Singapore radio station relents to battle with listener and Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley
Singapore Radio station Gold 905 has admitted defeat in an argument with a listener about a competition that saw Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley weight in.
Singapore radio station relents to battle with listener and Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley
The radio station found itself in the middle of a social media storm this week, as listeners sought redemption for a listener that was denied a prize win due to his accent.
The radio station runs a popular but very difficult competition to win $10,000, in which listeners have to guess the voices of a set of celebrities. The competition tends to run for multiple weeks because it’s hard to guess correctly the first time. Winning usually involves carefully working out the answer by listening to other contestants incorrect answers over time.
The issue arose after listener Muhammad Shalehan called into the competition to be told he answered incorrectly, while another listener dialled in with the same answers, later on, to be told they had won.
Shalehan took to social media to complain and the response he received from Mediacorp, the company that owns Gold 905, is that he mispronounced the name of Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley and was therefore incorrect.
At this point, Shalehan had nowhere to turn but Hadley himself and because the musician is in lockdown and not touring, he decided to respond to Shalehan and help him because, in his view, he had pronounced his name correctly, just with an accent.
The story caused a stir on social media, with many listeners voicing the opinion that the station was discriminating against Shalehan’s accent. The radio station denied this and offered a partial reward as a compromise.
Today, however, the radio station decided to change its stance, releasing a statement saying it couldn’t argue with Hadley himself, awarding Shalehan with the full amount.