i would like to find out the missing word in a radio advert for a
charity called the march of dimes, it goes "wherever you are there's a
superwalk location for you, from redwood city to napa, from san
francisco to ???? 14 other
bay area locations, sign up today, superwalk 80, 20 miles for the
march of dimes"

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Request for Question Clarification by thx1138-ga on 29 Nov 2002 06:06 PST

Hello phyliss, and thank you for your question.

Could you let us know on which radio station you heard the advertisement.

Thank you very much.

THX1138

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Clarification of Question by phyliss-ga on 29 Nov 2002 06:56 PST

its a wav used in a competition on a uk radio station (magic 828) but
where they got it from i dont know (its a american accent) i think the
place to go is the charity mentioned, the march of dimes

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Clarification of Question by phyliss-ga on 29 Nov 2002 10:05 PST

thanks for finding the 14 locations but i only win if i can find the
missing word in the advert, so.....close but no cigar!

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Request for Question Clarification by vitalmed-ga on 29 Nov 2002 11:29 PST

Maybe you are thinking of SuperWalk for Parkinson's, a Canadian
society which has web site at www.superwalk.com. Some radio ads by
Vicki Gabereau can be heard at this site, none of which are the
contest. Could this at least be the SuperWalk you are looking for?

Also, what is the contest, to identify a word that is left out of the
radio announcement? Could it be identified from clues about the
context without hearing the announcement, or do you need to have a
transcript of the announcement in order to figure out the word?

By the way, what are the rewards of winning the contest?

vitalmed-ga

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Clarification of Question by phyliss-ga on 30 Nov 2002 00:17 PST

no its definately the march of dimes charity, and i think it was a
walk in 1980
in the s.f. bay area. yes the contest is to identify the missing word
(marked with ????) i have already included the complete transcript
word for word of the advert (minus the missing word of course), my
thoughts would be does anyone in california remember the ad or can you
contact the match of dimes org and ask them who there advertizing
people were in 1980. the rewards are a sum of cash which makes this
enquiry worthwhile!

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Clarification of Question by phyliss-ga on 02 Dec 2002 16:51 PST

i have got the advert in question in a wav file if anyone wants me to
e-mail it to them

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Request for Question Clarification by vitalmed-ga on 02 Dec 2002 17:13 PST

Hearing the advertisement could be helpful. Personal contact
information is not used here on Google Answers. Can the wav file be
accessed somewhere on the web?

vitalmed-ga

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Clarification of Question by phyliss-ga on 02 Dec 2002 23:14 PST

no i am afraid not, i recorded it from the uk radio show, but i dont
know how to get it to you

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Clarification of Question by phyliss-ga on 05 Dec 2002 23:09 PST

i have found some references to a march of dimes psa on episodes of
"space patrol" and someone e mailed me saying there were references to
the superwalk 79 (1979) on the net somewhere.

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Clarification of Question by phyliss-ga on 09 Dec 2002 15:00 PST

you can now hear the advert/comp, if you go to www.glamill.demon.co.uk
and scroll to the bottom its there! (superwalk)

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Request for Question Clarification by nellie_bly-ga on 09 Dec 2002 15:24 PST

May you submit more than one guess in your contest?  If so, there are
really a limited number of "likely suspects."

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Clarification of Question by phyliss-ga on 09 Dec 2002 18:18 PST

you can only have 1 guess each time you ring up, but you can ring as
often as you like. what are your main suspects?

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Clarification of Question by phyliss-ga on 10 Dec 2002 07:20 PST

i now know its not: SAN JOSE, SACRAMENTO, MODESTO, OAKLAND, RICHMOND,
AND STOCKTON MY GUESSES NOW ARE DUBLIN AND FRESNO, AS THE BLEEPED OUT
GAP IS SHORT, ONLY LONG ENOUGH FOR A SHORT WORD.

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Clarification of Question by phyliss-ga on 12 Dec 2002 01:03 PST

its not dublin or fresno, i am now wonering if it is a place name or a
grammatical word such as "around"

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Clarification of Question by phyliss-ga on 14 Dec 2002 12:19 PST

on the last playing the d.j said if you listen carefully there's a
clue there, so i listened carefully and there's a song playing in the
background but i cant identify it, that may be the clue, he also told
someone who had been to san francisco to think of somewhere he'd been
or "SOMETHING HE'D SEEN"
any idea's?

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Clarification of Question by phyliss-ga on 16 Dec 2002 15:03 PST

the ad or p.s.a. is real enough although it was 22 years ago, they
play the origonal ad that went out on us radio (or tv), so i guess the
contact at the march of dimes just forgot. i dont think anyone is
going to be able to help me so i will be closing this question in 24
hours.

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Request for Question Clarification by vitalmed-ga on 16 Dec 2002 17:36 PST

The music in the background sounds to me like "Stayin Alive" by the
Bee Gees.
Does that suggest to you anything? The only mention of a location in
the song is in the name of the paper "New York Times".  Any places in
the movie "Saturday Night Fever" come to mind?

A place people visit or see is the Golden Gate Bridge. It seems like a
lot of syllables for the gap, but if you are allowed multiple tries,
maybe worth it.

A clue which would be _very subtle_ is a name based on the initials B
and G from Bee Gees.

vitalmed-ga

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Clarification of Question by phyliss-ga on 17 Dec 2002 15:26 PST

i dont think it souns like the bee gee's and i dont think anyone is
going to be able to get the correct answer so i am closing this
question, thank you all for your efforts on my behalf, & bye!

Hello Phyllis,

I am continuing the research that I had commenced with your question
#105905, which I think you have extended here. Your clarification
arrived today, and it is quite helpful.

I believe I now have the fourteen locations referred to in the ad.
They are as follows and are listed at the Northern California Chapter
of the March of Dimes web site, www.baydimes.org.

The site reads:
"There's a walk near you...
San Francisco 
San Jose 
Sacramento 
Contra Costa 
Fresno 
Hanford 
Merced 
Modesto 
Monterey 
Oakland 
Solano 
Stockton 
Tri-Valley 
Visalia"

Please let me know if this is the information that you have been
seeking or, getting there.
vitalmed-ga

if you win will you come back and let me make this an "answer?"   :))

There are only about 25 sizeable cities in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Researcher vitalmed  listed those found on the Bay Area March of Dimes
website, from that and by looking at the cities covered by other
Northern California March of Dimes districts, we can deduce the cites
covered by Bay Area pretty well.

Then, if one looks at a map, one may see that the phrase "from Redwood
City to Napa" uses two cities at the North/South extremes of the Bay
Area.  So one might conjecture that "from San Francisco to.... " might
mark West/East extremes, therefore making Stockton the most likely
choice.

However, as an old copyrighter, I'd skip Stockton and go for San Jose
to the south, simply for the sound of it.

So my first guess would be San Jose and my second, Stockton. 
If those fail, I'd go down the rest of the list provided by vitalmed.
It's the same list, most likely that was provided to the ad agency
copywriter.

Good luck.

Please do let us know if any of this works.

Nellie Bly

OOOPS  
lost this line in previous post
make Fresno third and Sacramento fourth

Consider that an American would say "San Jose" just as quickly as
he/she would Fresno, likewise for Stockton.


Just a thought.

Nellie

Places mentioned in San Francisco songs:

Golden Gate Bridge
The marina (where the walk currently goes)
Fisherman's Wharf
the bay
Nob Hill
Telegraph Hill
Cable Car
Young Museum
Steinhart Aquarium
Zoo
Market Street
Top of the Mark

By the way, here's part of an email from a member of the March of
Dimes staff in San Francisco in response to hearing the content of
your "commercial."

"We are not aware of the walk you described.  A colleague who has been
at March of Dimes for 20 years believes the radio has false
information."

Nellie Bly

and the Filmore Street district

Hey, what about SAUSALITO

Nellie