Dad Trades Baby's Name for $100 Gas Card

Three Florida radio hosts wanted to see what their listeners would do for gas.

ByABC News
July 11, 2008, 2:15 PM

July 11, 2008 — -- When three Florida radio hosts set out to learn what their listeners would be willing to do in exchange for a $100 gas card, they never dreamed they'd get anyone as eager as father-to-be David Partin.

Partin, who called into the Orlando, Fla.-based Dixon & Willoughby morning show early Monday morning, will enjoy the spoils of a couple tanks of free gas in exchange for welcoming son Dixon Willoughby Partin into the world this December.

He won the radio gas card contest by offering the hosts the chance to name his first-born child. The co-hosts generously agreed to drop the "&" from the name.

"If nothing else, he's going to have a damn good story behind his name and it will give him something to talk about," Partin, 26, said of his future son, due Dec. 28.

And while many expecting parents debate baby names for months, Partin and his girlfriend, 20-year-old Samantha Bailey, told ABCNews.com that the radio contest actually helped narrow down an already contentious issue.

"We are OK with it because we didn't want a common name, we wanted something different," said Partin. "We both had a name in mind, but we could never agree on one so this is going to help us out a lot."

Bailey only put her foot down when the disc jockeys asked that the show's executive producer's name, Alan Spector, be the child's middle name. The final outcome, had Bailey agreed, would have been Dixon & Willoughby With Alan Spector.

"She didn't like that," said Partin.

Even with that compromise, the radio hosts said Partin's offer was the runaway winner.

"We heard from Partin immediately, and he knocked the other offers out of the park," said J. Willoughby, one of the WHTQ co-hosts.

Partin said that his unusual offer was the first thing that came to mind when the hosts asked him what he would trade for the card.

The hosts answered the phone so quickly that offering to let them name his unborn child "was the first thing I could think of," Partin, 26, told ABCNews.com.

There was no argument from Willoughby and his other two wingmen, co-host Richard Dixon and executive producer Spector.

"The rest of the offers weren't going to beat Partin's," said Willoughby.