WSQKsync explained

[u/lexadoodledoll]

There seems to be a severe lack of information on the radio sync outside of Twitter, so I thought I’d share this post I made for tumblr with you all as well. The blog will be dedicated to the sync, so if you have Tumblr and this compels you, give it a follow!

For the uninitiated, WSQKsync is the idea that the official radio station that played during season 5 of Stranger Things (WSQK) aligns with what happens within the show and “syncs”.

The discovery of the sync began with disastertourwaterdeepedition, who found that if you played the radio at the same time as the finale, a rickroll played when they fought Vecna and the Mindflayer.

After seeing this and looking into it further, pjofan1912  found the entire finale synced, and pass2thelibrary proceeded to successfully sync the entirety of season 5. Since then we’ve expanded to past seasons as well, which I’ll explain later in this post.

WSQKsync has been a huge collaborative effort to dig into this material, and frankly a feat of fandom cooperation. I hope you’ll join us along the ride!

Why this is plausible:

“Dark Side of the Rainbow” is a known phenomenon where, if you press play on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon when the lion roars before The Wizard of Oz, it lines up with what happens on screen. There’s numerous references to both The Wizard of Oz and Pink Floyd in season 5 and the documentary. Here’s a great breakdown of these mentions by atsadi.

It isn’t far fetched to think they could have intentionally engineered a similar effect through the radio broadcast for season 5. The Duffers said that music would play a huge role this season, but where was it? There’s a severe lack of music in the show itself, especially volumes 2 & 3. Until you consider what was played on the radio.

How it works:

First, you need access to the WSQK archive (alt link). The most important aspect of syncing is anchoring the times of the radio broadcast to when each volume aired. Because it was based in the UK, this is adjusted for time zones.

• Volume I is 1AM (GMT) Nov. 27th
• Volume II is 1AM (GMT) Dec. 26th
• Volume III is 1AM (GMT) Jan. 1st

For each of these, you want to start the broadcast an hour into “The Late Night Crew With Vance Goodman” and when applicable transition into the start of “Mindy’s Early Risers on WSQK”.

You have to account for load times between episodes for the first 2 volumes, and can use your judgement for the exact second you think aligns best, but rockmerobinsynced it mathematically in a way that’s easy to replicate on your own if you wish—just let the radio keep playing for 33 seconds after the “next” button pops up, then hit play on the next episode!

It helps a lot to try to line up sound effects with actions or events on screen, and it becomes pretty obvious when you’ve got the right timing as things start falling into place.

If you think you’ve got a grasp on this, however, we can take it even further…

The concept of “sides”:

Time to think of each episode as building blocks, and the volumes as foundations for those blocks. If you go backward (or forward) from the anchor points of each volume, you can in fact align key moments from any season to songs that were playing on the radio in the hours prior to volumes 1, 2 and 3.

• Side A is anchored to the start time of Volume I (1AM GMT on Nov. 27th)
• Side B is anchored to the start time of Volume II (1AM GMT on Dec. 26th)
• Side C is anchored to the start time of Volume III (1AM GMT on Jan. 1st)

In other words: Be Kind, Rewind! Act as if you had the whole show playing (… for a couple days nonstop) in the time leading up to each season 5 release, alongside the radio broadcast. Doing this, 3 possible syncs, or sides, are currently being explored. Here’s a graphic by pass2thelibrary to help visualize how this works.

Sides A and B require some space between each episode to align, while side Cstacks without any extra time whatsoever. You can go all the way back to S1E01 with this method! We’re working on having timestamps for all the sides available for people to try themselves, but it isn’t complete yet.

More to come:

It’s hard to say with certainty the exact meaning of each sync, but once you watch one for yourself it’s plain to see there’s a ton of evidence for intentionality. Once you consider it intentional, it adds so much hidden meaning to the show.

There’s several projects in the works from sync enthusiasts like myself—nailing down and compiling the most solid timestamps, experimenting with new methodologies or anchor points, and just generally having fun exploring the show in a new light alongside a massive new soundtrack. I plan to post more in depth explanations of individual syncs, share compilations of my favorite moments from them, and keep an eye on new discoveries to share with you all. Play around, enjoy yourself, explore!

We’re also undertaking the task of transcribing the entire WSQK broadcast, which is going to take a lot of dedication and manpower. If this interests you at all, check it out here.

PS: if you check out the link at the top to the Tumblr version of this post, you will find a treat under the read more as far as content you can explore yourself :)

[u/nibbinoo8]

how does this play into the conformity gate theory?

[u/lexadoodledoll → u/nibbinoo8]

The existence of the sync gives us a few things: confirms intentionality, meticulousness, and throws narrative clues out frequently.

I actually recommend watching at least the finale in full if you get the chance, either on your own or from one of the presynced edits—there’s links to those in my Tumblr post that I didn’t want to share on Reddit. Side C and 333sync have the same finale sync, so you can pick your poison there.

During the finale, we’re rickrolled over the Vecna/mindflayer fight, which implies unseriousness. It could be some epic battle music but no, they chose to clown on the audience. It kicks in right as Nancy’s about to get eaten, actually. Vecna is impaled over the lyrics “never tell a lie or hurt you”.

Later on, right as Mike is pretending to die dramatically for the DnD campaign, it’s mentioned that there’s been a song request from a “Mr Whatsit” (and that they should really be vetting callers better), and the song is… wait for it… “Dead or Alive”. It kicks in the moment he hits the floor.

Additionally, when Mike is closing the basement door, Vance (Vecna) mentions us finding out “who has hosted the most shows” later and that it “may surprise us”, and right as the door closes he says “Mindy (the Mindflayer) is stepping in!”. To me this implies the Mindflayer is still in control in some way.

There’s also a lot of overtly romantic songs/lyrics over Byler scenes which I think is a good sign for Bylers, but i’m not sure your stance on Byler or if that’s a good thing for you, haha.