Posted by SMAD October 23, 2007
Story by KATRINA BRAMHALL

HARRISONBURG, Va. - For years, friends and family had urged Kim Zarkin, James Madison University class of ’92, to apply to be a contestant on the show. Residing in the same area as 74-game Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings, she was wary of taking the leap.

“It was a dream I’ve had,” Zarkin says of playing on Jeopardy.

Zarkin could be seen living her dream on the October 1 episode of Jeopardy. She was grateful to claim one of the 400 contestant spots out of the 30,000 people who apply each year.

Zarkin took the first steps toward the Jeopardy stage by taking the 50-question online test in the spring of 2006, which began the 18-month long process. She flew to Los Angeles in December to interview, and to play a pseudo game. Her name was then placed in a contestant pool. In July, Zarkin flew back to Los Angeles for the taping of her show.

She was in the studio for a grueling two-day period, watching others play and anticipating her turn to be selected. After five episodes were taped, a man from a third party picked Zarkin’s name from an index card on a table that held other contestants’ index cards. The card indicated her time to play.

“The buzzer killed me,” Zarkin said. She describes ringing in as a method that contestants have to be in sync with in order to be successful at the game. After Alex Trebek finishes reading a question, a man backstage presses a button and a light comes on, signaling the contestants to ring in. Contestants are locked out from answering for a quarter-second if they ring in too early.

Zarkin finished the first round in first place. “The lead constantly shifted, so the game was really exciting,” she said.

Ending the game in second place, Zarkin was awarded a $2,000 consolation prize. She says that winning the game is all in the luck of the categories. The producers told Zarkin and the other contestants that everyone who comes as far as they have is equally smart.

Zarkin has a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications from James Madison University, a Master of Arts in Radio from Emerson College in Boston, and a Doctorate in Media Law from the University of Florida.

Zarkin is an associate professor in the Communication and Masters of Professional Communication departments at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. She also serves as the advisor of the Westminster student newspaper, “The Forum”. She has been teaching there since 2003.

Prior to teaching at Westminster College in the fall of 2003, Zarkin taught at Texas Woman’s University in Denton for two years, and LaSalle University in Philadelphia for three years.

In April 2007, Zarkin served as the convention chair of the Broadcast Education Association's annual convention. She put in many tireless hours over the course of 18 months preparing for it. “It was a great experience because I’m a detail person and it involved over one hundred things over a weekend,” Zarkin said. “I took a lot of pleasure out of organizing that.”

She also enjoyed seeing her JMU professors who she now refers to as her colleagues. “It was nice being recognized by my colleagues,” she said. “It was the college professors at JMU that made me want to teach.”

To add to her lengthy list of achievements, Zarkin has published two books. “Anti-Indecency Groups and the Federal Communications Commission: A Study in the Politics of Broadcast Regulation” is based on her dissertation about the influence of conservative and religious-rights groups on the Federal Communications Commission. “The Federal Communications Commission Front Line in the Culture and Regulation Wars” is her second book, co-written with her husband. It is a reference guide about the FCC. The book details all of the commissioners, the commission’s history, and how it works. Both books can be found at the Carrier Library.

While at JMU, Zarkin’s favorite activity was working at the university’s radio station, WXJM. While there, she was a news director and a disc jockey. She worked with Jim Acosta, who is now a reporter for CNN. She laughingly recalls having an ongoing feud between WXJM and the Breeze. Zarkin also worked overnight weekend shifts at a Harrisonburg country music station, WKCY.

“I loved the school so much,” Zarkin says of JMU. She is disappointed that she is unable to attend her upcoming 15-year college reunion, but she makes sure to keep connected.

Regarding her experience on Jeopardy, Zarkin said, “I’ve lived out my dream. Now I have to find a new one.”