By Jodi Hausen,Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – Faarmington residents yearning to tout the town’s traits on national radio may want to be near their home telephone Saturday.

It’s a random shot, but one lucky person answering their phone Saturday between noon and 1 p.m. may have the opportunity.

More than 1.5 million public radio listeners will likely learn about Farmington’s earmuff inventor Chester Greenwood when the Michael Feldman, host of “Whad’Ya Know,” interviews a resident chosen from the telephone book Saturday.

It started when a dart, aimed at a board with cutouts of states arranged in a jumble, landed on Farmington last Saturday during broadcast of the live quiz show. The show airs a tribute to a dart-chosen town, during which announcer Jim Packard reads a description and a resident is interviewed by Feldman.

A male audience member needed two tries with the dart to make the selection, according to producer Todd Witter. The first shot landed on Siberia, he said.

Town Manager Richard Davis was telling people the news Thursday morning, only to be disappointed when he learned that the second hour of the show, during which the tribute occurs, is not typically aired on Maine Public Radio.

A telephone call Thursday morning to Charles Beck, vice president of radio services at Maine Public Broadcasting Network, alerted the station to the news. In a later conversation, Beck said MPBN would broadcast the segment with the mention of Farmington this weekend.

“It gives us great exposure,” said Davis, who was unfamiliar with the show.

He sent the show’s producer the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce’s area guide, a brochure from the Farmington Downtown Business and Professional Association, the most recent town report, an area telephone book and last Friday’s Franklin Journal via FedEx Thursday, he said.

“That will be plenty of time for Jim (Packard) to work up something,” Witter said.

The reference to Farmington on “Whad’ya Know” last Saturday was the second mention of Maine on a nationally broadcast public radio program in so many hours that day.

The news quiz show “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me,” used a Maine news story about a would-be bank robber who sent a note through the pneumatic tube system of a drive-up window at Norway Savings Bank in South Portland on May 3. Panelists on the show are given three unlikely news stories and are asked to guess the real one.

“Whad’ya Know” may be heard from noon to 1 p.m. Saturday on WMEA, 90.1 FM, or online anytime at www.mpbn.net.