PLEASANT GROVE -- Alice Long may have just won a million dollars, but now she's all stressed out.
She's nervous.She can't relax, and she hasn't slept well since she dialed KKAT radio Tuesday, logged in as the 10th caller and correctly guessed the five-digit combination to the station's safe to win the Olympic Bribery Scandal Contest, which started that morning.
"I finally took a sleeping pill to help me, and I got a little sleep," the 63-year-old great-grandmother said Wednesday. "But people are calling, friends and family, and the phone is ringing off the hook.
"I need to calm down. I need to get some rest."
That's going to take some doing since she gets her first check for $50,000 Friday after a station limousine collects her and takes her to Salt Lake City for the official handover.
She'll get another check next year and for the next 18 years after that.
She plans to put it promptly in the bank so no one will be tempted to rob her. "It won't ever be in the house. These days, you just can't take chances."
From there, she'll share her newfound wealth with her four grown children, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
"I've been praying about them," Long said. "They're all trying so hard to turn their lives around, and they need some help. Now I can give them some help. I won't buy houses for them, but I can help them out."
Long said she sat down Tuesday with her morning cup of coffee and played her hand-held poker game as is her habit. For the past couple of weeks, she's consistently rung up 9s and 3s and 5s, so she decided to try a combination of those numerals -- 39995 -- as her guess.
She phoned KKAT and kept up her efforts until 1:15 p.m. when she became the lucky 10th caller.
The rest is history. And according to Long's psychic, not a big surprise really.
"I had a letter from my psychic that morning telling me my life was going to change in a big way," Long said. "She was right except the letter said the changes would come in April."
Long is firmly convinced that the money is a gift from God.
"I truly believe that this is his answer. I'd been praying, asking him to help my kids. I think he's saying, 'Here, here's the money. Take care of things yourself now.' "
Million-dollar Utah radio contests in the past have traditionally been stunts, where listeners actually ended up winning a million pesos or some other far lesser prize.
However, in this case, according to KKAT promotions director Jon Cloward, Long will receive a real million dollars.
Cloward said this is only the second-known time in U.S. radio history where a $1 million prize payoff has been made. Interestingly enough, a few years ago, the other $1 million radio payoff was made in Los Angeles to a sister station, KISS. KISS and KKAT are both owned by Jacor Broadcasting.
KKAT station owners figured the chances of someone guessing the combination to their safe after hearing the contest sound bite and calling in as the 10th caller were pretty slim.
"We had expected this contest to go on for the next eight weeks," Cloward said.
"I'm still kind of shocked," Long said. "It surprised me. This doesn't happen to people like me."
Cloward said no clues were given over the air as to the combination of the safe. The best clue anyone could get would have been from the radio station's Web site, which posted previous wrong guesses.
Long was the 19th person to guess at the combination. She didn't know what the previous guesses had been, either.
Cloward said the station wanted to get something positive out of the Olympic scandal. The station advertised that it was bribing people to listen to the station with a chance at a bona fide $1 million. He also said KKAT plans to repeat the contest within a few days.
"We will do it again," he said.