Sydney Mix 106.5 is facing a legal nightmare after yesterday giving away $50,000 to a listener who correctly guessed its secret sound when two other listeners had already cracked the sound and been told they were wrong.
This is the story being run today in the Sydney Telegraph’s “Confidential” pages.
Admitting to the error, the station has said it would honour yesterday’s winner and was searching for other winners also due their $50,000.
Australian Radio Network’s general manager John Williams tells the Tele: “To err is human, and today we couldn’t have been more human. We are currently looking through our records in an effort to find the very first person, if any, who gave the same answer as we received this morning.”
Mother of three Elizabeth Harris was awarded the top prize after guessing the sound was the opening of a sugar sachet.
But according to the station’s website which listed all previous answers over the three month competition, two previous listeners had been on air, correctly identified the sound , but told they were wrong.
Meantime Radioinfo has received the following message from a reader. We are aware of his identity but he has requested that it not be published.
“At 8.06am this morning, on the breakfast shift, of “Sammy, Subby & Allan” a caller got through, a housewife from Alexandria, and ‘won’ with the guess of “tearing a sugar sachet”
I got through at approximately 8.15am, and spoke to the producer of the breakfast show to ask the question – ‘Why is the winning guess of this morning, listed on your web site as an incorrect guess? Twice? It is there in black and white.’ He passed me to another person – who thanked me for pointing this out, and promised he would ‘look into it’.
Within 10 minutes, the incorrect answers were pulled off the web site…..with only a sign about the contest, with the terms and conditions link remaining there. Then, later in the morning, all mention of the competition was removed entirely from the web site.
Unlike their usual practice of crowing from the rooftops that they had just given away $50,000.00 this morning, (as they would ordinarily do on consecutive shifts, as this competition had been run in breakfast, morning, and then afternoon shifts )- no mention of the competition has been made. Indeed, with extraordinary speed, it is as if the competition never existed…….one that if you include this morning’s winnings, gave away $350,000.00”
radioinfo will have more on this story once the station sorts things out.
Click below for screenshot of the Mix website “incorrect answers” list as at 8am Friday.