Room Escape Artist

According to the Trivia Hall of Fame, the biggest trivia contest in the world is not in Los Angeles, or New York, or London. It’s in tiny Stevens Point, Wisconsin, population 25,716. Every year since 1969, the college radio station at the University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point, has run an on-air trivia contest: 54 hours straight, no breaks, running over three days in April. The quiz contains over 400 questions spanning multiple categories, including movies, TV, music, sports, comics, literature, food & beverage, and games.

How does it work?

Eight questions are asked over the 90FM airwaves each hour. Teams are given the length of two songs to call in to the station with an answer. All teams that respond correctly are given an equal share of the 2000 points that a question is worth, with a minimum of 5 points and a maximum of 500 points. In case that is not enough to keep teams busy, there are also a series of one-second music snippets to identify, more than 20 rare and unique images to find, a scavenger hunt around the city’s downtown, and a driving challenge that forces teams to send players out into the neighborhood following cryptic directions to attain a stamp worth 300 valuable trivia points. All of this is happening at the same time, around the clock, for 54 straight hours.

With as many as 11,500 players on 450 teams, the trivia contest is by far the biggest thing that happens in Stevens Point in any given year. The festivities begin with a parade, and not only does the whole town seem to play, but former residents fly home to reunite with their old teams. Some teams have been playing for decades, and reunite annually to play.

Who is behind this?

Jim Oliva is known locally as The Oz for his role in writing the questions and generally running the contest since 1979. But he is not the first Oz: there have been others, but, the Oliva Era has been marked by increased professionalism. All questions are researched and written, not spontaneously on the night of the contest, but far in advance. 

The Oz is known to hoard all of the garbage produced from the basement where long hours are spent writing the questions, because players have gone through his trash in an attempt to gain an advantage in the contest. Players have also followed the Oz around town, to spy what movies he goes to see or to make note of what breakfast cereal he buys.

In recent years Oliva has given up some of the question writing duties but is still heavily involved in the running of the contest.

How has it evolved?

To keep the game challenging, the questions have become much harder in the internet age. What would have been a 250-point question years ago is now worth about 10 points. “We don’t ask a question now; we describe it”, says Oliva. In other words, questions describe situations, which have no easily discernible key words. For example: “A suspicious big-screen party guest briefly put on the wrong hat before departing, then returning under false pretenses. Inside of the hat, the label contained the initials of a man who was supposed to be at the party, and in a sense had been there the whole time. What are these initials?”

In Stevens Point trivia is a noun, a verb, and a lifestyle. Players spend the year with notebooks, writing down anything question-worthy they may encounter. It is something you grow up with and a tradition that is passed down. Trivia is anything but trivial.

The answer to the trivial question above is “DK,” as seen in the 1948 Alfred Hiichcock film Rope. That question was worth 55 points.

The RECON Observer

This piece was first published on August 18, 2024 in The RECON Observer, a print publication distributed at RECON Los Angeles. While the complete newspaper and all of its secrets were only available at RECON Los Angeles, we’re making a few columns available on Room Escape Artist for all to enjoy.

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