If You Can't Get It Right, Maybe You Shouldn't Do It At All?

[dmargalotti]

Over the past week I've had the chance to tune in to a local radio station that I hadn't listen to much over the past several years. This is a station that I worked for more than a decade ago when they were locally owned and operated. As is the case with many, many stations today this particular station has been owned by one of the big radio companies for some time now. While the station still has a local morning jock and a local mid-day jock, the news (what little they do) and traffic are clearly not local. They are recorded by someone working for the company in another market. It's quite obvious because each day I listened over the past week there were several instances where the news or traffic person completely butchered the pronunciation of a local town, street, etc.

I'm not questioning the business model here with using out of market resources to minimize local operating expenses. But airing news and traffic reports or voice tracks with such glaring mistakes completely destroys what little credibility the station may have. Do you think the station would be better off just dropping the news and traffic if they can't get the town and street names right?

 

[TomT]

Must be Clear Channel--probably e-mailing the reports from two states away.

 

[TheBigA]

In all the places I've lived, the traffic reporters mainly deal with interstates. No problem with street names when they're all numbers.

Who cares about traffic on La Cienega. Tell me about The 10?

 

[SaltyDog]

In all the places I've lived, the traffic reporters mainly deal with interstates. No problem with street names when they're all numbers.

Who cares about traffic on La Cienega. Tell me about The 10?

I'm guessing you've always lived in large cities? I've lived in a few places where the only Interstate was the one headed in and out of town and there was never any traffic on it.

When out-of-town voicetracking really got cranking, the first thing the PD would do would be to fax (yes, fax) a local pronunciation guide to the person doing the voicetracking. That was back when even small markets had a PD for every station.

 

[TheBigA]

I'm guessing you've always lived in large cities?

Yep.

 

[davideduardo]

In all the places I've lived, the traffic reporters mainly deal with interstates. No problem with street names when they're all numbers.

Who cares about traffic on La Cienega. Tell me about The 10?

The problem is when there is a Sigalert on the 10 between the Robertson exit and "la see-enn-ee-guh" and everyone knows the reporter has no clue whatsoever.

My personal favorite was one I heard a few years ago... a reference to "Laurel Sin" by someone who did not know that the SoCal abbreviation "cyn" stood for "canyon" and not what Adam and Eve committed.

 

[Tom Wells]

There are lots of "surface street" names called out in Chicago traffic.
My fave was back when Steve Dahl and Gary Meier (sp?) back in the 70's-early 80's had
renamed all the "named" expressways... the highway numbers are seldom used here...
for instance, the Dan Ryan expressway (I-94) south of chicago was renamed the Irene Ryan expressway.
Irene Ryan was "Granny" on the Beverly Hillbillies.

If you weren't a regular listener you'd have NO idea what they were talking about.

 

[dmargalotti]

When out-of-town voicetracking really got cranking, the first thing the PD would do would be to fax (yes, fax) a local pronunciation guide to the person doing the voicetracking. That was back when even small markets had a PD for every station.

That's kind of my point, Salty. This station does have a local PD but what I'm wondering is, where is the quality control? Doesn't anyone listen to the news and traffics reports before they air? Someone should. And if there is a glaring mistake like the ones I heard, either edit them or just don't air them at all.

 

[secondchoice]

As long as the sponsors are still writing the checks, no one will at the station will care. Now if the sponsors start complaining it will be fixed.

 

[TheBigA]

This station does have a local PD but what I'm wondering is, where is the quality control?

The PD's job is to focus on the people who report to him. These are outside people. It's like network news. The local PD doesn't control it, and really can't do anything about it. If you're a radio station carrying ABC News, and they make a mistake, the responsibility falls to ABC. And it isn't an option to skip it.

 

[dmargalotti]

That's a little bit of a cop-out, TheBigA. Maybe skipping or editing the report is not an option on the local level but there is no reason why the PD (or the jock on the board for that matter) can't pick up a telephone and get a hold of the person recording the reports to make sure they send a corrected version. I heard the same error repeated a couple of times when I was listening. Sadly there really is no excuse for it.

 

[Tom Wells]

Geting it wrong and hearing fedback is good.

I gives you a chance to know someone's listening, and someone cares enough to help you get it right.

Making the correction and getting it right from there on is a chance to show the audience you care enough to care.

If the system is constructed so as to exclude feedback/correction on mispronunciations or other glaring errors,
the repeated error becomes one of the hallmarks of disrespect.

No one enjoys hearing mispronunciations unless they area somehow comical.


On the far SW side of the Chicago region, along the Stevenson expy, (I-55) there is an interchange with Weber road.
I heard a traffic report about 1998 or so where it was pronounced "Wee-Bear" road.