What is WSQKsync?
There seems to be a severe lack of information on the WSQKsync here on Tumblr, so I decided to make an effort to fill that gap.
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!
Highlights masterlist
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 @rockmerobin synced 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! This is called the 333sync. CLARIFYING EDIT: The 33 added seconds are just for v1. For v2, they didn’t add 33 seconds, just synced it to when the next button appeared without the added time.
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…