On Tuesday, four Tristate residents will change into their bathing suits, move onto an 18-foot boat and prepare to eat live bait. Why?

Aiming to win this boat, Tony Lipps, Randy Freeman and Leslie Baxter will be joined by a fourth contestant. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

        To win a $25,000 boat-and-trailer rig in a Survivor-like contest during the Cincinnati Travel, Sports & Boat Show, being held at the Albert B. Sabin Cincinnati Convention Center, downtown.

        Radio station WEBN-FM selected three contestants from more than 1,000 callers for the contest, modeled after CBS's Survivor television programs, which put real people in extreme situations competing for cash and prizes.

        A fourth contestant will be selected today from boat show visitors who registered over the weekend. The show is closed today, but continues Tuesday through the weekend.

        The lightly clad contestants will live together up to four days on a Mercury engine-powered Four Winns sport boat provided by Lodder's Marine. During their stay, they will face several challenges, including scaling and deboning fresh fish for meals, and eating live bait, said Rick ""Dude” Vaske, music director at WEBN.

        “They're going to have to earn their lunch every day,” Mr. Vaske said.

        One contestant — 37-year-old Leslie Baxter of Alexandria, Ky. — says that won't be a problem.

        “Nobody's going to beat me out for food,” she said.

        Ms. Baxter, an avid WEBN listener, said she called the radio station numerous times over the past two weeks, determined to get in as a contestant.

        She's confident that same tenacity will make her the sole survivor when the contest wraps up at the end of the week. One contestant will be eliminated each day beginning Wednesday until a winner is decided Friday.

        Tony Lipps, 23, a Delhi Township firefighter, says he has what it takes to walk away with the boat. He even recited a poem, of sorts, to sum up his qualifications: “I can out-wit, out-think, out-drink, out-smart, out-fart and outlast everybody else for a chance at this boat.”

        Randy Freeman, 20, of Corinth, Ky. said his participation in the contest started out as a prank.

        “I used to make prank calls to 'EBN all the time,” he said. “Then one day I woke up and heard my name on the radio as one of the contestants.”

        But now that he's in, Mr. Freeman said he's taking the contest a bit more seriously.

        “I want that boat,” he said.

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