The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » Turns Of Phrase: Constant On-Air Cliches That Drive You Crazy

RadioActive · March 22, 2023 8:50 am

I admit there's absolutely no rhyme or reason to this criticism. But there are some things on-air people (and it's usually newscasters) say on the radio that set my teeth on edge. There's nothing wrong with what they're uttering, per se, but certain cliches have become so trite, they start to drive me crazy - and as noted before here, that's not a very long drive.

One of my least favourites was on the radio most of the morning over CityNews 680, when Jaime Pulfer was assigned to preview the Ontario Budget, coming down on Thursday. She kept telling listeners it was "just one more sleep" before the document is presented. For some reason, this hoary old cliche makes me nuts.

And it's used and overused for everything:

"One more sleep" until Santa comes on Christmas Day.
"One more sleep" until the Blue Jays opening day.
"One more sleep" until I strangle the next person who uses this.

Can't they just say it's "tomorrow?" It's stupid, I know, but it bugs me.

So does "don't put that [fill in the blank] away just yet." This is usually uttered in winter with "your snow shovel," "your winter parka," "your snow brush," "your umbrella," etc. etc. etc. No one is doing that after a rare mild spell in late February or early March. Why do they insist on using this over and over? It's lazy writing and it happens all the time. I heard it on CFTO as recently as Tuesday.

None of this is especially serious. They're just pet peeves. Those are mine. But you probably have your own "nails on a blackboard" least faves.

newsguy1 · March 22, 2023 10:53 am

The "one more sleep" thing is perpetuated by people who have children.
"One more sleep is how you tell a little child they have to wait for something (Christmas for instance).
When adult news announcers use it it's pathetic and juvenile and should be stamped out by news directors.
In my old shop news directors issued memos about such things.
I remember one where our manager banned using the word "slammed" to describe criticism as in "Pierre Poilievre slammed Trudeau's latest budget."
The memo said don't use slammed unless it's for a door closed violently.
Another silly cliche is "When John Smith woke up this morning he had no way of knowing that later that day a being moved piano would snap its cable and crush him."
If he had a way of knowing that, he'd have never walked down Yonge Street after lunch.
Or how about "It's every parent's worst nightmare."
Usually this is followed by something that isn't really that nightmarish at all.
Anyway "you just can't make this stuff up"

ED1 · March 22, 2023 11:02 am

"Christmas came early for _______"

"Took to Twitter"

newsguy1 · March 22, 2023 12:08 pm

Oh yeah, I forgot this one....
Literally.
"His head literally exploded when he heard the news."
That would be interesting.

turkeytop · March 22, 2023 12:40 pm

When they refer to snowfall as "The white stuff."

paterson1 · March 22, 2023 12:43 pm

Whenever we get a dip in the temperature, some weather people always talk about "putting another layer on."

Things like "you may need to layer up this weekend since the temperature is going to drop on Saturday."

Enough already. Most people know how to dress when it's cold, or how to dress their kids.

Calhame · March 22, 2023 1:03 pm

2 that get me:

Near miss if you nearly miss something that should indicate that it was hit

401 closed for a cement truck in an accident 99% of the time it is a concrete truck .... concrete consists of a mixture of cement, aggregate, sand, water and other additives. I assume when bread is referenced it is called a loaf and not just flour.

newsguy1 · March 22, 2023 1:17 pm

When I was working in local radio stations I hated giving useless advice like "layer up" when it's cold.
Another one that always stuck in m craw was telling drivers at Halloween to be extra cautious and watch out for "little ghosts and goblins" out trick or treating.
That as opposed to flooring it through residential neighbourhoods -- maybe joining a few friends for some street drag racing.

DaCosta · March 22, 2023 1:42 pm

That's a lot to unpack!

MJ Vancouver · March 22, 2023 3:20 pm

turkeytop wrote:
When they refer to snowfall as "The white stuff."

Sometimes weather people even make up words. Jay Campbell in London made up a word, “snizzle”, to describe a mix of snow and drizzle. He used it a lot in the winter.

betaylored · March 22, 2023 4:05 pm

MJ Vancouver wrote:
turkeytop wrote:
When they refer to snowfall as "The white stuff."
Sometimes weather people even make up words. Jay Campbell in London made up a word, “snizzle”, to describe a mix of snow and drizzle. He used it a lot in the winter.

"snizzle" is a good word, it also sounds like something related to "the white stuff" from back in the 80's

"Grab the umbrella!" the as appealing as a dirt berg* sentence weather people often use to start their rainy day reports, is lazy and annoying.

*I once heard a certain morning person say during their show "My sediments exactly."

Last edited by betaylored (March 22, 2023 4:11 pm)

pinto · March 22, 2023 4:23 pm

I enjoyed Jay in London! Eric Soreson was a good anchor there as well.

In the meantime.. it's 6 Degrees "outside"

turkeytop · March 22, 2023 4:26 pm

When the unfortunate confluence of various, unrelated events leads to an adverse outcome.

"It's a perfect storm."

kosmo · March 22, 2023 10:54 pm

"In for a shock when you go to the pumps" or "go to fill up"

dieter · March 23, 2023 12:20 am

"Rain failed to dampen the crowd's enthusiasm..."

"A new report out today..."

"A large crowd protested against these cliches and terrible writing."

Last edited by dieter (March 23, 2023 2:29 pm)

DaCosta · March 23, 2023 9:40 am

Then there's "snirt" when lovely white snow becomes hard crusty dirty snow on the city streets.

turkeytop · March 23, 2023 9:25 pm

Now, Gordon Sinclair was never one to indulge in the use of cliches.

Once, during a brutal cold snap, he declared "It would freeze the nuts off the bolts."

Last edited by turkeytop (March 23, 2023 9:28 pm)

Paul Jeffries · March 23, 2023 10:05 pm

Thunderboomers.

PJ

Stacks of wax · March 24, 2023 3:30 pm

I hope someone takes a "deep dive" on this topic. It could be a treasure trove.

Chrisphen · March 24, 2023 3:45 pm

"Help me out here..."

No, mister talk radio guy. If you didn't bother to do the research on your topic then it's not my job to inform you.

RadioActive · March 24, 2023 4:03 pm

Chrisphen wrote:
"Help me out here..."

No, mister talk radio guy. If you didn't bother to do the research on your topic then it's not my job to inform you.

I laughed out loud when I saw this one. Whenever I hear a host say "help me out" or "I need your help" with a topic, that's usually shorthand for "I'm not getting any callers on this, I've got 15 minutes booked for it and I really need someone to call so I can get through it." That's really the help he or she is looking for,