Rassegna Stampa e Ultime Notizie dal Mondo

Tony Hadley, a radio quiz, one syllable – and a $10,000 riddle

Muhammad ShalehanImage copyright
Muhammad Shalehan

When a Singaporean quizzer lost a huge cash prize – because a radio station said he mispronounced Tony Hadley’s name – he asked an unlikely source for help…

Ten thousand dollars wouldn’t change Muhammad Shalehan’s life, but it would make things much easier.

Muhammad, 32, works on Singapore’s underground railway, and lives in public housing in the north of the island.

He is married with three children – aged 12, three and two – and has another one, a boy, due in August.

He gets by, but he has loans to repay. So when a Singapore radio station offered a $10,000 prize (£5,760; US$7,060), he listened carefully.

“10k is a lot to a normal person like me,” he tells the BBC. “That is why I put in enormous effort.”

The Celebrity Name Drop on Gold 905 is hard, and it’s supposed to be.

The “name drop” is 14 celebrities, each saying one word of this phrase: “Gold 9-0-5, the station that sounds good, and makes you feel good.”

To identify all 14, first time round, is impossible. You would need a terrifying knowledge of celebrity voices to get even three or four.

But if you’re an avid Gold 905 listener – and clearly, the station wants you to be – it’s possible, over many weeks, to piece the puzzle together.

By listening to other people’s answers, and noting their score, you can work out the sequence. Essentially, it is a game of trial and error, crowd-sourced.

Image copyright
Getty Images

Image caption

The lead singer of Spandau Ballet – the English band that enjoyed huge success in the 1980s – would play a large part in Muhammad’s story

The latest Name Drop began on 16 March, and Muhammad’s father-in-law encouraged him and his wife to follow it.

Before long, Muhammad was hooked, listening from 7am until 6pm on some days. He would even tune in at work, when possible.

At certain points in the day, the station took an answer on air. No-one got it right, but with every wrong answer, Muhammad got closer to the magic 14.

He called the station hundreds of times – and got through twice – but fell short each time (there were only local charges if the call connected). By 21 April, he knew every answer, except number 11.

“My wife was so adamant it was Stevie Wonder, we decided to give it a try,” he says. “It was a leap of faith, but I was confident. As the saying goes, the wife is always correct.”

So Muhammad called again, and, against the odds, was put on air. “I think I’m going to win it this time round,” he told Chris Ho, the DJ.

After hearing the clip a final time – as if he needed to – Muhammad read out his answer.

Tony Hadley. Madonna. Maggie Wheeler. Ellen DeGeneres. Jim Carrey. George Clooney. David Bowie. Belinda Carlisle. Julie Andrews. Lionel Richie. Stevie Wonder. Meryl Streep. Michael Buble. Rebecca Lim.

And then he waited. “Let’s check with the judge now,” said DJ Chris, as Muhammad’s heart beat faster. “Hey Shalehan, you got 13 correct names. Not bad. Keep working on it.”

“Thank you so much,” said Muhammad, and he put the phone down. My wife must have been wrong, he thought. It can’t have been Stevie Wonder.

Image copyright
Muhammad Shalehan

Image caption

Muhammad and his wife, Siti Masuri Ayu

In the next two weeks, number 11 remained elusive. If it wasn’t Stevie Wonder, then who was it? The contestants, says Muhammad, were “going around headlessly,

 » Continua a leggere su BBC World News…