From the Stevens Point Journal April 10, 2005:

Trivia's top challenge: expansion

By Alex Shaine
Central Wisconsin Sunday

STEVENS POINT - Misty Jepsen of Auburndale would participate in this weekend's trivia competition from her sister's house, but for one technical glitch.

The radio broadcast doesn't quite reach.

"We tried to play from Appleton one year, and it didn't work," Jepsen said. "My sister lives there, and it would be nice to go there."
Jepsen is participating in the 36th annual trivia contest from her home in Auburndale as a member of the Three Girls, Vino and 85 Buick LeSabres trivia team. She follows the 54-hour trivia marathon on University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point student radio, WWSP-FM (88.9).

However, trivia buffs in more distant locations for the weekend cannot receive the broadcast, because the radio station's signal is not powerful enough.

The station hopes to purchase a new transmitter that would allow it to expand beyond its 60-mile coverage area. This would make the annual trivia contest - as well as its 24-hour year-round programming - available as far east as Appleton and as far west as Marshfield.

The station's staff must first solve some interference issues with radio stations in the Fox Valley and Wausau. Expansion to the north will be limited because the radio frequency it needs is controlled by WCLQ-FM (89.5) out of Wausau.

"We need to make sure with radio stations north, south, east and west of us that we don't infringe on their areas, and we want to protect our coverage area," station manager Courtney Sikorski said.

The transmitter's $130,000 price tag is a large expense for a college radio station. WWSP-FM is one of a few student-run radio stations in the state that runs 24-hour programming. Fund raising is a challenge in the absence of professional management.

That's where trivia comes in.

Not only does the world's largest trivia contest attract more than 12,000 additional listeners each year, it also brings in big money for the station. As WWSP-FM's biggest fund-raiser, the contest raked in about $60,000 in 2004.

Friends of WWSP-FM, one of the station's principal sponsors, rents out the airtime to hold trivia weekend.

"Without sponsors, we really don't have any other means of funding the station beyond fund-raisers," said Tony Bastien, sponsorship director for WWSP-FM. "They offer us year-round funding that we would have no other way of getting."
The station hopes to upgrade its transmitter as soon as possible, and it could be operational in time for next year's competition, Bastien said.

For now, trivia buffs who live outside of the station's coverage area can follow the contest through an Internet stream or on local access television, which will broadcast it in Stevens Point, Wausau, Marshfield and Wisconsin Rapids.

The contest wraps up at midnight tonight.