Donna Vaughan Singer, familiar Long Island radio voice, competes on 'Jeopardy!'

For more than 30 years, Donna Vaughan Singer has been a friendly voice for Long Island radio listeners, first as news director and part of the Breakfast Club on WALK/97.5 FM for 20 years and then as an anchor at WINS/1010 AM/92.3 FM. Now listeners will finally get to see the face that goes with the voice when she appears on Thursday night's episode of "Jeopardy!" on WABC/7.

Though Singer is sworn to secrecy regarding the outcome of her episode of the popular game show, there was one thing she could definitely share. "I was pretty nervous," said Singer, who lives in Holbrook, and goes professionally by her maiden name, Vaughan. "People say to me, well you’re on the radio every day, so to you this is probably no big deal. I don’t really agree with that. On the radio you don’t have to worry about what you look like."

Still, the experience was the culmination of a dream — not for her, but for her husband, Eric Singer, a TV sports producer. "We've been watching 'Jeopardy!' since forever and he was always telling me I should audition," she said. When the pandemic hit in 2020 and she had lots of free time, Singer hopped onto the "Jeopardy!" website and took the online test consisting of 50 questions.

It took another year before hearing back from the show, and Singer then went through two more rounds of auditions via Zoom playing against other hopefuls. She then played the waiting game before finally being told in January that she had been picked. 

"My husband's first reaction was that I had to study like it was the SATs," Singer said. "But you get about a month's notice to be on the show. And I thought in one month I am not going to add enough to my breadth of knowledge to make a difference. You don’t know what categories you're going to get, and you don’t know who you're going to be up against. I don’t feel there's any way to practice in that respect."

One thing she did study was the proper technique for using the buzzer to answer questions. "A past champion had written a book and he talked about how to keep your hand steady and to hit the buzzer several times, not once," Singer said. "And the most important thing was not ringing in too soon. If you ring in before they finish asking the question, you get locked out for a fraction of a second and that gives the other people a chance to jump in front of you."

Viewers will have to wait for Thursday, which promises to be a big day for Singer, to see if her technique worked. In the morning, she'll be interviewed on WINS, where she has worked since 2016, about her "Jeopardy!" experience (the station plans to air promos for the show throughout the day). In the evening, Singer will be hosting a viewing party with 25 friends and family members at the clubhouse in her housing development.

"I really just wanted to just go on, have a good time, not embarrass myself and make memories. I was not thinking I was going to be the next tournament of champions winner," she said. "And I think I accomplished my goals."