As Schools Match Wits
Encyclopedia
As Schools Match Wits is a high school quiz show, hosted by Beth Ward, that airs on PBS member station WGBY in Springfield, Massachusetts
, and produced in association with Westfield State College
. America's longest-running high school quiz show, As Schools Match Wits is well-known throughout western Massachusetts
and northern Connecticut.
There are six categories, Arts & Entertainment, Literature, Math & Science, General Knowledge, Social Studies, and World Events. In each category, there are four questions, worth 30, 25, 20, and 15 points respectively.
After a team chooses a category and point value, it is asked a qualifying question on which the team may confer before offering an answer. If the team answers correctly, it is then asked several more questions, each of which has a point value; the team may again confer on each question before answering. In other words, the qualifying question is worth no points; points are scored by answering the questions that follow it. If a team misses the qualifying question, it is turned over to the opposing team. If the opposing team gives the correct answer, it has "capitalized" on the mistake and is then given a chance to answer the category's questions for the selected points. In general, the parts of the question that earn points are worth 5 or 10 points each, though on occasion, 30-point questions will have parts worth 15 points.
This round continues through several category-and-point-value selections, after which the first Lightning Round is played. The host asks as many questions in a specific category as possible in 90 seconds. Teams buzz in to answer, and may confer briefly. Correct answers are worth 5 points each; wrong answers cost 5 points.
Following the first Lightning Round, more regular game play takes place. Soon the final Lightning Round takes place; this is identical to the first except that each question is worth ±10 points. The final Lightning Round can be worth 200 points or more, depending on the pace of the round, and many games are decided by this final round.
Starting in the 2010-11 season, the game begins with a "Challenge Round," in which teams answer a series of toss-up questions worth 10 points each; this is followed with the first Lightning Round (5 points per question); the second half of the game is called the "Capitalization Round," which is played as above, and is followed by the second Lightning Round, with 5-point questions.
The show's participants are also interviewed over the course of game play; each student talks for 15 seconds or so, usually about activities in which he or she participates or interests he or she has.
in Springfield, Massachusetts
, is a high school
quiz competition
that bills itself as "America's Longest Running High School Television Quiz Show Since 1961". This high school quiz show includes schools from western Massachusetts and northern Connecticut. Its regular timeslot, from at least as far back as the early 1970s until its switch to WGBY, had been Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., although it has aired at other times as well. This was especially true in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when it would sometimes air on Sunday mornings because NBC's NBA basketball telecasts pre-empted its traditional slot.
Phil Shepardson, an English professor at Westfield State College
, hosted the show from 1961 to June 1991. Shepardson died in June 2011, at the age of 76. John Baran (WWLP's station manager) took over that autumn when the show returned from its annual summer hiatus. Baran hosted from 1991–2006 and Chris Rohmann took over in January 2007, due to the switch to WGBY.
The show's creator, Leonard J. Collamore was the head question writer for 22 years, from 1961 to 1983. This was followed by Phil Shepardson from 1983-1991. Dr. Todd Rovelli has been the question writer from 1991 to the present.
For many years, the show's theme music was Leroy Anderson
's "Bugler's Holiday", performed by the Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler
's direction. (This information would occasionally appear in questions used on the show.) At least two different Boston Pops recordings were used on the air: one dating from 1967, and another from 1969 that featured a guest performance by legendary trumpeter Al Hirt
. The 1969 recording was dubbed off of a record owned by one of the station's engineers. In September 2000, "Bugler's Holiday" was replaced in favor of a generic-sounding, far less distinctive piece because of escalating music licensing fees. From 2007 onward, the show has retained the original "Bugler's Holiday" excerpt, played against photos of random historical content and past episode clips. Ethan Lillie, an acclaimed concert pianist and jazz composer, composed an alternate version of the "Bugler's Holiday" theme, which was used in a November 2004 episode of ASMW to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Lillie's induction into the jazz hall of fame.
The show had exactly the same light-blue-and-white set from 1982 until 2000, with trim and background changes added over the years. The set immediately prior to that one was orange, black and dark green.
Through most of the 1970s and 80s a localized version of this series also ran in Dayton, Ohio
on WKEF
television, which was at the time owned by Springfield Television Corporation in Massachusetts, but this version featured several different hosts during its run, including at one time future conservative talk show host Mike Gallagher
.
regulations requiring all U.S. over-the-air television programming to be closed-captioned for the deaf and hard of hearing. Shortly after the cancellation was announced, however, WWLP, WGBY and Westfield State College
announced a solution to keep the program on the air. WWLP has licensed the program to Westfield State College, and it returned for a 46th season in January 2007 as a co-production of Westfield State College and WGBY. The program will continue to air on Saturday evenings, now on WGBY, and with "Bugler's Holiday" as the program's returned theme. It returned to the airwaves at 7:00 p.m. on January 20, 2007.
The new series began taping in early January 2007. As Schools Match Wits delivers all of the fun of the classic high school quiz-show and introduces a new generation of high-school students to one of the few public competitions that stresses knowledge over physical ability.
When the new season of As Schools Match Wits premiered, the show welcomed radio personality and writer Chris Rohmann
as its new host. Rohmann is a writer, teacher, critic and radio personality with a broad background in the arts, journalism and the world of ideas. He is an adjunct faculty member at the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter High School (PVPA) in South Hadley, Massachusetts
, has been the theater critic for 88.5 WFCR
since 2001 and contributes regularly to the Valley Advocate. A director as well as critic, he has staged plays at the Hampshire Shakespeare Company, PVPA and elsewhere. He is also the grants coordinator for New World Theater, the multicultural theater based at the University of Massachusetts
Fine Arts Center.
Following the 2007-2008 season, Rohmann was replaced by Beth Ward as host.
The 2011-2012 season will begin filming on November 5, 2011 at Westfield State University.
production, High School Quiz Show hosted by 1996 MIT
graduate Ms. Dhaya Lakshminarayanan, to send their own qualifying teams from Western Massachusetts to also compete in WGBH-TV Boston's matches. One of the western Massachusetts schools sent, Longmeadow High School
, went on to win the WGBH-TV High School Quiz Show Massachusetts state championship in June 2010, defeating The Bromfield School
from Harvard, Massachusetts
.
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...
, and produced in association with Westfield State College
Westfield State College
Westfield State University is a comprehensive, coeducational, four-year public university in Westfield, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1838 by noted educator and social reformer Horace Mann as the first public co-educational college in America without barrier to race, gender and economic class...
. America's longest-running high school quiz show, As Schools Match Wits is well-known throughout western Massachusetts
Western Massachusetts
Western Massachusetts is a loosely defined geographical region of the U.S. state of Massachusetts which contains the Berkshires, the Pioneer Valley, and some or all of the Swift River Valley. The region is always considered to include Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden counties, and the...
and northern Connecticut.
Gameplay
Two teams of four high school students compete in a trivia and academic knowledge competition. At the beginning of the show, there is a coin toss, and the winning team gets to make the first selection of a category and point value from the game board.There are six categories, Arts & Entertainment, Literature, Math & Science, General Knowledge, Social Studies, and World Events. In each category, there are four questions, worth 30, 25, 20, and 15 points respectively.
After a team chooses a category and point value, it is asked a qualifying question on which the team may confer before offering an answer. If the team answers correctly, it is then asked several more questions, each of which has a point value; the team may again confer on each question before answering. In other words, the qualifying question is worth no points; points are scored by answering the questions that follow it. If a team misses the qualifying question, it is turned over to the opposing team. If the opposing team gives the correct answer, it has "capitalized" on the mistake and is then given a chance to answer the category's questions for the selected points. In general, the parts of the question that earn points are worth 5 or 10 points each, though on occasion, 30-point questions will have parts worth 15 points.
This round continues through several category-and-point-value selections, after which the first Lightning Round is played. The host asks as many questions in a specific category as possible in 90 seconds. Teams buzz in to answer, and may confer briefly. Correct answers are worth 5 points each; wrong answers cost 5 points.
Following the first Lightning Round, more regular game play takes place. Soon the final Lightning Round takes place; this is identical to the first except that each question is worth ±10 points. The final Lightning Round can be worth 200 points or more, depending on the pace of the round, and many games are decided by this final round.
Starting in the 2010-11 season, the game begins with a "Challenge Round," in which teams answer a series of toss-up questions worth 10 points each; this is followed with the first Lightning Round (5 points per question); the second half of the game is called the "Capitalization Round," which is played as above, and is followed by the second Lightning Round, with 5-point questions.
The show's participants are also interviewed over the course of game play; each student talks for 15 seconds or so, usually about activities in which he or she participates or interests he or she has.
Playoffs
The way to determine the playoff teams is summed up best in the slogan for the show: "It's all about the points!" Only the top eight highest-scoring teams at the end of the season advance to the playoffs. This is different from the original format, where a winning team would return on the next show and needed to win three times to reach the playoffs. The current method means that a team could win their match, yet still fail to make the playoffs if their score was not one of the highest. On the flip side, a losing team could potentially make the playoffs if their score was high enough, although this is highly unlikely. The playoff format itself works in a single elimination format. The winning team receives the "Collamore Cup," named for Leonard Collamore, creator of the show and writer of the program through the 1960s and 1970s.History
As Schools Match Wits, which originally aired on WWLPWWLP
WWLP is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts that is licensed to Springfield. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 11 from a transmitter on Provin Mountain in the Feeding Hills section of Agawam. The station can also be seen...
in Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...
, is a high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
quiz competition
Quizbowl
Quiz bowl is a family of games of questions and answers on all topics of human knowledge that is commonly played by students enrolled in high school or college, although some participants begin in middle or even elementary school...
that bills itself as "America's Longest Running High School Television Quiz Show Since 1961". This high school quiz show includes schools from western Massachusetts and northern Connecticut. Its regular timeslot, from at least as far back as the early 1970s until its switch to WGBY, had been Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., although it has aired at other times as well. This was especially true in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when it would sometimes air on Sunday mornings because NBC's NBA basketball telecasts pre-empted its traditional slot.
Phil Shepardson, an English professor at Westfield State College
Westfield State College
Westfield State University is a comprehensive, coeducational, four-year public university in Westfield, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1838 by noted educator and social reformer Horace Mann as the first public co-educational college in America without barrier to race, gender and economic class...
, hosted the show from 1961 to June 1991. Shepardson died in June 2011, at the age of 76. John Baran (WWLP's station manager) took over that autumn when the show returned from its annual summer hiatus. Baran hosted from 1991–2006 and Chris Rohmann took over in January 2007, due to the switch to WGBY.
The show's creator, Leonard J. Collamore was the head question writer for 22 years, from 1961 to 1983. This was followed by Phil Shepardson from 1983-1991. Dr. Todd Rovelli has been the question writer from 1991 to the present.
For many years, the show's theme music was Leroy Anderson
Leroy Anderson
Leroy Anderson was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler...
's "Bugler's Holiday", performed by the Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler
Arthur Fiedler
Arthur Fiedler was a long-time conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, a symphony orchestra that specializes in popular and light classical music. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one of the best-known orchestras in the country...
's direction. (This information would occasionally appear in questions used on the show.) At least two different Boston Pops recordings were used on the air: one dating from 1967, and another from 1969 that featured a guest performance by legendary trumpeter Al Hirt
Al Hirt
Al Hirt was an American trumpeter and bandleader. He is best remembered for his million selling recordings of "Java", and the accompanying album, Honey in the Horn . His nicknames included 'Jumbo' and 'The Round Mound of Sound'...
. The 1969 recording was dubbed off of a record owned by one of the station's engineers. In September 2000, "Bugler's Holiday" was replaced in favor of a generic-sounding, far less distinctive piece because of escalating music licensing fees. From 2007 onward, the show has retained the original "Bugler's Holiday" excerpt, played against photos of random historical content and past episode clips. Ethan Lillie, an acclaimed concert pianist and jazz composer, composed an alternate version of the "Bugler's Holiday" theme, which was used in a November 2004 episode of ASMW to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Lillie's induction into the jazz hall of fame.
The show had exactly the same light-blue-and-white set from 1982 until 2000, with trim and background changes added over the years. The set immediately prior to that one was orange, black and dark green.
Through most of the 1970s and 80s a localized version of this series also ran in Dayton, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
on WKEF
WKEF
WKEF, virtual channel 22, is the ABC-affiliated television station for the Miami Valley area of Ohio, which is licensed to Dayton. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 51 from a transmitter at their Broadcast Plaza studios near the New Chicago section of the city...
television, which was at the time owned by Springfield Television Corporation in Massachusetts, but this version featured several different hosts during its run, including at one time future conservative talk show host Mike Gallagher
Mike Gallagher
Mike Gallagheris an American radio host and conservative political commentator. He is the host of The Mike Gallagher Show, a nationally-syndicated radio program that airs throughout the United States on Salem Radio Network and is also a FOX News Channel Contributor and guest host...
.
Cancellation and revival
In September 2006, WWLP cancelled the program after 45 seasons, citing the cost of new FCCFederal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
regulations requiring all U.S. over-the-air television programming to be closed-captioned for the deaf and hard of hearing. Shortly after the cancellation was announced, however, WWLP, WGBY and Westfield State College
Westfield State College
Westfield State University is a comprehensive, coeducational, four-year public university in Westfield, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1838 by noted educator and social reformer Horace Mann as the first public co-educational college in America without barrier to race, gender and economic class...
announced a solution to keep the program on the air. WWLP has licensed the program to Westfield State College, and it returned for a 46th season in January 2007 as a co-production of Westfield State College and WGBY. The program will continue to air on Saturday evenings, now on WGBY, and with "Bugler's Holiday" as the program's returned theme. It returned to the airwaves at 7:00 p.m. on January 20, 2007.
The new series began taping in early January 2007. As Schools Match Wits delivers all of the fun of the classic high school quiz-show and introduces a new generation of high-school students to one of the few public competitions that stresses knowledge over physical ability.
When the new season of As Schools Match Wits premiered, the show welcomed radio personality and writer Chris Rohmann
Chris Rohmann
Chris Rohmann is the former host of "As Schools Match Wits" on WGBY-TV channel 57 in Springfield, Massachusetts.Rohmann was born in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He is a resident of Hadley, Massachusetts, but lived in the United Kingdom for many years until the early/mid 1980s...
as its new host. Rohmann is a writer, teacher, critic and radio personality with a broad background in the arts, journalism and the world of ideas. He is an adjunct faculty member at the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter High School (PVPA) in South Hadley, Massachusetts
South Hadley, Massachusetts
South Hadley is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 17,514 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area....
, has been the theater critic for 88.5 WFCR
WFCR
- WNNZ :WFCR provides a full-time NPR news/talk programming feed on WNNZ, 640 kHz, licensed to Westfield, Massachusetts, which was owned by Clear Channel Communications. WNNZ's grade B signal reaches into the Capital District of New York State....
since 2001 and contributes regularly to the Valley Advocate. A director as well as critic, he has staged plays at the Hampshire Shakespeare Company, PVPA and elsewhere. He is also the grants coordinator for New World Theater, the multicultural theater based at the University of Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts
This article relates to the statewide university system. For the flagship campus often referred to as "UMass", see University of Massachusetts Amherst...
Fine Arts Center.
Following the 2007-2008 season, Rohmann was replaced by Beth Ward as host.
The 2011-2012 season will begin filming on November 5, 2011 at Westfield State University.
Collaboration with WGBH
In 2010, As Schools Match Wits partnered with the new Boston WGBH-TVWGBH-TV
WGBH-TV, channel 2, is a non-commercial educational public television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WGBH-TV is a member station of the Public Broadcasting Service , and produces more than two-thirds of PBS's national prime time television programming...
production, High School Quiz Show hosted by 1996 MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
graduate Ms. Dhaya Lakshminarayanan, to send their own qualifying teams from Western Massachusetts to also compete in WGBH-TV Boston's matches. One of the western Massachusetts schools sent, Longmeadow High School
Longmeadow High School
Longmeadow High School is located in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, United States.Longmeadow High School was founded in 1956 and enrolls approximately 1,100 students...
, went on to win the WGBH-TV High School Quiz Show Massachusetts state championship in June 2010, defeating The Bromfield School
The Bromfield School
The Bromfield School is a public school located in Harvard, Massachusetts. Founded in 1878 by Margaret Bromfield Blanchard, the school's student population is approximately 750, in grades 6–12...
from Harvard, Massachusetts
Harvard, Massachusetts
Harvard is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. A farming community settled in 1658 and incorporated in 1732, it has been home to several non-traditional communities, such as Harvard Shaker Village and the utopian Transcendentalist center Fruitlands...
.