Michigan high school students vie for scholarships on quiz show
Brian ManzulloMicrophones were sound checked and player buzzer lights were tested.
Cameramen adjusted for the perfect shot.
The host clipped a microphone wire to his tie as the floor director gave the 'standby' signal.
"Welcome back - it's another close match," said Kurt Wilson, the energetic host and producer of "Quiz Central," a game show for Michigan high school students on CMU Public Television.
In its fourth season, "Quiz Central" pits 36 school teams against each other from across Michigan in four divisions, based on school size.
Champions are awarded four $2,500 one-year scholarships to Central Michigan University.
"I pitched it to my bosses probably six years ago, when I first started here," said Wilson, public broadcasting executive producer. "I've always been a game show fanatic."
The show is taped at the CMU Public Broadcasting Center on campus. On Wednesday night this week, it was Bear Lake High School against Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart. Whittemore Prescott had played White Cloud just an hour before.
As the end of a commercial break neared, some of the players smiled in front of the camera, others fidgeted nervously.
The crowd quickly quieted as the last commercial sequence concluded.
"We've had kids get excited and fall off the set - twice," said Chris Ogozaly, a staff director. "We've had technicians crawl behind the set during filming to fix something."
Quiz Central has grown from 24 teams in the first season to 36 this season, Wilson said.
Matches air from September to May, but the filming is done in clumps - three to four matches a week for six weeks - keeping a month ahead.
Participants are given complimentary lunches in residential restaurants and a tour of campus after the filming.
A 1985 CMU alumnus, Wilson has worked for the Utah Jazz and has worked at CMU the last six years. His first job was for the Winston Salem Spirits minor league baseball team upon graduation.
He said the questions for the show are bought from companies that write them. He spends four days a week preparing for just one day of taping.
"It's just fun to have these kids here," Wilson said.
Quiz Central airs every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. on CMU Public Television, channel 14 in Mount Pleasant.
Each week's episode airs again on Saturdays at 5:30 p.m. Team pictures, schedules, scores and previous episodes can be viewed at www.wcmu.org.
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