KVSC is hosting “Trivia Weekend: U Can’t Touch This 2020 ½” from noon to 10 p.m. April 18. To join in register your team by 4:30 p.m. April 17.
Unlike a regular Trivia Weekend, when 300 volunteers help to run phone banks, judge answers and host in-studio, answers for this mini-trivia will be submitted online through a web form.
The idea was raised by members of the Trivia Weekend Facebook group who suggested that trivia would be a good way to connect with others and occupy the brain while people are otherwise staying put.
Just seven core volunteers are working to put on the event, with KVSC’s Jim Gray acting as primary host and his wife, usually a question writer, keeping scores and their three daughters doing support work.
Trivia’s volunteer question writers have also returned to challenge players, and trivia alumni hosts will be cohosting from their homes, Gray said.
Long-time phone bank volunteers are recording messages to be shared over the air while others are forming teams of their own to participate in mini-trivia.
It’s all just part of what KVSC seeks to offer the community — pandemic or not.
“It’s really refreshing to see that this is a thing that we do,” Gray said. “We’re a community radio station. It’s not just the doom and gloom stories. We’re here to provide something fun.”
KVSC students and volunteers have been working hard since social distancing began to keep the station on the air during the stay at home order.
Most of the work is being done from home studios for remote on the air shifts, Gray said.
“We have to stay true to our mission and federal license and mandate,” he said. “During times of emergency we have to stay on the air. That’s a requirement of our license, and we take it seriously. We are going to be providing community information and support as much as we can.”
In addition to bringing the community news, KVSC is dedicated to also bringing the community enjoyment and entertainment.
That is what trivia is all about, and what spurred the creation of the annual Trivia Weekend contest more than 40 years ago, Gray said.
In 1980 St. Cloud State University’s Residence Hall Association and the campus radio station got together to start a trivia event in March as a cabin fever reliever for students and community members who had been stuck inside all winter.
“Now for those exact same reasons, we’re going to try and do it again,” he said.
