Mediacorp Singapore’s 987 FM finally found the winner of its Secret Sound contest after more than five weeks of listeners calling in with incorrect guesses.

Mr Lee, an IT engineer, won $18,500 on Thursday after he identified the sound that a computer monitor makes when its height is being adjusted.

The contest began on March 26, when listeners were offered a cash prize, if they could correctly guess a mystery sound played for three seconds.

The cash prize, which started off as $5,000 on the first day, snowballed with an additional S$500 when there were no correct guesses for the day. 

According to Steven Choo, the programme director of 987, the station considered different sounds such as the toggle switch moving on a drone controller or the opening of a car petrol tank cover but decided on the movement of a computer monitor as they wanted to do something which an everyday object.

No clues were given and more than 200 calls were made with the wrong guesses.

Incorrect answers included the sound of wood being sawed, a drawer being pulled out and the sound of a bike moving.

According to DJ Gerald Koh, one of the strangest answers was: “Is it the sound of a black leopard?”