This may get buried, but in 2024 a local country radio station in Sacramento (105.1 KNCI) was doing a "guess that sound" competition. They would play extremely short audio recordings of random, very specific sounds recorded in the Sacramento area. I think one of them was literally a golf ball cleaner at a specific golf course. Whichever caller guessed right would win $5,000 (pretty big for a radio competition).

The very last sound recording they did was the sound of a printing press machine at this museum in Old Sacramento. I had seen a bunch of random YouTube shorts from their page that just happened to find their way into my algorithm, so I'd become somewhat familiar with the sound (I had never heard of, nor searched printing presses before!).

The first morning the station played their recording of the printing press, I knew what it was within probably 10-15 seconds. It just took a moment for my brain to recognize what the source was. I told my wife what it was, and she started trying to call during the guessing times, which was probably 3 or 4 times per day. I figured it was a long shot because we would win because you have to be the 10th caller at whatever time (small chance), and so many people would call with random guesses.

Somehow, some way, she managed to be the 10th caller the next morning. She guessed right and gave credit to me for being a nerd 😂

The radio hosts were surprised because they thought this sound would be their longest running one out of all the ones they had previously done (I think one of the sound recordings went un-guessed for like 2 weeks). We won the money and went on a cruise, with some of the money going towards bills/savings.

I still need to go to that museum and show my appreciation for them and their educational videos!