1 of 1- unclefester
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The Hired Help At City News 680
Listening this morning to a female anchor (didn't catch her name) around 9.30 a.m. as she spoke about an upcoming GTA performance of that old Christmas favourite The Nutcracker.
Plenty of details including the names of the principal dancers & the Four Seasons Hotel venue & tickets available at Ticket Master etc. etc. etc.
What caught my ear was that she referenced the performance as "a ballot" as in a voting ballot instead of a ballet. Anyone can mispronounce things live so no big deal but lo and behold 20 seconds later she did it again calling the Nutcracker "a ballot".
All things considered can she really be that uninformed?
- Ale Ont
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Re: The Hired Help At City News 680
Rogers hired her. So you know she is not being paid a lot. And where is the news director?
- turkeytop
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Re: The Hired Help At City News 680
Just reading what they handed to her.
I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
- Hansa
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Re: The Hired Help At City News 680
unclefester wrote:
What caught my ear was that she referenced the performance as "a ballot" as in a voting ballot instead of a ballet. Anyone can mispronounce things live so no big deal but lo and behold 20 seconds later she did it again calling the Nutcracker "a ballot".
All things considered can she really be that uninformed?
May be uninformed or may not be paying attention to what they're reading - which can be a serious failing for a live broadcaster if it's a habit.
- Radio Bob
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Re: The Hired Help At City News 680
Can anyone deny anymore that broadcasting's Armageddon has come and gone, leaving a devastated landscape?
- Mr.Aldred
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Re: The Hired Help At City News 680
I heard "CH-unnakah" tonight. I'm done.
- RadioActive
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Re: The Hired Help At City News 680
Last week, I was listening to CP24 over CFRB on a Saturday morning. The anchor, whoever it was, did a story about U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema defecting from the Democrats to declare herself an independent. The anchor mispronounced her name in the first instance, calling her Sin-Eh-Ma, as opposed to "Cinema," which is the correct way to say it.
He then read on in the story, coming across her surname a second time and this time, saying it correctly. I remember thinking, well, he just had a slight misread the first time, and he got it right eventually. But then the name came up a third time in the copy and it was back to "Sin-Eh-Ma." Which means the only time he got it right was when he thought he got it wrong!
The weird thing about the mistake is, if you look at the spelling, I can't see how you could pronounce it as anything but "Cinema." But somehow he did. Twice. I admit she's hardly a household name in Canada, but you might think he'd have gone through the copy in advance and asked the producer how to say it if he wasn't sure.
- Radio Bob
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Re: The Hired Help At City News 680
In fairness to the anchor, he might have been handed the script at the last minute. And the writer should have given him a phoneticized spelling.
I've been in both roles. And as a writer for a lot of anchors -- some with massive egos -- never have I been reprimanded for phoneticizing too many words, especially names. Always better to have too many than not enough.
I think I'll spend the rest of Hanukkah (HAH-nuh-kuh) in Tanzania (TAN-zuh-KNEE-uh).
I still don't understand, however, anyone with even a cursory knowledge of English mispronouncing ballet.
Last edited by Radio Bob (December 18, 2022 1:16 pm)
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Re: The Hired Help At City News 680
That's certainly possible. Sight reading is a difficult skill in news, especially if you're not used to it. Still, Sen. Sinema had been in the news quite a bit before that story broke as a Democrat who didn't always support her own party, and as a newsperson, he likely should have heard of her or knew who she was.
It reminds me of a story - it may be entirely apocryphal, but I've heard it a number of times over the years - where a radio news guy is handed a bulletin about the ruler of some African country dying in a plane crash. Unfortunately, the guy's name was a long combination of vowels and consonants that would look very unpronounceable to most North Americans, especially at first sight.
So he gravely delivers the terrible news, comes to the name of the deceased in the script, pauses at its length and then says, "names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin." And on to the next story.
True or not, you've got to give the guy credit for quick thinking and chutzpah!
- The Weed
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At one radio station I worked at, Saturday late afternoon, time to read the funeral obits. I had pre-read them, found a name I knew I couldn't pronounce properly, and in between songs and breaks I dialed the newspaper, the funeral home, anyone I could think of about how to pronounce the name. (No phone book around.) Crickets. Time comes, I do the best I can. Not long after the bat phone rings and it's the deceased's daughter, in so much tears and grief I can hardly understand her. She was telling me I mispronounced the name, I finally got to understand how to pronounce it, apologized and asked if she wanted me to read it correctly on-air. She got out a yes. I went back on-air, apologized for mispronouncing it, and re-read the announcement correctly.
Never heard a word from my PD, sales, anyone. I understand how a mistake can happen, but ballet as ballot? And not immediately correcting it?