KVSC’s 50-Hour trivia marathon Friday 5 p.m. to Sunday at 7 p.m.
34th annual 50-Hour trivia marathon is based in St. Cloud, MN but teams play all over the world
WSB Twitter and Facebook followers have no doubt noticed the multitude of messages recently about Trivia 2013: A Space Oddity. For 34 years this 50 hour trivia contest has gathered together 1,500 players to challenger their minds and their teamwork. Started on the campus of St. Cloud Statue University in 1980 to combat dorm-related cabin fever; it has grown beyond central Minnesota as the internet has allowed teams to have players as far away as the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones.
Nine questions per hour are read over the air on 88.1 KVSC-FM, the SCSU student/community radio station (a high-powered version of WORT). One to three questions during the hour are open at any one time and have various point values. Unlike the larger contest in Steven’s Point, teams can call and guess as many times as they want while the question are open. The team with the most points wins mostly bragging rights and a cracked traveling Trivia Urn.
My own involvement started in 1994 answering phones while I was a student. The next year, after having worked at the station, I spent part of the time in an ancillary radio studio answering the “Challenge line” which was available for teams to call and challenge each other and the volunteers to do various things. The callers were usually from teams that were out of the running, but yielded some legendary events like a barefoot race across a frozen pond wearing only Jolt-brand jockstraps.
While my eventual career track was aviation, I developed side skills in radio due to the large amount of time spent at KVSC. Beginning in 1995 I invited friends to join me in answering the challenge line and making our own skits. Twenty years later the group has grown, fired by the love of creativity expressed through radio production. We soon named ourselves the Goat Posse and have become a key part of the yearly effort.
The Trivia intro is a massive effort. This is the final product as shown on a multitrack editing program.
One of the Goat Posse tasks is to create a long-form audio piece each year that introduces the contest theme through film and television audio clips backed by music. This year’s intro will air at 4:50 p.m Friday February 8, 2012. Check out this news report that really sums up the whole experience quite succinctly.
You can listen to the contest, which runs from 5 p.m. Friday until 7 p.m Sunday, by visiting KVSC.org and using there tune-in link. #Triviaweekend Facebook
The Goat Posse will be releasing productions throughout the weekend. Sometime after they air they will be posted online at GoatPosse.com
You can watch the Goat Posse as they work by visiting GoatPosse TV
UTVS, the campus student TV station has built an amazing set this year and they can be seen here.
Don’t miss the Goat Posse’s “Captain to Captain Show” when they takeover the airwaves for two hours of the contest on Saturday February 9, 2013 from 7 p.m to 9 p.m.
Finally, the awards ceremony will be broadcast live on radio, television, and online on Sunday February 10, 2013 at 8 p.m.
Read a summary of the weekend here
