Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 18, 1994                   TAG: 9404180048
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

NOTHING TRIVIAL ABOUT THIS PURSUIT?

A: Stevens Point, Wis.

Q: Where?

Teams from around the country gathered in this central Wisconsin city this weekend to field eight trivial questions an hour for 54 hours during the annual marathon competition.

The contest is coordinated by WWSP, the student radio station at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

WWSP and the American Trivia Association call it the world's largest trivia contest. It registered 535 teams and 11,836 players this year, said Jim Oliva, one of the question editors.

From Friday evening until midnight Sunday, the station broadcast eight questions each hour. Teams scattered around the area listened to the radio and phoned in their answers. More than 100 people staffed 18 telephone lines at the station to record the replies.

To the participants, there's nothing trivial about the event. "There are some of us who work all year waiting for this one weekend," said Lee Salawitch of Baltimore.