Lining up for stickers and a gamble

Deirdre Newman

Sweat was dripping from the brow of KROQ-FM (106.7) disc jockey Super

Steve as he rocked out at the McDonald’s on Harbor Boulevard Tuesday.

He didn’t seem to mind, though, as fans flocked to the radio

station’s booth for its sticker promotion and truck giveaway contest.

Various DJs started visiting McDonald’s in Los Angeles and Orange

counties Monday, and will continue to do so every day until May 23 to

hang out with fans and provide an opportunity to enter the contest.

The date of the drawing to give away the truck is not available yet.

“What else would you want for summer but a truck with a sunroof?”

Super Steve said.

The DJ hangs out at the various McDonald’s between noon and 2 p.m.

each day. Usually, a line starts forming before noon, even in the

sweltering heat, Super Steve said.

“It has to tell you something for people to wait in the 104-degree

heat in El Monte [on Monday] just to get a sticker,” he said. “It

shows their devotion.”

The new stickers are designed in patriotic colors -- red, white

and blue -- with the call letters emblazoned in yellow.

Some of the KROQ fans said they didn’t come for the truck as much

as to support the radio station.

Jimmy Vega, 24, said part of the reason he came was to champion

punk rock.

“Some issues are going on with freedom of speech,” Vega said. “The

truck wasn’t really an incentive. That’s a slim chance.”

One of station’s most ardent fans, James Duenas, 21, came to share his appreciation of the rock station and show off his car, which has

a hood plastered with KROQ stickers.

“The paint was deteriorating and I didn’t want to pay for a paint

job,” Duenas said.

So he stuck about 300 of KROQ’s Halloween-themed stickers on the

hood of his 1996 Ford Contour. He also put some on the hubcaps.

Like Vega, he wasn’t hanging his hopes on winning the truck.

“If I win it, sweet. If I don’t, it’s not the end of the world,”

Duenas said. “It’s something superfluous. Plus it’s a V-8 -- a gas

guzzler -- especially with gas the way it is.”