[Go to website or bottom of this post to listen to audio]

hēi bái hēi hēi hēi [həei?!]
黑白黑黑黑
black white black black black

Sorry you gotta listen to this one pretty closely, but the last hēi captures the [həei] pretty well. It was even clearer before the recording equipment went live, naturally. But an afternoon attempt to gather better data not only yielded a nearly* schwa-free utterance:

[Go to website or bottom of this post to listen to audio]

… it also elicited vehement denials that a schwa could ever reside in such a place. So the exercise of determining whether the studios have, as alleged in the past, lost their phonological marbles is left to the wisdom of the pit.

———

*Although after listening for a bit too long, is it possible that you can hear a schwa trying to sneak out in the middle?