KPIX 5, KCBS Radio Team Up To Host the CBS Bay Area Spelling Bee

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - The road to Washington D.C. and the title of the nation's top speller goes through San Francisco for a field of elite students hoping to represent the Bay Area on a national stage.

Bay Area Schools representing San Francisco, Marin, Napa, Mendocino, Alameda, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties - sent contestants to participate in the first KPIX 5 and KCBS co-sponsored regional spelling bee. The winning student will go on to compete in the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee, which will be held in the Washington D.C. area at the end of May.

Representatives from most of the 196 registered schools sent one speller to a written semifinal bee in Berkeley on Saturday, February 22nd at the Lawrence Hall of Science. Those students had been selected from among thousands which had faced off at schools, narrowing the field from classes to grade to school representatives. From that pool of spellers, 49 have advanced to the next round, the regional oral spelling final.

That bee will be held on Saturday, March 15th at 10:00 A.M. at the KPIX 5 studios at Battery and Broadway Streets, in San Francisco. These events are closed to the public, but the regional final - an event similar to the popular televised Scripps National Bee – will be streamed live on CBS SF.com.

The winner of the San Francisco final will advance to the national final.