By Journal Star (Peoria, Ill.)

Readers love to get something for nothing.

When we announced a ticket giveaway contest for country star Phil Vassar's Jan. 14 show at the Peoria Civic Center, we knew readers would be game. It wouldn't cost them any money, but they would have to spare some creativity.

Phil Vassar's publicist offered to give us three pairs of tickets, (a grand prize package that included two front row seats and backstage passes, and two pairs of concert tickets for runners-up). We decided to devise a contest that would help us tell Vassar's story. Since he was a hit songwriter for stars such as Alan Jackson and Tim McGraw before he became a star himself, we thought a song-writing competition would be a perfect fit - no music necessary, just lyrics.

We got the word out to readers through a kickoff column a few weeks before the contest deadline, mentions on the "Markley and Luciano" talk radio show on WMBD-AM 1470 (which is co-hosted by our columnist Phil Luciano), and also on our weekly entertainment Webcast, "River City Roundup."

Readers could send their lyrics via e-mail, and a good percentage of them arrived by snail mail, too. We received 79 songs.

Once we determined the three winners, we published the winning lyrics alongside our interview with Phil Vassar advancing the concert. The story focused on Vassar's song-writing career, tips for beginning writers and the dirt behind some of his songs, such as his latest hit,
"Bobbi with an 'I'." Vassar said he writes from real-life experience (back in the day he had a linebacker-sized friend who would wear a dress and a blonde wig to get free drinks on ladies' night).

The night of Vassar's show, we interviewed the grand prize winners before the meet and greet and trailed them as they met Phil Vassar backstage. We posted the video online and linked it with a written review and photos of the concert.

In addition to getting a celebrity face on our Web site, the video provided footage of our local contest winners - two grown men who were giddy as a couple of schoolgirls to be meeting the star and handing him a CD of their winning song.

Read the review and video here.

The project was conceived and coordinated by our entertainment editor Danielle Hatch. She can be contacted at dhatch@pjstar.com