From the Portage County Gazette (WI):

Trivia contest evolves over decades of play

By GENE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
The annual WWSP trivia contest has certainly evolved from its first days.

Back in February of 1970, the station, then WSUS FM, started the event under the direction of Nick Ryan and Tim Donovan, with Donovan handling the first four.

In those days, there weren't many books dedicated to movies or television, so many of the questions, as well as the answers, came from off the top of the head. When a question was asked, the contestants called the station with an answer or a guess, giving a team name if the answer was correct.

In those days, the teams could make as many phone calls as they wanted, within the allotted time, and often created "jam" teams to tie up the telephone lines, blocking other teams from getting points with the correct answer.

Through the years, contests almost took on the name of a special book.

One year, Fred L. Worth authored "The Trivia Encyclopedia," which was the source of many of the contest's questions. However, a small $1.95 paperback version of that book included an index, which proved invaluable in finding answers.

Another year, 1974, Leonard Maltin authored what has become an annual requirement for basic trivia players, his "Movies on TV" book.

Then there was "People's Almanac," a 1975 book by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace that Steven Hamilton found useful in writing questions.

Another major breakthrough was Vincent Terrace's 1976 two-volume set of "The Complete Encyclopedia of Television Programs, 1947-1976."

As more books about the entertainment arts and other subjects were printed, the contest moved from more readily available information to more detailed items from movies or television. More involved team members started taking notes when they went to movies, watched television or read newspapers.

And telephones also started to become a major force in the contest, with teams calling around the country and the world to find answers.

That phone usage created a crisis for what was then Wisconsin Bell Telephone Co. because the mechanical phone equipment was limited and callers often had to wait 20 to 30 seconds for a dial tone before making a call.

That raised concerns for emergency services, so in 1982 teams were limited to one phone call per question, giving their team identification number before their answer.

Since then, the phone has remained an important tool as teams tried to verify their answer before making their one telephone call with an answer.

In the last several years, with the emergence of the Internet, the computer has become a major tool in the contest.

Armed with computers, teams now search the Internet for answers or clues. For example, a question listing only a few names may help a team pinpoint a specific movie or television show so other team members can search their notes for an answer.

And it works. But it still involves work of the team. They need to identify valuable sites to bookmark for possible answers. And note-taking has increased.

Another valuable task the computer performs is breaking down the sound waves in the music question to delineate where one song snippet ends and the next begins, helping to better identify the songs.