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UW-Stevens
Point news release News Services, Stevens Point WI 54481-3897 Phone: 715-346-3046 Fax: 715-346-2042 E-mail: news@uwsp.edu www.uwsp.edu/news Back to News releases | News release archive | UWSP Home Released:
March 18, 2003 |
The world�s largest trivia contest will broadcast its 34th
consecutive year on April 11, 12, and 13 on 90FM WWSP, the University of
Wisconsin-Stevens Point�s (UWSP) campus radio station.
The contest will officially begin with the first question being read at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 11, and end at midnight Sunday, April 13, running a consecutive 54 hours.
The theme for this year�s Trivia contest is Trivia 34:
"Survivor," based on the CBS reality television show,
"Survivor." Themes in recent years have included a tribute to Carol O�Connor
from "All in the Family" with Trivia 33, "All in the
Contest," and reference to the coming millennium with Trivia 31,
"Trivia like it�s 1999."
90FM�s annual contest attracts about 12,000 players on almost 500 teams. Participants travel from as far as Europe to Stevens Point, a city of 24,400 residents, located in Central Wisconsin.
The contest is made up of a series of eight questions that are read every hour for 54 hours. Two hours of the contest have four questions read so the team place standings also can be read during that time. Teams have the length of two songs to answer the question by calling in their answer. Teams are allowed to call in one answer per question. The questions are based on a 2000-point scale in which the teams share between 5-500 points per question.
Regular features of the contest include the Running Question, Music Questions, and the Trivia Stone. The music questions occur three times within the contest and are sound bites of songs in which the teams must decipher the name of the song. The Running Questions get the community involved with the teams and the Trivia Stone is a scavenger hunt within the community in which clues are read off during the contest.
The countdown to Trivia 34: "Survivor" will begin with the Trivia Kickoff movie at Rogers Cinema, located on Church St. in Stevens Point, April 4 and 5 starting at midnight both nights. Both showings are generally sold out as a series of questions are based on the selected movie. Movies in the past have included a nationwide preview of "Bridget Jones Diary" and the French foreign flick "Amalie."
All teams must register for Trivia in advance at the 90FM studios beginning the week of the contest. Times for registration are Monday, April 7 � Thursday April 10 from 3-7 p.m., and Friday, April 11 from noon-6 p.m. Registration is $30 and "Survivor" merchandise also will be for sale.
While registering for the contest, teams can register for the Trivia Parade, which begins at 4 p.m. on Friday, April 11. The parade traverses throughout the UWSP campus and gives teams the chance to get energized before the contest. All teams are encouraged to put all their creativity into their floats as first, second, and third place prizes are given away.
All proceeds from Trivia go to benefit 90FM in its mission to provide alternative programming to the community. Trivia began in 1969 when a small amount of teams wrote the questions that were then read over the 90FM airwaves for 16 hours, five questions an hour. In 1970 the staff of 90FM began writing the questions and by 1975, the contest ran 54 hours long with eight questions an hour. The contest took another turn when Jim "Oz" Oliva, a local computer store proprietor, took over writing the contest. He introduced the Trivia Stone as a way to incorporate area businesses into the contest. Oliva�s friend, John Eckendorf, also has been helping in the writing of the contest for the past 11 years.
Trivia on 90FM has been listed in Chase�s Calendar of Annual Events as the largest of its kind. Media attention from USA Today, Chicago Tribune, and most recently Jeopardy has been focused on the contest.
90FM WWSP is the largest student-run radio station in the Midwest. It has served the Stevens Point community for 34 years with its unique programming ranging from blues and jazz, to the past and present college alternative music.
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