WISS Trivia Contest was a

trivia Trivia is information and data that are considered to be of little value. It can be contrasted with general knowledge and common sense. Latin Etymology The ancient Romans used the word ''triviae'' to describe where one road split or forke ...

contest that was held annually on WISS between 1982 and 2005. The contest was billed as the "world's longest-running commercial trivia contest" before its 2006 cancellation.

Radio station

The trivia contest began in 1982 on Hometown Broadcasting's WISS in

Berlin, Wisconsin Berlin is a city in Green Lake and Waushara counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 5,571 at the 2020 census. Of this, 5,435 were in Green Lake County, and only 89 were in Waushara County. The city is located mostly within ...

. In the late 1990s the trivia contest was simulcast on both of Hometown Broadcasting's radio stations (WISS and WBJZ-FM/ WAUH). The 2005 contest was broadcast only on WAUH.

Rules

The contest traditionally started on the first Saturday morning of February (often at 10:00 a.m. local time), and it ran continuously until some time on Sunday morning. The contest was 21 hours long from 1982 to 1999 and 2002 to 2003. The 2000 and 2001 contests were shortened to 9 daylight hours because WISS was unable to get a

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisd ...

waiver to broadcast outside its normal daytime hours. The 2004 and 2005 contests were lengthened to 22 and 23 hours, respectively. The questions had a point value of 5, 10, 25, or 50 points. There were two difficult 50-point questions that were asked overnight. The radio station read a question and announced its point value. Teams were given three songs (approximately 10 minutes' worth of time) to call the station's request lines with the correct answer. Teams were allowed unlimited guesses, and the phone operators would only ask for the team name after a correct guess. Teams were not allowed to continue guessing after calling in with a correct answer (the term is jamming). Any and all teams that correctly answered the question were credited with question's points. There was no restriction or limit on the source of the guesses. Teams in the 1980s would use books for sources, but by the mid- to late 1990s teams had gone away from books in favor of using the internet. The internet and

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books were not considered "sources" for the purpose of contesting an answer. The top four team were awarded cash prizes between $25 and $100.

Trivia masters

The original trivia master was Steve Handrich, who presided over the contest from 1982 until 1997. Martin Jury was trivia master from 1998 until 2001, and Andy Disterhaft from 2002 until 2005.

Sample questions

*2005, question #6 (10 points): Which (United States) Presidents are buried in

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to ...

? **Answer:

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame a ...

James Polk James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

, and

Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency as he was vice president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a D ...

*2002, question #52 (25 points):

Hakeem Olajuwon Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon (; ; born January 21, 1963), nicknamed "the Dream", is a Nigerian-American former professional basketball player. From 1984 to 2002, he played center in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Houston Rockets a ...

and

Alex Rodriguez Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez (born July 27, 1975), nicknamed "A-Rod", is an American former professional baseball shortstop and third baseman, businessman and philanthropist. Rodriguez played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the ...

have both studied flexibility at what

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

gym? **Answer: A.T.T.A.C.K. ATHLETICS, Incorporated *1999, question #1 (5 points): What is the name of Wisconsin's current Miss Teen, and what city is she from? **Answer: Heidi Cody - Markesan, Wisconsin *1995, question #69 (50 points): What does the acronym "PRETTY BLUE BATCH" mean? **Answer: Philadelphia Regional Exchange Tea Toddling Young Belles Letters Universal Experimental Bibliography Association To Civilized Humanity

Annual question categories

*Music *Current events *Television/Radio *Movies/Hollywood *History *Sports *Cartoons/Comics *General Knowledge *plus one revolving category

List of revolving categories

*2005 World Leaders *2004 Food *2003 Major world cities *2002 WISS station history *2001 Elections *2000 Cats *1999 Holidays *1998 Toys *1997 Games *1996 Double Jeopardy (35-point questions that had been asked in a previous contest) *1995 Acronyms *1994 Big Business *1993 Religions *1992 Express Yourself *1991 American military conflicts *1990 The 1980s decade *1989 Listening/Audio Questions *1988 Transportation *1987 Wisconsin *1986 Disasters *1985 Cartoons *1984 Olympics *1983 Soap Operas *1982 None

References

*WISS contest information formerly at triviaasylum.com, retrieved February 1, 2007 {{Dead link, date=May 2023 *www.execpc.com/~jamesf/wiss/wisspr98.htm, Retrieved January 2, 2001, link not valid February 1, 2007 *www.execpc.com/~jamesf/wiss/tz_wiss1.html, Retrieved January 2, 2001, link not valid February 1, 2007 *"WISS trivia contest another success"; February 1998

Berlin Journal The ''Berlin Journal'', formerly ''The Berlin Evening Journal'', is a weekly newspaper published in Berlin, Wisconsin. It is owned by the Berlin Journal Company Inc, which publishes five weekly newspapers in the Green Lake County, Wisconsin are ...

; last accessed February 1, 2007

External links

Official website of the radio station management
Wisconsin culture Trivia competitions Competitions in the United States