Editing Williams College (section)

===Trivia contest===
At the end of every semester but one since 1966, WCFM has hosted an all-night, eight-hour [[trivia]] contest. Teams of students, alumni, professors, friends, and others compete to answer questions on a variety of subjects, while simultaneously identifying songs and performing designated tasks. The winning team's only prize is the obligation to create and host the following semester's contest.<ref name="trivia rules">{{cite web| title =Contest Rules (and Rules of Thumb) for the semi-annual Williams College Trivia Contest| url =https://wso.williams.edu/orgs/trivia/rules.html| access-date =2020-01-30| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20160529032442/http://wso.williams.edu/orgs/trivia/rules.html| archive-date =May 29, 2016| url-status =live}}</ref>

The precise date of the debut contest is uncertain.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Williams Trivia Contest |url=https://wso.williams.edu/orgs/trivia/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022171441/http://wso.williams.edu/orgs/trivia/ |archive-date=October 22, 2016 |access-date=2020-01-30}}</ref> Most spring contests occur in early May, but during its first decade, Williams Trivia was sometimes held in March or February. Assuming a May date, [[Lawrence University]]'s 50-hour-long [[Great Midwest Trivia Contest]], first held on April 29, 1966, would be the oldest continuous competition of its sort in the United States, but if the first Williams contest was held earlier, it would be the oldest. 

While other college-based trivia contests in the United States emphasize marathon endurance and revel in the obscurity of their arcana, the aim of the Williams contest is to cram as much evocative and entertaining material into as concentrated a space as possible. Lasting just eight hours, a typical Williams Trivia contest will demand between 900 and 1,200 separate "bits" of trivial information,<ref name="trivia rules" /> delivering twice as much content as its "competitors" in a fraction of the time. No discernible rivalry exists between any of the various contests. The contest has occasionally received outside media coverage, including in the [[New York Times]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/06/weekinreview/word-for-word-trivia-marathon-pulling-all-nighter-this-college-means-acting.html?scp=1&sq=WCFM%20%20Trivia&st=cse |title=Word for Word/Trivia Marathon; Pulling an All-Nighter at This College Means Acting Out 'Nietzsche in Love' |author=Thomas Vinciguerra |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 6, 1999 |access-date=January 10, 2012 |author-link=Thomas Vinciguerra |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510010657/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/06/weekinreview/word-for-word-trivia-marathon-pulling-all-nighter-this-college-means-acting.html?scp=1&sq=WCFM%20%20Trivia&st=cse |archive-date=May 10, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>