Radio host Michael Feldman, announcer Jim Packard and the WhadíYa Know? jazz trio joined Wooster students and the greater community Saturday in McGaw Chapel for a broadcast of the live radio quiz show, ìWhadíYa Know?” During the two-hour event, audience members were treated to little-known nuggets of Northeast Ohio trivia ó who knew that newborn boys in Massillon are given footballs ó through interviews and quizzes with locals, audience members and call-in contestants.
ìWhadíYa Know?” is a live radio quiz show that is broadcast on NPR stations. The show has been broadcasting for 24 years and is based out of Madison, Wis., but it travels to other cities and towns around the nation.† Itís exciting that this show came to The College of Wooster for the same reasons as if U2 or Justin Timberlake showed up in Canton. Big names, even in radio, donít usually come to small towns.† Community members and college students alike took advantage of this opportunity and nearly filled the chapel.
Inside McGaw, the stage was adorned with kitschy props, many of which had something to do with local sights and culture, like a giant black squirrel and Wooster jerseys. The number of advertisements posted around the area seemed a little out of place, but when listening at home it doesnít always register that there are people actually seeing what is happening. The rest of the scene appeared more or less as what was† expected: a table for interviews, announcer off to the side, and piano, bass, and drums in the back.
Other than new sights and surroundings, the show went on how it always does. Michael Feldman started off with a Wooster version of All the News That Isnít, in which Feldman reads fake headlines related to local events and places.† Itís like The Onion news, but for radio.† The show moved on to an interview with Paul Locher from the Daily Record where listeners learned that on the list of the Top 10 Revolutionary War Heroes, the townís namesake, Mr. Wooster, was Number 11.† Following that was a little Q and A and clever banter with audience members, the WhadíYa Know? quiz and Bever-Beaver Street jokes galore.
An actual WhadíYa Know? quiz goes like this: Feldman selects a member of the audience to come onstage, and then asks a question for a call-in listener to answer.† If the caller answers correctly, then he stays on the line and works with the on-stage participant to answer a series of local-themed and often ridiculous questions.† In fact, you probably didnít know that the first Wooster football team was called the Presbyterian Steamroller, or that the average commuting time in Wooster is 11.3 minutes.† One question even asked whether it is better to have 200 meals and 450 Flex Dollars, or 240 meals and 300 Flex Dollars. Meal plan A was clearly the right answer.
A few of the Scot Pipers marched in after a jazz-filled intermission, and the second hour was off to a noisy start. Jay Lehman of Lehmanís Hardware in Kidron, Ohio came by for an interview and brought with him a few household items from the good olí days, which apparently are still available at his store. If you need to peel an apple in five seconds flat, head over to Kidron and get yourself a Reading 78 Apple Peeler, which was expertly demonstrated during the interview.† Again, Feldman went down among the pews of McGaw to talk to the natives, another successful audience member and call-in listener quiz took place, and the show rounded off with local cheese and wine samplings from Heiniís Cheese and Troutman Wine.
The end of the program came with the jazz trio playing another tune, and Michael Feldman and the WhadíYa Know? crew claimed that they had seen every inch of Ohio before coming to Wooster. It was decided, mostly by the audience, that they saved the best for last.