The Stateline Quiz Bowl by Bergstrom, a locally-produced weekly teen quiz show airing exclusively on WTVO-WQRF, held its second season finale this past Friday night, concluding another successful year. WTVO is Mission Broadcasting’s ABC affiliate in Rockford, Ill., while WQRF is Nexstar’s Fox affiliate. The stations share studios. The Stateline Quiz Bowl pits local high […]
The Stateline Quiz Bowl by Bergstrom, a locally-produced weekly teen quiz show airing exclusively on WTVO-WQRF, held its second season finale this past Friday night, concluding another successful year.
WTVO is Mission Broadcasting’s ABC affiliate in Rockford, Ill., while WQRF is Nexstar’s Fox affiliate. The stations share studios.
The Stateline Quiz Bowl pits local high school schools and their students in a tournament-style, half-hour battle of the brains.
The finale was a live 30-minute contest featuring the two top schools, whittled down from 32 teams at the start of the 2016 season. In 2015, there were only 22 teams. There was a special hour-long show prior to the finale that summed up the whole season.
Here is the opening segment of last Friday’s night finale, about three minutes long.
“The show continues to exceed my every expectation, up to and including ratings growth,” said Kelly Lattimer, WTVO’s general manager.
The quiz show is Lattimer’s brainchild. It combines the perfect venue for community support, corporate PR, inventive local programming and station revenue.
“It’s community outreach,” says Lattimer, “but it also encourages education and recruitment to keep the brain drain from continuing. The schools are grateful for the opportunity.”
Click here to read an article that describes how the show was developed, how and why Bergstrom, a global company headquartered in Rockford, signed on as title sponsor, and the important role Northern Illinois University plays in all of this.
The Stateline Quiz Bowl by Bergstrom is renewed and expanded through the 2018 school year.
Lattimer said that every one of the 32 schools that participated this year are returning next year, with four new teams wanting to play.
“These students are always impressive,’ said Lattimer, “it doesn’t matter whether it’s a big school or small school.” Lattimer said one high school playing has only 90 students total.
“The dedication and determination of some of these students, you just see it when they come in. It’s their sport, they have their game faces on, and they are ready to do battle. They love the experience and they come back even though some don’t do that well.”
And viewership is growing, according to Lattimer. “We produce a local show that, week after week, typically out delivers the No. 1 show nationally. And it’s evidenced by our growth in ratings per comScore. This further confirms the significance of providing strong locally-originated programming.”
And being known as the station that airs The Stateline Quiz Bowl has enhanced the station’s image.
“We are known now as the education station. We’ve added a significant amount of education programming. And this is just enriching the community.”
Click here for more information about all of WTVO and WQRF’s education projects and programming.
Here’s one example from the stations’ Education Matters series.
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