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Make Me A Winner - General Chat
Comments
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Why are you not sure if they are being counted or not?
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Some people add the phone number of the competition to their contacts, but add commas to the end of the number to simulate a 1-second wait for each comma, followed by 1.
Bauer has confirmed that this would be detected and counted as electronic means of entering the competition, and thus be voided.
Some people are carrying on doing this method anyway, I believe.
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Where have Bauer confirmed adding commas voids the entry?
It's just hearsay, and I doubt very much whether they care one way or the other.It's the paid entries that they are more likely to be concerned about. That's how they make their money.0 -
Someone, not me, directly asked them, and was told that this method could potentially be flagged by their systems.
Could be rubbish, of course. But worth noting.0 -
"Can I use a shortcut for the number confirmation?
No. Your phone can automatically press 1 for you, so previously some entrants recommended saving the MMAW number including commas – where each comma tells your phone to pause for a few seconds before doing an action (in this case, pressing 1 to confirm your number).
When we contacted Bauer in February 2026 to ask if this was allowed, they told us “No this is not allowed and this can now be detected since we moved to the new phone system.” – so you should NOT use shortcuts!"
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While it's true the money comes from paid entries any actIon to drive Free ones to paid ones is to their advantage hence 250 paid entries in a couple of mins compared to a couple of hours to get 250 free ones (free apart from time)
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8 hours, to make 500 calls, if you take no breaks whatsoever. Let's be specific. If the Bauer free entries are simply being removed, it is a massive problem for a number of reasons. How much do you get paid for 8 hours of work? For a full day's work?
Bauer Radio has a documented pattern of competition fairness and transparency failures stretching back nearly two decades, repeatedly found in breach of the same Ofcom Broadcasting Code rules, and repeatedly responding with the same assurances that it will do better next time.
2008: A Bauer DJ rigged a competition by pre-selecting a friend as the winner. Tim Shaw, the breakfast presenter on Kerrang! Radio, ran a competition for Rolling Stones documentary tickets. Instead of selecting from genuine callers, he pre-recorded a friend's "winning" entry the day before and played it back on air the next morning as though it were a live call-in. Two real listeners who tried to call in to enter were ignored entirely. Bauer's own internal investigation confirmed Shaw had "considerable time to reflect on his proposed action" and went ahead with it anyway. He was eventually sacked, Kerrang! broadcasted hourly on-air apologies, and Ofcom recorded a breach of Rule 2.11 (competitions must be conducted fairly) in Broadcast Bulletin Issue 121, November 2008 ( ).
2011: Kiss FM breached the Broadcasting Code over the Kissmas Giveaway. Ofcom found that the competition's web entry page and on-air presenters told listeners winners would be announced between 9am and 6pm, while the written T&Cs stated 7am to 7pm. There were 21 occasions where names were read out outside the hours listeners expected. Ofcom found a breach of Rule 2.15 ( ).
2012: Bauer found in breach for hiding that "Thousand Pound Thursday" ran across five stations. The competition aired on Northsound 2, Clyde 2, Tay AM, Forth 2 and Westsound simultaneously, but listeners were never told it was networked. A presenter even said on air "tell us where you're texting from and I could be knocking on your door with a grand in my hand tonight," giving the false impression it was local to each station. Ofcom recorded a breach of Rule 2.15 in Broadcast Bulletin Issue 216, October 2012, explicitly establishing that the size of an entry pool is a "significant condition" listeners must be told about ( ).
2021: Ofcom investigated Bauer for fabricating three different versions of a single winner announcement. When a listener won the £100,000 "Win £100,000" competition (networked across Planet Rock, Kiss and Absolute Radio), Bauer recorded three separate versions of the winning phone call with three different presenters, one for each network, giving each audience the impression the winner came from their station. Ofcom found this had the potential to damage listener trust. Bauer avoided a formal breach only because it quickly promised to change its procedures. and the Ofcom decision at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/about-ofcom/bulletins/broadcast-bulletins/2021/issue-419/win-100000-competition-planet-rock-kiss-and-absolute-radio-networks-31-july-2020-after-1700-on-each-network?v=325842
2023: Ofcom found Bauer in breach for the "Make Me A Winner" competition itself. A single listener complained that Bauer never told entrants on air that unsuccessful entries rolled over into subsequent draws, meaning the pool of entries (and therefore the odds against you) grew larger every day. This was especially significant because some listeners were paying via premium-rate text to re-enter, potentially spending money on entries they did not need since their earlier entries were still live. The competition ran across 23 Bauer stations. Ofcom found 19 days where this accumulative mechanic was not mentioned on air. Bauer argued it was not a "significant condition." Ofcom disagreed and recorded a breach of Rule 2.15 in Broadcast Bulletin Issue 468, February 2023. In exactly the way how they are simply deleting entries now, they will probably argue it's not a significant condition. , and the RadioToday coverage is at .
2025: Absolute Radio (Bauer) found in breach again, this time over the Dave Berry Breakfast Show. Listeners were invited to text in for the chance to play a quiz on air. The on-air trails implied separate daily draws, but Bauer was actually running a single cumulative entry pool across the entire week. Two listeners complained. Bauer admitted "human error" was involved. Ofcom found breaches of both Rule 2.13 (competitions must be conducted fairly) and Rule 2.15. Bauer offered affected listeners a chance to win £2,000 in a follow-up draw, but Ofcom ruled that this did not change the fact the original competition was unfair ( ).
Ongoing: silent deletion of competition entries, with no notification to entrants. In February 2026, Bauer confirmed to the competition blog SuperLucky.me that their new phone system can detect certain entry methods and that entries made using those methods are "not allowed." The exact statement was that this "can now be detected since we moved to the new phone system" This detection capability is not disclosed in the competition T&Cs, is not mentioned on air, and entrants whose entries are filtered out receive no notification whatsoever. The call connects, the IVR plays the confirmation message, the entrant presses 1, and from their perspective the entry is registered. But it may never reach the draw. This MoneySavingExpert General Chat thread, contains extensive discussion from entrants who suspected their entries were being silently discarded.
The pattern across all of these cases is consistent. In every single instance, the core issue is the same: entrants were not given the information needed to make an informed decision about whether to participate, or worse, the competition was not conducted fairly at all, or downright fraudulatnly by DJs. In every single instance, Bauer's response has been some variation of "we did not think this was a significant condition" or "human error" followed by a promise to do better. Meanwhile, the competitions continue to generate tens of millions of pounds annually from premium-rate entries.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6240408/make-me-a-winner-general-chat
Who is Hattie Pearson? Every week, the winner of Make Me A Winner is called not by a DJ on any of the participating stations, but by the same person: Hattie Pearson. Her role is never explained to listeners. She is not introduced as an independent adjudicator. She is not from a third-party verification body. She is a Bauer employee.
That means Bauer runs the competition, sells the entries, collects the revenue, decides the rules, and controls the draw and also supplies the person who executes it. The draw happens behind closed doors. No independent auditor is present. No entry counts are published. No draw methodology is disclosed beyond the phrase "automated random draw."Listeners have no way to verify that the selection was genuinely random, that no entries were excluded, or that the full pool was used. The entire process rests on trusting Bauer to police itself, with a rap sheet of two decades indicating significant problems.
Hattie Pearson is apparently the human face of that self-policing. She is not there for entrants. She is there so Bauer can say someone was there to prevent DJ fraud.
When DJs used to call winners live on their own shows, there was at least real-time spontaneity that made manipulation harder to conceal. Replacing that with a single centralised Bauer employee removes even that thin layer of accountability. Who watches the watcher? As far as anyone outside Bauer can tell, nobody.Use your time sparingly, knowing what has happened in the past.
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Who is Hattie Pearson? Every week, the winner of Make Me A Winner is called not by a DJ on any of the participating stations, but by the same person: Hattie Pearson. Her role is never explained to listeners. She is not introduced as an independent adjudicator. She is not from a third-party verification body. She is a Bauer employee.
Hattie Pearson used to make the calls when she was a DJ on Hits Radio, https://www.hellorayo.co.uk/hits-radio/presenters/hattie-pearson, she is now a presenter on Kisstory,
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In regards to the evidence you have provided, perhaps it should be brought up to Ofcom to, yet again, to look into this current competition? But on what grounds?
Clearly they are allowed to proceed without a seperate adjudicator despite Bauer's questionable history.
Whilst I don't agree with how they have conducted themselves in the past, and I'm not so naive to believe they won't do similar again, I'm aware that as a company - especially one that is hosting multiple large-sum competitions with entries similarly to gambling - that, in the end, the house always wins.
The only hope is that the likes of Ofcom, or whichever governing body makes sure they play fair, is doing their job to protect the consumers.
But can you report them based on "they've a dodgy past"? 😅1 -
“Who is Hattie Pearson? Every week, the winner of Make Me A Winner is called not by a DJ on any of the participating stations, but by the same person: Hattie Pearson. Her role is never explained to listeners. She is not introduced as an independent adjudicator. She is not from a third-party verification body. She is a Bauer employee.”
AFAIK Hattie was a presenter of one of the shows on one of the participating stations which was on at the draw time, which at that time was 3pm.
Now the draw is on at 5pm, a different presenter, usually Gemma Atkinson, does the call.
However various other presenters have also made the call eg Tyler West, Kate Thornton.1
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