An immersive and interactive live adventure game is behind the mystery audio heard over Fine Music Sydney in a clip that went viral on TikTok.
 
Wollongong resident Josie Howell and partner Robbie were on their way to pick up a friend from work when they first heard the mystery audio and she says, “As we hit Burelli Street, Robbie put on classical music station Fine Music Sydney, we were talking and suddenly I heard a female voice over the radio saying something about calling the time council, and that someone had escaped and was calling her.”
 
Spooked by the audio, which continued playing on a loop sporadically, Josie recorded it on her phone and uploaded it to TikTok, amazed at what she saw the following day. “I got on the bus after work, opened TikTok and saw I had over a million notifications, everyone on the bus probably thought I was insane because I was losing my mind over how many views the video had gotten!” 

 
The video, which has been viewed over 4.4 million times, generated over 25k comments, through which the source of the mystery audio, Wollongong’s Breakout Bar & Escape Rooms, was identified.
 
Among those working to uncover the source of the mystery audio were the staff at Fine Music Sydney, formerly 2MBS, Australia’s first stereo FM radio station.
 
 General Manager, Rebecca Beare says, “I have to admit that our staff team had a lot of fun unravelling the mysterious ‘fortuitous reception’. At first, I was both delighted and extremely confused by the viral TikTok video, we knew there had to be a logical explanation for what Josie was hearing, given the audio hadn’t come from our St Leonards based studios or even our FM transmitter, so we rolled up our sleeves and settled in for a night of sleuthing.
 
“While trawling through the thousands of comments on the viral TikTok post, we noticed several people mentioning hearing this audio in an escape room. I must admit that I was very relieved when I contacted the manager at Breakout Bar & Escape Rooms in the morning, and he confirmed that it was their audio.”
 
Breakout Bar & Escape Rooms Manager, Mitchell Bloomfield recalls that “it definitely wasn’t a call I expected on a typical Saturday morning! I’d read an email earlier in the day from someone who was enquiring if we used FM transmissions in our escape rooms which I thought was strange, but Rebecca’s call pieced it together for me! The source of the transmission is our escape room called ‘The Future’. It’s our newest room and has been open for roughly a year.
 
“The puzzle that’s caused all the intrigue involves a radio situated in the room, that receives our broadcast on a secret frequency that players need to figure out. Though it might need to be changed now!”

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