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May 5, 2022 9:25 am  #1


It's Embarrassing

It’s disheartening to listen today.  Perhaps it's my age, but as an 85-year-old who was a ND for a metro radio station from the 60s and thru the 80s, I believe the talent of many current radio/tv news reporters has deteriorated.  The mispronunciations of the names of places and people, voices that lack authority, projection and their constant attempt at correction which only highlights their error.  Is this the failure of journalistic broadcast school educators to prevent these faults when teaching their students?   During BC radio (before computers) upon the completion of an error-riddled cast, you could be expected to listen to an air-check hopefully to prevent the potential of future embarrassments. The suits in the ivory towers of the large corporations, who now control most of broadcasting, have decimated the heart and source of broadcast information.  Many of today's major market newsrooms lack the necessary personnel and expertise to produce what many listeners relied upon.  The resultant transforming of today's broadcast news is mirrored in the fact that some stations have absolutely no newscasts during much of their broadcast day.   

 

May 5, 2022 10:37 am  #2


Re: It's Embarrassing

laffin wrote:

It’s disheartening to listen today.  Perhaps it's my age, but as an 85-year-old who was a ND for a metro radio station from the 60s and thru the 80s, I believe the talent of many current radio/tv news reporters has deteriorated.  The mispronunciations of the names of places and people, voices that lack authority, projection and their constant attempt at correction which only highlights their error.  Is this the failure of journalistic broadcast school educators to prevent these faults when teaching their students?   During BC radio (before computers) upon the completion of an error-riddled cast, you could be expected to listen to an air-check hopefully to prevent the potential of future embarrassments. The suits in the ivory towers of the large corporations, who now control most of broadcasting, have decimated the heart and source of broadcast information.  Many of today's major market newsrooms lack the necessary personnel and expertise to produce what many listeners relied upon.  The resultant transforming of today's broadcast news is mirrored in the fact that some stations have absolutely no newscasts during much of their broadcast day.   

Bottom line: Radio is done on the cheap now; it's not a priority for the corporations and neither is quality control.

I remember asking one of the main deskers at news agency where I worked for years about the fact AP was now being fed directly onto the print and broadcast wires without an editor seeing it. My question was: "What about the quality?" His answer: "The days of quality are over."


"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
 

May 5, 2022 10:53 am  #3


Re: It's Embarrassing

I third this emotion. (With apologies to Smokey Robinson.) There is a new newscaster on AM640's evening shift. I'm assuming for the sake of argument that she writes her own copy. Whoever is the author of the material is - how can I put this without being cruel? - somewhat lacking. 

While her delivery is OK, the material she reads is sometimes head shaking. And what she does to sports scores aggravates my teeth grinding habit. There is technically nothing incorrect in saying the score in the Leafs game is 3 to zero. It's just that no one ever says it that way. It's always 3-nothing. Or 3-zip. Or something similar. 

You might say when updating a game that there's no score. Or that it's scoreless in the first period. She'll say something like "there haven't been any goals scored yet." Not wrong, technically, but awkward and trite and cringeworthy when you hear it on air.  

She has a way of giving scores that is baffling to me, and makes it sound (and I suspect it's true) that she knows nothing about sports in any way. A soccer score would normally be expressed as 1-nil. When she says 1 to zero, it stands out like a sore thumb. 

And yet I don't blame her. Clearly, she's had no guidance or anyone to tell her how it's supposed to be worded. And that's the problem - no one takes a "sent-to-mentor" journey anymore. And boy, does it show.  

 

May 5, 2022 11:06 am  #4


Re: It's Embarrassing

A lot of the  people calling the shots, especially larger stations and chains, have no or little on air experience.
 
Many problems with reading or inflection can be corrected relatively easy, but if nobody is there or taking the time to help newer employees, problems either don't get corrected or take far too long to be resolved. 

Most of the problems with radio seem to be self inflicted, and in many cases stations are relating less and less to the audience.  Too much is done for selfish and self serving reasons and not for the people you are serving. 

 

May 5, 2022 12:49 pm  #5


Re: It's Embarrassing

There are undeniable truths. The first is nobody at talk radio is being taught radio basics. When you put in a columnist as a host, that person gets very little guidance from someone who knows what they are talking  about. The assumption is their "wisdom" will carry the day. It happens because , with few exceptions, the program director is a pencil pusher, someone who knows how to cut a budget and that's about it. 
The second truth is that the big companies are only concerned with profit. I get it, but that attitude is exactly why radio is failing. The idea of actually considering talent, writing, attention to details like proper pronunciation and so on take a back seat to hiring cheap talent. It's always about the bottom line.
 

 

May 6, 2022 8:44 am  #6


Re: It's Embarrassing

Back in the day, I was at CHEX when it was still a CBC affiliate. I recall we used to get regular  pronunciation guides from Ken Haslam of the mother corp. I still managed to mangle a few local names, but I always got Saw-ooo-dee Arabia right.

 

March 8, 2023 8:16 pm  #7


Re: It's Embarrassing

I just heard a presumably new (never heard him before) newscaster doing the 7 PM news on AM 640. He informed listeners that the Jays lost their spring training game on Wednesday by a score of "7 to Oh" (not zero, "oh.") He then concluded that their pre-season record was a disappointing 6 and 54. I wasn't aware they'd played that many already!

Nothing shows up flaws in a news reader like not knowing how to deal with sports. When they get it wrong, it's not only noticeable, but extremely embarrassing. I'm willing to bet no one will correct him, either, since there's no longer any mentorship in radio newsrooms these days - if they still have newsrooms at all.  

 

March 8, 2023 10:22 pm  #8


Re: It's Embarrassing

RadioActive wrote:

He informed listeners that the Jays lost their spring training game on Wednesday by a score of "7 to Oh" (not zero, "oh.")  

You've just identified one of my greatest pet peeves, not just in broadcasting, but in general conversation too. People who say "oh" instead of zero.
 


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
 

March 8, 2023 11:45 pm  #9


Re: It's Embarrassing

\Media companies are hiring journalists from other media, and not necessarily broadcasters eg.) CBC in my area has hired a bunch of former Postmedia journalists. I don't doubt their journalistic credibility, but it's hard to listen to them sometimes. They either have vocal fry or just sound very tentative on air. I miss the days of hearing a bombastic, but authoritative, man or woman reading the headlines or reporting from the scene. 

 

March 9, 2023 7:50 am  #10


Re: It's Embarrassing

Re : It's Embarrasing

My Friend , I could not agree with you more .
A (aaayyyyyy) , the (theeeeeee) , avenue (av ) :  I would have been called in after shift for an immediate air check session .

In the meantime .....
Hey , let's see what's going on "out there ".....snow will be falling "out there" ...it's cold "out there " ......
 

Last edited by Sonomag (March 9, 2023 7:51 am)

 

March 9, 2023 9:56 am  #11


Re: It's Embarrassing

Sonomag wrote:

Re : It's Embarrasing

My Friend , I could not agree with you more .
A (aaayyyyyy) , the (theeeeeee) , avenue (av ) :  I would have been called in after shift for an immediate air check session .

In the meantime .....
Hey , let's see what's going on "out there ".....snow will be falling "out there" ...it's cold "out there " ......
 

Or maybe the white stuff falling out there.
 


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
 

March 9, 2023 11:50 am  #12


Re: It's Embarrassing

RadioActive wrote:

I just heard a presumably new (never heard him before) newscaster doing the 7 PM news on AM 640. He informed listeners that the Jays lost their spring training game on Wednesday by a score of "7 to Oh" (not zero, "oh.") He then concluded that their pre-season record was a disappointing 6 and 54. I wasn't aware they'd played that many already!

Nothing shows up flaws in a news reader like not knowing how to deal with sports. When they get it wrong, it's not only noticeable, but extremely embarrassing. I'm willing to bet no one will correct him, either, since there's no longer any mentorship in radio newsrooms these days - if they still have newsrooms at all.  

Soccer enthusiasts probably cringe when their scores are not given as 2-nil.