In 1988, Bon Jovi was set to release their new album titled New Jersey. To promote the album, MTV and the record label wanted to do a contest that would somehow tie it to the name New Jersey.
‘We talked about giving away a bar…” – MTV Spokesperson
According to the New York Times, MTV initially thought about buying the house of Jon’s guitar teacher in his hometown of Sayreville, New Jersey and giving it to one lucky fan. An MTV Spokesperson would go on to tell the Times that the network also 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 was Jon Bon Jovi’s younger brother Matthew, who was still in high school at the time, who came up with the idea of MTV buying the family home that they were currently living in and giving it away to one lucky fan or family.
The home was located in Sayreville, New Jersey on Robin Hood Drive and was part of Middlesex County, a borough of about 34,000 people. The idea seemed perfect given that Jon’s parents wanted more privacy as they sometimes complained about the street in front of their house being clogged with fans when their son came to visit and it got to the point that police had to be frequently called.
MTV Buys Jon Bon Jovi’s Childhood Home
In February of 1989, MTV would end up buying Jon Bon Jovi’s childhood home. While his parents and brother still lived there, the idea was for the family to live there until June of that year 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, the New York Times would report that homes in the area were selling for around $300,000.
Following the contest closing, the New York Times would write, “The Tuesday night contest caused jammed telephone lines in some areas as 800,000 callers tried to reach that number, with 192,000 calls coming during the first two minutes of the sweepstakes.”
”We blew out the phone circuits in Chicago and Newark.” – MTV Spokesperson
An MTV spokesman would tell the Time, ”We blew out the phone circuits in Chicago and Newark.” MTV would choose 8 callers as finalists and the network would hire an outside independent firm who asked for the finalists’ family information and based on what was provided, they selected a winner.
The winners were a couple from Pennsylvania named Jay and Judy Frappier. The Times interviewed Mrs. Frappier who said she tried to call the network 15 times before winning the contest.
“I would be washing dishes in the kitchen and through the window, see a camera flash going off.” – Judy Frappier
Things would quickly turn sour afterwards though. The Frappiers would be interviewed by the New York Post almost 30 years after winning the contest. Even after Bon Jovi’s family vacated the house, they still had to deal with fans of the rocker coming to the house. Mrs. Frappier recalled to the New York Post, “I would be washing dishes in the kitchen and through the window, see a camera flash going off.”
On top of that, the prize money that the couple was awarded wasn’t nearly enough to cover the taxes on all the prizes. She would tell the post, “The bill was in the $70,000 range. We had to decide what to do in a quickly distressed real estate market.”
It wasn’t too long after the couple won the contest that they ended up selling the house and they would end up moving south to Texas where they still currently reside.
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That’s a shame they had to sell. Couldn’t they get a loan to pay the taxes? Possibly not. Dealing with fans? That’s a given. It’s their business and they did what was best for them. I would’ve stayed and I am a person who talks to people so for me that wouldn’t have bothered me at all. The fans came with the property for sure. I hope the people who own it now are enjoying it.