By Gene Kemmeter

Trivia teams are gearing up for the 50th anniversary of the 90FM Trivia contest in Stevens Point next weekend, April 12-14. Started in 1969 by students Nick Ryan and Tim Donovan on the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) student-run radio station WWSP (then WSUS), the contest has evolved into what is called “The World’s Largest Trivia Contest.”

The three-day event from 6 p.m. Friday through midnight Sunday has provided a significant economic impact on the community, particularly for restaurants, stores and motels, as thousands gather to play. The event brings more alumni back to the campus than the traditional homecoming activities, plus a large number of former area residents who return to visit relatives or friends while playing in the contest many have known since their youth.

The initial 16-hour contest quickly evolved into the 54-hour marathon as players tried to answer 10 questions per hour that were broadcast on the radio by calling designated telephone numbers set up for the contest.

The growing popularity of the contest and the increase in the number of teams created telephone problems in the state. Callers were allowed about five minutes to answer each question, and soon realized that they could tie up the designated phone lines for other teams by making multiple calls to provide fake answers, while also calling around the country and the world to find answers.

The outdated technology of the dial telephone system throughout the area and beyond was impacted by the enormous number of calls, even emergency telephone service. Customers often had to wait 20 seconds or more for a dial tone, and the lack of re-dial technology on phones frequently led to misdialed numbers, awakening residents in the wee hours of the morning.

One year in the mid-1970s, increased phone usage during the contest caused a telephone blackout in the northern half of the state, and people calling in the Milwaukee area sometimes were connected with Stevens Point. In 1977, one of the WWSP phone numbers for the contest was similar to a number of the Portage County Sheriff’s Department, causing the deputies to become unwilling telephone operators.

The contest changed rules in 1982 to accommodate the phone system, cutting back the number of questions to eight each hour and limiting each team to only one call per question, eliminating the guessing game situation. There weren’t printed sources available to find answers for many of the questions so team members had to recall the answer off the top of their heads.

As printed sources for answers became available, team members collected books, magazines, newspapers and notes and brought them to the team’s trivia “headquarters” for the contest, with the materials often spread around on the floor.

To keep the participation levels high, the contest was broadened so that not only those versed in trivia could participate. The Running Questions on Saturday and Sunday mornings get team members out and walking around shortly after sunrise. The Trivia Stone has teams following clues such as in a road rally to arrive at a specific destination. And the Music Snippets have team members trying to identify parts of eight songs.

The latest big impact to the contest came in the late 1990s with the increasing popularity of the personal computer. Teams began searching the internet for answers, widening participation to more people.

Hundreds of volunteers keep the contest running, from answering phones to serving as disk jockeys and distributing sheets of questions. Two volunteers, Jim “The Oz” Oliva and John Eckendorf, write the questions for the contest, Oliva since 1979 and Eckendorf assisting him since 1988.

The thousands of players are evident by the number of vehicles parked at brightly lighted houses throughout the area and the signs of team names hanging from windows or displayed in the front yards. That’s why Stevens Point has the title, “The Trivia Capital of the World,” a name the city proudly bears for one tiring weekend each year.