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From the Stevens Point
Journal April 15, 2009:
Entire Trivia Contest
to Go on the Web for First
Time
WWSP 90FM to stream live, expanding reach outside
state
By Nick Paulson • Journal Staff • April 15, 2009
In its 40th year, WWSP 90FM Trivia will have a more 21st century feel when
it kicks off -- for 54 hours straight -- Friday.
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| Jim Oliva
greets trivia registrants. Picture:
Doug Wojcik, Stevens Pt. Journal |
With the radio station streaming live on the Internet, the
self-proclaimed world's largest trivia contest has fully expanded onto the
Web. The past few years, only a handful of teams played online, but this
year, 20 teams have registered.
Those teams will have to deal with a slight time lag because of the
streaming online, and they still will need to call in their answers. It may
sound like a challenge for the teams playing from places like Afghanistan or
Rome, but considering the round-the-clock nature of the contest, it might
not be a big deal.
"You are going to be sleep deprived, anyway," said James Priniski, 90FM's
station manager.
While going to the Web has allowed a proliferation of trivia teams, with
others phoning in from New York, Ohio, California, Minnesota and across
Wisconsin, those teams will be at a disadvantage.
They won't be able to take part in trivia stone clues or the running
questions, which require participants to run around Stevens Point,
automatically forfeiting those points. They also won't get the true trivia
experience.
"If you really want to get the whole feel for it, you have to come to
Stevens Point," said Jim "Oz" Oliva, the
main organizer and question-writer.
The move online is part of the contest's ongoing expansion. Monday was the
first day of registration and 237 teams made up of 6,412 players had signed
up.
Priniski said Oliva told him the opening line to register was the longest
he'd ever seen.
"It honestly just keeps getting bigger," Priniski said.
Although it is the 40th anniversary, Oliva and Priniski both said there
wasn't much being planned in the way of a celebration.
The station is going to wrap a birthday party of sorts into a music festival
in May, but otherwise, organizers are waiting for year 50 to really go wild.
"I'm saving up my energy to work on 50," Oliva said. "That's going to a
blowout of all blowouts.
"I promise, I will have something that will absolutely stagger the mind."
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