For years, Captain F. had wanted to produce an audio piece that would introduce the Trivia contest. The template was two promos produced by KVSC alums Troy and Dave for 1995’s Dial T for Trivia. (At least one survives and can be heard by visiting our 1995 page) The promos used music to back a series of TV and film audio clips (mostly from Alfred Hitchcock films) to tell a loose story about the theme and at the same time entertain.
Captain F. had changed careers during 2000 from public radio to commercial flying and both careers would have a surprising impact on the final outcome of this year’s INTRO. As mentioned in previous descriptions, The Posse is fond of extraneous audio and several cuts left over from news stories Captain F. filed in 2000 made their may into the INTRO, including several cuts from a campaign speech Al Gore gave in June of 2000.
As Captain F. and Wildman started gathering audio to illuminate the theme, a structure to the INTRO emerged that endures to this day. Wildman found a random clip at the beginning of a Kingston Trio song that talked about Zombies and it seemed like a great opening line. Now each intro has some sort of opening statement with Wildman leading the charge in finding the most “opens” over the years.
After the opening statement the quotes follow in a series of vignettes that highlight sub-themes with music that may or may not directly relate to the quotes or theme. Captain F.’s love of electronic music explains the abundance of this type of music backing most of the quotes. Mostly by accident, there is also a vignette of pure sexual innuendo. While it rarely relates to the theme, it is now a required segment in every intro.
Captain F. and Wildman were a little disappointed that 2001: A Space Odyssey was not the theme this year. In honor of the “lost” theme the final vignette was an omage to the Kubrick classic. Production for the INTRO was performed on Cool Edit (a forerunner to Adobe Audition) and was slowly assembled in the weeks before Trivia.
Days before Captain F. was to leave for Trivia he was sent on a 3-day trip and the editing ground to a halt. Late on the Thursday before Trivia, he found himself in Savannah, GA. By the time Captain F. had been airlined to his home in Milwaukee, it was after midnight and the last part of the INTRO had not been finished. The lengthy musical interlude after the “Shazam!” quote was supposed to contain Trivia related identifiers and a KVSC station ID. It was not until 2005’s TSI INTRO that the true intent of the 2001 ending was realized.
