WIRED

There are big bucks in radio--just ask Tom Sedivy; he raked in about 50 grand last year. And he did it without a communications degree or any broadcasting experience. Heck, he did it without a job. Sedivy, 34, is a professional radio contest winner, and after seven years of hearing him snag free trips, cars, boats and cash, some local deejays have just about had it. Recently, when he won a Corvette from KIIS, Rick Dees accused him of using the computer program Demon Dial and other diabolical means to beat the system.

Sedivy says he uses only two phones with redial buttons and three radios. “It’s just luck. (The stations) have 10 phone lines there; Dees is the one who chose the line I was on.” Sedivy works construction six or seven months a year, but when he’s off, he’s hardly idle. “I get up around 6 a.m.-- that’s when a lot of the stations give away clues. I work at it until about 7 at night. It’s a full-time job.”

And it isn’t all that easy. “It’s kind of hard to have a girlfriend when you’re at home so much,” he says.

Sedivy is writing a book but has no plans to change careers. “Once you get good at something, that’s what you’re supposed to do, right?”