TTS on google cloud not working for new automation?

I set up Google cloud for TTS notifications some months/years? ago. I have 2 simple automations running that result in TTS notifications via the service tts.google_cloud_say. These work flawlessly.
I’ve added a new automation and tried to use the same tts setup, just with a different text to speech announcement. It doesn’t work.
If I keep the original text that I copy from one of my existing automations into the new automation then the tts works.
If I change the text in one of the existing automations then the tts does not work.

I guess it may have to do with cached tts messgaes and external access to my HA instance. I do not access my HA from outside so I don’t know why that may affect things.

If I try the new automation using the platform google_translate then the tts works - I’m just trying to use my preferred voice, which is why I prefer to use google_say.

Can someone here point me in the right direction to resolve this?

EDIT: Seems something changed in 2023.12.0. Issue resolved by removing
encoding: linear16
from configuration file