From the Stevens Point Journal April 14, 2002:

Trivia resists Web world
Organizers hope to diminish Internet's impact

By Paul Chronis
Central Wisconsin Sunday

STEVENS POINT - The Internet has played an ever-increasing and powerful role in the playing of the World's Largest Trivia Contest, but organizers hope they have found ways to blunt its impact on this year's 54-hour marathon.

Trivia 33: All in the Contest begins at 6 p.m. Friday. It is a fund-raising event sponsored by WWSP-FM, the campus radio station at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. About 13,000 participants are expected for the competition, which includes questions about music, sports, movies, television shows and commercials and other aspects of pop culture.

By the rules, contestants have two songs' worth of time to find and call in the answer to each question. That's where the power of the Internet has affected the contest, according to Jim Oliva, entering his 24th year as the chief question-writer for Trivia.
"There are geeks that like sitting in front of a computer all weekend long," he said. "I feel bad for them. I say prayers nightly that their souls will be saved from eternal damnation, but that's their problem. We write the contest for all the normal people."

Jim Hellner of Stevens Point believes the team he plays for, Trivia Central, got 30 percent to 40 percent of its correct answers from the Internet last year. The team finished in 61st place in 2001.
"Our ability to use the search engines has improved, and that has really helped us," he said.

The team uses a second computer containing databases for information ranging from sports and corporate trademarks to music lyrics, he said.

Nearly all teams still use the traditional methods of playing the contest - armloads of books, notes taken while watching TV or movies and keeping scads of videotapes and compact discs. But more and more, information needed to answer questions is available on the Internet, Oliva said.

"It's made my job more difficult as far as writing a contest that appeals to all the players," he said.

This year, Oliva and his co-writer, John Eckendorf, are trying to make the Internet less of a factor by making the questions easier or by ensuring that the answer can't be found on the Internet within the time allotted.

Hellner said that if Oliva and Eckendorf are successful, it would boost the contest.

Trivia on the air Trivia is broadcast on 89.9 WWSP-FM and Public Access-Channel 3 in Stevens Point, and it was expanded to Wisconsin Rapids Public Access-Channel 4 a few years ago. This year, the broadcast is also being shown on Wausau's Public Access-Channel 10 for the first time, said organizer Jim Oliva.

"I think that knowing Jim and John, they're ingenious enough that they could actually pull that off," he said. "I also believe that it would bring back the true spirit of Trivia to have less information on the Inter-net."

A few years ago, Oliva decided that because answers from Web sites were not verifiable, the Internet could not be used by itself to challenge the answer to a question. A second source, such as a book or videotape, had to back up the challenge.

Eckendorf noted that this isn't the first time technology has affected Trivia. Improvements in telephone technology have had as much if not more impact, even though they don't help participants find the answers.

"It was really a big deal if you had a touch-tone phone as opposed to rotary dial," he said. "Then you got the redial and the speed dial - what an advantage that was. Cell phones have also speeded up things for teams."

One way Oliva and Eckendorf say the Internet has benefited the contest is that it makes it possible for team members who can't make it to Stevens Point to play along. Teams can use instant messaging programs such as ICQ or AOL Instant Messenger to relay questions and answers to players around the globe, or to contact friends or cohorts who might be able to help them find an answer.

The contest also has been broadcast over the Internet for the past couple of years, along with all of the radio station's content. Oliva added that the contest will continue to be "a Stevens Point event," noting that he has resisted suggestions to add a toll-free number to allow people listening over the Internet to play.