From the Portage County Gazette (WI) April 27, 2001:

Trivia contest goes down to wire

By GENE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
The team Network overcame a 250-point deficit in the last four hours Sunday night, April 22, to win the 32nd Annual Trivia Contest sponsored by WWSP 90FM.

Network trailed CNOF54 Old and Dazed, 7,775-7,525, at the last reading of the team scores through hour 50 of the 54-hour contest.

But Network came back to win by 100 points, 8,605 to 8,505, in one of the closest contests ever. Network answered all but one question as CNOF54 missed five questions, giving the team its 15th trivia title in the last 22 years.

The victory also ended a two-year winning streak for CNOF54, which won in 2000 while using the name Being Bud Somerville.

Following the top two finishers were 3. Tin Man, 7,625 points; 4. Franklin Street Burnouts, 7,310; 5. (tie) Charlie's Beerpigs and Graduates of a Lesser God, both 7,290; 7. Good Night Irene, 6,975; 8. Yaargh! Big and Scary Zellweger Buttum, 6,755; 9. Late Night With Bob Keeshan, 6,680; and 10. Basementality 2001: Trivia Oz Disease, 6,650.

The team For Reasons Everyone Already Knows also won a trophy for finishing in 32nd place in honor of the 32nd year of the contest.
Jim "Oz" Oliva and John Eckendorf, who wrote the contest, sprinkled it with questions in a multitude of areas.

One common thread running through the contest was the eighth question of almost every hour had an answer that began with a "W."

"There were only two or three hours where we didn't do it," Eckendorf said. "We thought it was something that was a silly prank," adding that it was based on the unfounded rumor that Clinton White House staffers had removed the "w" from keyboards in the White House after they vacated the building before George W. Bush took office.

"I had fun with that," Oliva said, "It was just a totally different theme thing."

The "W" questions weren't the only letters sought for answers during the contest. From 1 to 5 a.m. on Saturday, the questions sought answers beginning with "A" and going through "Z." "We ran out of letters after 'Z' and then had three 'Ws,'" Oliva said.

The contest also had hours when each answer began with the same letter, such as "K" and an "L," he said. "For the 'X' hour, there were only four questions," he said, adding he was thankful there was a person named Xavier Cugat.

Eckendorf credited Oliva with the "ABC" theme. "We have done other theme hours," Eckendorf said, referring to some hours where each answer was linked, with the last name of a previous answer becoming the first name in the next answer.

Those themes, they feel, add to the fun of the contest. "We really have fun writing the contest," Oliva said, "we really do."

Eckendorf said his son, Brandon, observed that, saying he felt his father seemed like he had had a good time when he came home after writing questions with Oliva.

In trying to come up with questions that challenge, but don't necessarily stump players, Eckendorf said he felt the contest achieved that this year. Each question is valued at 2,000 points, with the amount a team receives depending on the number of teams that get the correct answer.

This year's contest was a relatively low-scoring affair, despite only a few questions going unanswered, indicating a number of teams got the correct answers.

For the final question, Oliva asked listeners who was the reporter banished from an interview of Richard Hatch, the $1 million winner on the "Survivor" television show, because of a question asking what it felt like to eat Sophie, a pet pig on the show.

As he asked the question, Oliva issued a challenge, telling listeners to find the answer on the Internet.

Listeners certainly did, with more than 40 teams getting the correct answer. Usually the final question goes unanswered.

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HEADLINE NEWS JUMPS ON BANDWAGON: The Headline News Cable Channel acknowledged the WWSP 90FM Trivia Contest on Friday and Monday, without saying who sponsored it or where it was being held. Under the heading "BIG QUIZ" on Friday, the announcement on the bottom of the TV read "500 teams gather in Wisconsin for what's billed as "World's Largest Trivia Contest."

On Monday, the announcement said "TOPS IN TRIVIA: Wisconsin team wins World's Largest Trivia Contest, 15th time in 22 years."