliest snowstorm ever recorded occurred in Iran in 1972. It lasted for a week, burying areas in 26 feet of snow and killing over 4,000 people, including the entire populations of three villages.

How Dmitri Mendeleev Developed the periodic table of the elements
1850 Dmitri Mendeleev walked almost a thousand miles to Moscow so he could apply for the University of Moscow. Although he was not accepted, he walked to St. Petersburg where he was accepted, And with that education, he developed the the periodic table of the elements

Irena Sendler: woman who rescued Jews during holocaust
Irene Sendler was the Zegota resistance group's head of the children's department. She risked her life to smuggle children out of the Warsaw ghetto, place them with Polish families or orphanages, give each child a new identity, and keep records so that they could be returned to their families. In 1943, the Gestapo arrested and sentenced her to death, but she was rescued by Zegota.

Medals of Friendship: The Enduring Olympic Story of 1936
At the 1936 Summer Olympics, two Japanese pole vaulters named Sueo Oe and Shuhei Nishida tied for second, but they declined to compete against each other. As a result, Nishida was awarded the silver medal and Oe won a bronze medal. Upon returning to Japan, the athletes had their medals cut in half and spliced together to create new "friendship medals," which were half silver and half bronze.

The true story of Annie Oakley, legendary sharpshooter
Anne Oakley was such a good shooter that she could split a playing card help edge-on, hit dimes thrown into the air, shoot cigarette from her husband's lips, and pierce a playing card thrown into the air before it hit the ground.

Xin Zhui And The Story Of The Stunningly Intact Lady Dai Mummy
A 2,000-year-old mummy of a Chinese woman, Xin Zhui, also known as “Lady Dai,” was preserved in 21 gallons of an “unknown liquid.” With her original hair, organs, eyebrows, and eyelashes intact, the mummy still has blood in her veins. Her skin and ligaments are soft and as flexible as that of a living person.

The Day an Israeli F-15 Landed with One Wing: Zivi Nedivi’s Unbelievable Mid-Air Survival
Discover the astonishing true story of Israeli pilot Zivi Nedivi, who safely landed an F-15 after a mid-air collision tore off its entire right wing. Learn how skill, quick thinking, and the F-15’s unique design turned a disaster into a legendary feat in aviation history

Remembering the 1945 Empire State Building Disaster: When a Plane Met Skyscraper
An airplane crashed into the Empire State Building in 1945. Among other damage, plane parts severed the cables of an elevator and the woman inside fell over 70 stories. She lived and holds the world record for the longest survived elevator fall.

Why This Belgian Bar Makes You Trade Your Shoe for a Beer
To prevent tourists from stealing their beer glasses, some bars in Belgium require people to hand over one of their shoes as a deposit which is then put in a basket and hung from the ceiling. These shoe baskets have also become an attraction.

How did Howard Florey discover penicillin
Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming, but he never attempted to turn it into an antibiotic. It wasn't until ten years later that Howard Florey discovered Fleming's obscure paper and understood the mold's potential. Up to 200 million lives may have been saved as a result of Florey's work.

Ancient Jericho: The First Walled City In History
The ancient city of Jericho is the world's oldest walled city, with evidence of stone fortifications dating back nearly 9000 years.

What exactly was the US's 'Ghost Army' during WWII?
During WW2, there was a special unit of men dubbed the ‘Ghost Army’. The unit was made of artists, creative and engineers and their job was to create deception about the enemy. From inflatable tanks to phony convoys to scripted conversations in bars intended to spread disinformation, they used all possible tricks to fool the enemy.

The youngest person executed, George Stinney Jr was proven innocent
In 1944, George Stinney Jr. was 14 years old when he was executed in South Carolina. It took only ten minutes to convict him — and 70 years to exonerate him.

Poto And Cabengo: The Secret Language Of Twins
Poto and Cabengo, as the two girls called each other, communicated in their own language. The twins were ignored by their parents and secluded from the outside world because their father felt they were developmentally retarded, and their unique language evolved as a result of that neglect.

The true story of Josephine Myrtle Corbin, the lady born with four legs and two private parts
Josephine Myrtle Corbin, an American sideshow performer born in 1868, had a rare condition known as dipygus, which caused her to have four legs, each smaller inner leg paired with one of her outer legs. Corbin joined the sideshow circuit, captivating audiences as the "Four-Legged Girl from Texas."

Nicholas Winton ‘British Schindler’: Man who rescued 669 Czech children from Nazis
A man named Nicholas Winton saved 669 kids during WWII and lived almost all his life without letting people know.