Contest Winners Sue WLEY

Three winning contestants on SBS Spanish WLEY-FM (107.9)/CHICAGO are suing the station because they have yet to receive their prizes -- two years after the contest concluded.

Contest winner ERNESTO HURTADO was supposed to win a car and a major-label recording contract, while second and third-place finishers YOLANDA CHAIDEZ and LUIS ARREOLA were supposed to win recording time in a studio. No one has received anything.

HURTADO told THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES that "minutes after he was named the winner, a station employee whisked him into a back room, explained there would be no car but offered him gift certificates for clothes instead -- all the while assuring him that, eventually, a recording contract would come." As time passed without the station awarding the prizes, the winners did nothing until they read that another WLEY winner is suing the station for nonpayment of a contest prize.

WLEY GM JEFF SHRINSKY responded that the station "'committed to meeting our obligations under the rules and regulations of every contest' and it has 'a stellar track record of awarding prizes' to listeners. The station claimed to be reviewing the case of the three contest winners.

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