FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEÂ
Â
THE LONG ISLAND CHALLENGE CELEBRATES
10th ANNIVERSARY SEASONÂ
Academic quiz show features 32 Long Island high schools
competing for spot in first ever Tri-State Challenge ChampionshipÂ
Bethpage, NY , October 30, 2006… Thirty-two Long Island high school teams—sixteen from each Suffolk and Nassau Counties—will compete in the tenth anniversary season of The Long Island Challenge, an educational quiz show designed to test students’ knowledge of history, science, math and arts and literature.  The Long Island Challenge can be seen every Saturday on News 12 Long Island at 6:30 pm and 9:30 pm starting November 18, 2006 . Encore presentations of the show can be seen on News 12 Long Island every Sunday at 6:30 pm and 9:30pm.
Schools will progress through—or be eliminated from—the competition, resulting in the best team from Long Island facing off against the best teams from Connecticut and New Jersey in the first-ever tri-state Challenge Championship.  The winning team of the Long Island finals will receive $2,500 and will go on to compete for $10,000 in the Championship. Each student participating in the Championship match will receive $500.
The Long Island Challenge has been so popular that Cablevision expanded the show into New Jersey last year and launched the show in Connecticut this year, setting up the tri-state Challenge Championship, which will be taped in the spring 2007.Â
“We are pleased to give Long Island students the opportunity to participate for the tenth year in a row in The Long Island Challenge, and to go on to compete in the first ever tri-state Challenge Championship. We all anxiously wait to see which Long Island high school team comes out on top.  These days, being smart is radically cool,” said Cablevision’s Vice President of Education, Trent Anderson.
Participating in the 2006-2007 Long Island Challenge will be: Bay Shore High School; Comsewogue High School; Connetquot High School; Division Avenue High School; East Rockaway High School; Friends Academy; Garden City High School; Great Neck South High School; Half Hollow Hills High School East; Harborfields High School; Hebrew Academy of N.C. – HANC; Herricks High School; John F. Kennedy High School – Bellmore; Kellenberg Memorial High School; Lindenhurst High School; Mattituck High School; Mineola High School; Newfield High School; North Shore High School; Oyster Bay High School; Pierson High School; Rocky Point High School; Roosevelt High School; Sachem High School East; Smithtown High School West; St. Anthony’s High School; Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls; The Academy of St. Joseph; W.T. Clarke High School; Ward Melville High School; West Islip High School and Westbury High School.
More information on The Long Island Challenge, including standings, statistics and short contestant bios, will be available on www.powertolearn.com as the tournament progresses.
The Long Island Challenge is sponsored by Chevyoffers.com, Cablevision’s Power to Learn and Cablevision’s News 12 Long Island.Â
Cablevision Systems Corporation is one of the nation’s leading entertainment and telecommunications companies. Its cable television operations serve more than 3 million households in the New York metropolitan area. The company’s advanced telecommunications offerings include its iO: Interactive Optimum digital television, Optimum Online high-speed Internet, Optimum Voice digital voice-over-cable, and its Optimum Lightpath integrated business communications services. Cablevision’s Rainbow Media Holdings LLC operates several successful programming businesses, including AMC, IFC, WE and other national and regional networks. In addition to its telecommunications and programming businesses, Cablevision owns Madison Square Garden and its sports teams, the New York Knicks, Rangers and Liberty. The company also operates New York’s famed Radio City Music Hall, and owns and operates Clearview Cinemas.
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Rick Eberle Â
Bill Powers          Â
Todd Shapiro Associates   Â
Cablevision Systems Corporation
(516) 729-6872Â Â
(516) 803-2568
