Bon Jovi - The Story Behind MTV Giving Away Jon Bon Jovi's Childhood Home

MTV's contest to give away Jon Bon Jovi's childhood home and how it wasn't as great as it was cracked up to be.

Other MTV Stories I've Done

MTV's Lost Weekend With Van Halen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jjh_-RnjKY

MTV's Strangest Contest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVH-J5ZPqjU&t=166s

MTV's Most Tragic Contest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYvsyQ6Qhzw

MTV's John Mellencamp Contest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmvFeOBMLC4&t=5s

MTV"s Most Depressing Contest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AgBrE0WcC4

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I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos.

I’ve talked a lot about the contests that MTV held in the 80’s, and I’ve linked a bunch of them down below in the description box, but today I want to talk about a contest I hadn’t covered and that was the time the network gave away Jon Bon jovi’s childhood home to one lucky couple. Or at least they thought they were lucky. The contest would end up being more of a curse than a blessing for those who won the house. Stay tuned for the full story.

In 1988, Bon Jovi was set to release their new album titled New Jersey. To promote the album MTV wanted to do a contest that was tied to the name new jersey.ccording to the new york times MTV initially thought about buying the house of Jon’s guitar teacher in his hometown of Sayerville, New Jersey and giving it to one lucky fan. An MTV Spokesperson would tell new york times the network had some other ideas to celebrate the release of new jersey revealing 'We talked about giving away a bar, a piece of the Boardwalk in Asbury Park, something tangible that would say New Jersey and would give some additional notoriety to the region,''

It would be Bon Jovi’s younger brother Matthew who was still in high school at the time who came up with the idea of MTV buying their family home and it away to one lucky fan or family. The home, which was still lived in by Jon’s parents and brothers was located in sayreville, new jersey on robin hood drive. The home was located in Middlesex county, a borough of about 34,000 people. The idea seemed to be perfect given that Jon’s parents wanted more privacy as they complained about the street in front of their house being clogged with fans when Jon came to visit and it got to the point that the police had to be called.

Jon would reveal that he lived with his parents in that house house during the making of his group’s first three albums telling npr “The money wasn’t that quick,”“The first two albums I lived at home, and it wasn’t until the success of the third one [in 1986] that I was able to even afford an apartment, let alone buy a house.” It was the norm back then according to the rocker who went on to say
“We were the norm, you know.” Since it’s hard to get a record deal and even harder to make money off of one. The other members of the band also lived with their parents at the start of their music careers.
After hitting it big Bon Jovi would move to Rumson NJ and live a few blocks from fellow NJ Native Bruce Springsteen,

MTV bought the house from Bon Jovi’s parents who still lived at the house on or around February of 1989. The idea was for the family to live there until June so Matthew could finish school. The network claimed to have paid fair market value for the home and while they wouldn’t give an exact figure of how much they paid, the new york times would report that homes in the area were selling for around $300,000. Here’s the promo mtv ran for the contest.
So to recap the prizes included Bon Jovi’s childhood home, a Bon Jovi-guided tour of the house, $10,000 for property taxes, a motorcycle and a trip to see Bon Jovi's band perform in Milwaukee. Following the contest closing, the new york times would write and i quote “The Tuesday night contest caused jammed telephone lines in some areas as 800,000 callers tried to reach the number, with 192,000 calls coming during the first two minutes of the sweepstakes, An MTV spokesman would tell the ny times ''We blew out the phone circuits in Chicago and Newark,''

MTV would choose eight callers as finalists. Tthe network hired an outside independent firm who asked the finalists for their family information and based on what was provided they selected a winner.

The winners would be a couple from pennsylvania Jay and Judy Frappier’s (Frap-year) The Times interviewed Mrs. Frappier who said she tried to call.

Sources

https://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/31/nyregion/fan-wins-singer-s-house.html

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