As we noted last Saturday, Greg Owens and I have come out with a 30th Anniversary Edition of a game that kind of changed both of our lives when we came out with it back in 1986. You can read the whole story here on the Idiot Trivia website and we’re both excited to have a new 30th anniversary edition back in stores here in Peoria, Illinois. And one thing we’ve learned is that when you come out with a new product, you have to promote it! And that’s where I come in, you see Greg and I split up the duties with the game and Greg handles the graphics, production and the business side of things and I concentrate on the writing and promotional part of the game. So yesterday I was excited to be able to talk about the game on the radio, the TV and then it came out on the PJ Star website and today it’s in the print version! Here’s a recap of that trifecta of a media blitz yesterday, just in case you missed it!
6:30AM—The Greg And Dan Show On WMBD Radio
The day started out at the early hour of 6:30 in the morning at Alpha Media in beautiful downtown Peoria. Here we are greeted by the Producer of The Greg and Dan Show, Corey Wara. Great to meet Corey and now it’s up we go to the inner sanctum of Alpha Media!
I’m having a little deja vu being up here, I don’t know why! Hey check out Greg and Dan on the elevator doors! These two have come a long way, I remember when I used to see their posters on the stairway walls!
Here’s Corey leading us to their studio, we have to wait for the red light to go off till we can enter, so...
Lets go bug Ken Zurski, the official WMBD Traffic Reporter! Surprise Ken, you’re on MBIP Candid Camera! In addition to traffic reporting, Ken’s the author of two books, The Wreck of the Columbia and Peoria Stories and he’s also the writer and publisher of the online blog, Unremembered. Okay, that’s all the plugs you get for today, Ken! Great to see you as always!
Alright, the door has been opened and here we are live in the studio with Greg and Dan! And check out that guy in the third photo, it’s my Dad, Gerry, who came along for the ride...well, actually he’s driving me, but it’s fun having him in the studio. It’s a commercial break and since we learned last week that we couldn’t eat our lunch at Alpha Media (we’re going to try again though, so stay tuned!) we can indeed eat our breakfast here, so I brought in some goodies from Le Bakery in the Metro Centre and there’s Greg and Dan checking out the morning pastries! Julia Bradley, who’s the news anchor for Alpha Media came in the studio and I think that she’s too good looking to be on the radio, but that’s just my opinion, wonderful to see her again! And in the bottom photo is the infamous, Greg’s Big Black Couch! One of these days maybe I’ll get to sit on it! But not today, because today we have trivial business to talk about and it’s time...
To start talking! Here’s some photos of the on-air interview with Greg and Dan! It’s always fun being interviewed by these two because it’s all spontaneous and off the cuff, kind of like the MBIP blog, so we get along great! Below is an MP3 FIle of the entire interview for your listening pleasure!
After the interview, Corey took some shots of Greg, Dan and I fooling around and note that I’m wearing my official Greg and Dan t-shirt! Thanks for the interview and fun time, guys, it’s always a blast and I look forward to our next interview and meeting!
7:55AM—Good Day Central Illinois On WYZZ TV
Next stop is the TV studios of WYZZ/WMBD/CI Proud! This has become a familiar place for me, as I’ve become a semi-regular guest on the morning show, Good Day Central Illinois. If fact, check out the GDCI poster on the outside wall with Lauren Rainson, Lindsey Mills and Clay Gordon, the stars and hosts of GDCI! That’s such a great photo of them! Okay, inside to the waiting room we go!
And there’s my dad making himself at home watching Clay, Lindsey and Lauren on-air back here in the waiting room! Julie, the receptionist who originally threw me out of here came back to get some ice and I always enjoy kidding around with her! That’s Paul, who’s in sales here getting some coffee and it was great to see Chris Burnett back here in the waiting room! Chris is in sales here too and more importantly, his dad is Vic Burnett, who is pretty much responsible for all of this happening! You can read all about that here and check out the board back here, it’s National Idiot Trivia Day! Perfect timing!
Okay, I’ve been called to the studio and it’s about time to go on-air! This is always exciting, it’s kind of nerve-wracking doing live TV, but it’s also a ton of fun! Everybody here puts you at ease and there’s producer, Travis Mickelberry who puts all the segments together behind the scenes! In front of the scenes and cameras are Clay, Lindsey and Lauren! They’re real pros and really make you feel at ease when they’re interviewing you and I always forget that we’re on-air! Speaking of on-air...here we go!
These are screen shots from the Trivial Trivia—Idiot Edition interview! It was a lot of laughs and fun as are all the interviews I’ve done here on GDCI! As you can see they put up before and after shots of myself and Greg and there’s Lauren laughing at my mullet from the ‘80’s! After that we played the game and asked questions and Lauren answered them all, leading me to crown her, “Queen of the Trivia!” This was so much fun and it flew by as always!
And then before you know it, Lindsey and Clay are moving on to the next segments, Lauren is doing the weather and this camera woman is wondering why I’m still here taking pictures...hey, it’s what I do! Thanks, as always to Lindsey, Clay, Lauren and Travis for a fun time and interview on GDCI! And you can click on the picture below to watch the entire interview on the CI Proud website!
Sometime Yesterday Afternoon and Early This Morning In The PJ Star
Thomas Bruch, who’s the entertainment writer and reporter for the PJ Star interviewed me about the 30th Anniversary Edition of the game, but it was done on the phone, so I don’t have any pictures of that, but I do have pictures of Thomas from past appearances on MBIP and here they are!
Here’s Thomas when we met for lunch at Jim’s Steakhouse.
And here he is in the lunchroom at PJ Star when I brought lunch in for everyone at the newspaper.
Here’s Thomas at his desk and while it’s great seeing these photos of Thomas, let’s go look at the article he wrote about the 30th Anniversary of Trivial Trivia—Idiot Edition already! Sheesh!
This is the online version and the story turned out great! Thomas got all the facts and stories in and he did a wonderful job and both Greg and I appreciate it! This came up online yesterday and then this morning...
The print edition came out! As much fun as it is seeing online articles about something you've done, I still get a real buzz out of seeing it in print! Thanks again, Thomas, you did a great job on this!
Okay, so that was yesterday’s media blitz, thanks again to everyone for helping to put the word out about the 30th Anniversary of Trivial Trivia—Idiot Edition! We’ll keep you updated with further news on the game as it happens and we’ll see you all tomorrow!
Related Posts: A Fun Day At The Greg And Dan Show On WMBD Radio, A Coat And A Tie On GDCI and Grazing The Buffet At Jim’s Steakhouse With Special Guests, Ken Zurski and Thomas Bruch.