Moment of TV Fame Comes June 12

WILDWOOD CREST – Spin the wheel, name a letter, and solve the puzzle. Those are the elements of the game show “Wheel of Fortune” that has been a part of Vaia Kozanas’ early evening life for as long as the fourth grade teacher at Glenwood Elementary School can remember.
Now Kozanas is counting the days until June 12 when everyone in the Delaware Valley will be watching WPVI-TV at 7:30 p.m. to see if the Wildwood Crest resident is a big winner.
For those who daily enjoying trying to outguess the game show’s contestants for the correct answer to the puzzle, Kozanas’ odyssey was be the dream of a lifetime.
“When I was in grade school, at 7:30 on channel six, I would watch the show,” said Kozanas in a telephone interview. She received an invitation for a ‘closed’ audition in Atlantic City.
Held at one of the city’s casinos, the audition lasted for two and a half hours. It was filled with taking a written test and answering puzzles, all as the clock ticked, as it does on the show, when seconds are precious.
“The producers were there selecting the contestants who would play the game. It was really exciting,” said Kozanas.
The process “weeded people out,” she recalled. As the group’s size dwindled, Kozanas found herself among the surviving few.
Finally, the group was told that they would be notified in two weeks if selected.
“Then, it happened fast,” she said, “Normally you would have to wait for a year. For me, it was less than three weeks. Finally, I got a call one day that Dec. 14 would be ‘tape day,’” Kozanas said.
Her dream was just a transcontinental flight away, to Los Angeles, Calif., but one that she and her mother, Athena Kozanas, were happy to make.
The Sony Studios at Culver City, about seven miles from the main airport, was the ultimate destination.
Under strict prohibition from revealing the game’s outcome, Kozanas could say, “It was so much fun on the set and spinning the wheel. You are only allowed to be on once in a lifetime. Just one time to play, and that’s it, win, lose whatever the case may be.”
“Everybody there was so nice, Pat (Sajak) and Vanna (White), the director, the producer, all were very nice,” she added.
Although the show airs for a half hour, taping it took much longer.
Kozanas was told to be at the studio at 7:30 a.m. She remained, out of contact with her mother, without a cell phone, or the outside world, for the duration of the filming time, which was 6 p.m.
The day was taken up with makeup artists, meeting coaches and getting practice on spinning the prize-laden wheel that, she said, weighs “about 1,000 pounds.” The day was also taken up having promotional photographs taken and also filming a commercial for the show that will be aired on WPVI as the airing date gets closer.
“Spinning the wheel is hard. It looks easy, but you get practice spinning the wheel,” she said.
About noon filming began.
The studio looks larger on television at home than in reality, she said.
“It’s the coolest thing I have ever done in my life. It was a huge accomplishment. I used to say to all my friends, ‘I’m going to be on that show someday,’ and it happened. It was so exciting,” she added.
She and her mother stayed in California from Thursday until Sunday, making a mini vacation out of the game show filming.
Most pupils in her class watch, or at least know of the show, she said. So many of them, as well as friends like ask, “How did you do? I tell them, ‘I can’t tell you. You have to wait until June. I’m under strict orders, I can’t say what happened,” said Kozanas.
One thing Kozanas can say, “On the day of the airing we’re going to have a party for family and friends.”