Cumulus Radio Class Action Says Contest Winning Odds Inflated

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

Radio listeners allege that Cumulus Media Inc. falsely inflates the odds of them winning various show contests advertised on local stations.

The plaintiffs, New York radio audience members, claim in the Cumulus radio winning odds class action lawsuit that the sweepstakes and various other contests advertised on local stations fail to disclose to listeners that odds of winning are based on entries submitted nationwide.

“Defendants have sought to induce people to believe that Defendants’ radio­station sweepstakes involves only the station to which a given person is listening, whereas the sweepstakes instead involves hundreds of radio stations, the result of which is that the odds of winning have been a fraction of what the odds have appeared to be,” alleges the Cumulus radio station class action lawsuit.

The plaintiffs say that Cumulus runs the same contests on local shows nationwide, but makes it seem like listeners are only competing with those in the area.

According to the Cumulus radio class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs each took part in contests where they sent a text message to the station with a predetermined key word to try and win the “$1,000 Giveaway.”

However, the plaintiffs say they were unaware that listeners from across the nation were also in the contest, making the odds of winning much lower than they reasonably expected.

“Based upon the broadcasted content, including the keyword announcements, that have pertained to the sweepstakes … it would have been reasonable for a listener to [the] sweepstakes content on a given sweepstakes station to believe that the sweepstakes was being conducted only on that sweepstakes station,” contends the Cumulus radio winning odds class action lawsuit.

The Cumulus radio class action lawsuit points out that the local affiliate radio stations that run the $1,000 giveaways never announce that a listener from another station has won the contest.

Cumulus, say the plaintiffs, have forbidden the local stations from disclosing the nationwide nature of the contest, as well as very low odds of winning, to local listeners.

“Cumulus Media and Cumulus Media New Holdings have prohibited the Sweepstakes Stations from broadcasting, at any time, a statement that there are multiple Sweepstakes Stations,” alleges the Cumulus radio contest class action lawsuit.

The plaintiffs say that Cumulus intentionally deceives them and other local radio station listeners in order to get additional cell phone numbers for marketing purposes.

“Defendants have been unjustly enriched by retaining, against equity and good conscience, the benefits that Plaintiffs and the other Members of the Class have conferred upon Defendants by entering into a Sweepstakes Segment,” allege the plaintiffs in the Cumulus radio winning odds class action lawsuit.

The Cumulus radio class action lawsuit seeks to represent a nationwide Class as well as a New York subclass of radio listeners who entered into the $1,000 giveaway.

The Cumulus radio contest winning odds class action lawsuit is seeking a court order stopping the radio company from allegedly deceiving listeners as well as a statutory fine of $50 per violation.

Lead plaintiffs Robert Doyle and Kevin McCabe, and the proposed Class, are represented by Todd C. Bank of the Law Office of Todd C. Bank.

The Cumulus Radio Contest Winning Odds Class Action Lawsuit is Doyle, et al. v. Cumulus Media Inc., et al., Case No. 1:18­-cv-­04667, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).