Sunnyside’s Rick Mercado Wins 5FDP/Papa Roach Fly-Away

It pays to have the 94.5 KATS mobile app -- just ask Sunnyside's Rick Mercado, who was selected out of thousands of entries for our Five Finger Death Punch/Papa Roach fly-away to Phoenix!

Rick, a graduate of Perry Tech who currently works in IT for Astria Health in Sunnyside, said he has never won anything until now. Good thing he was patient as he will be taking his girlfriend Juana for a two-night stay in Phoenix to see Five Finger Death Punch, Papa Roach, I Prevail and Ice Nine Kills at Talking Stick Arena. We'll fly them out for the show in April and put them up in a hotel, plus put $500 bucks in their pocket, tickets to the show as well as backstage passes to meet the bands.

If you don't believe in cosmic tumblers, get this: This morning when dressing for work, I inexplicably put on my Felix Hernandez jersey from the 2011 All-Star Game held in ... Phoenix! We called Rick on the air this morning and he informed us that his girlfriend's twin sister lives in... Phoenix!

The date of the show is also their one-year anniversary as a couple! A bad-ass concert, family reunion and anniversary gift all rolled into one! How crazy is that?

Rick told me the closest he has ever come to winning big was at the Moxee Hop Festival a couple of years ago, when we held our beer garden games for a shot at free tickets to see Metallica in concert. Rick was leading the entire afternoon and, just before the contest ended, another person beat his score at the last second denying him the prize.

Takeaway? Good things come to those who wait and even better things come to those who have the 94.5 KATS mobile app!