(Pause)...WBZ

[dhoule]

Is anyone else driven crazy by Bob McMahon's consistent pause before saying the call letters WBZ. This happens all the time. I'm wondering if the news director or program director told him to pause before he says WBZ to allow his "double you" to sound better. He might be one of the "dubba you" people.

 

[radiorama1]

Actually I thought it was more like _Pause_ "Bubbidah Bee-Zee"...

I agree, he is GOD AWFUL.

I swear I want to put my fist through my windshield everytime I hear him do that.

 

[dhoule]

Don't get me wrong. He's got a good set of pipes and, basically, sounds fine on the air. Good guy. I remember him from the old all-news WNCR in Worcester. It's just this (pause) WBZ thing.

Dave

 

[Neggy]

GMTA !!!

I was going to start a thread on this same topic earlier this week, but had not gotten to it.

I was in my car a little while ago and the pause was driving me effn nuts... WTF?

I know you want the calls to stand out, but between them saying them every 5 seconds " the WBZ box office winner is... the WBZ time is... WBZ suburu dealers coke whore traffic on the threes.....here is WBZ's copy reader with the report...." is just too much.


Speaking of poor reads can someone please teach Howie Carr to read the live spots without screwing each and every one of them up?

 

[raccoonradio]

Is McMahon the one who kind of pronounces it as "debble-you-bee-zee"?

In some ways Howie isn't bad in his live reads but he is well known for mispronunciation,
with words like "clapsed" (collapsed), "Ellenoy" (Illinois), "Serracyoose" (Syracuse),
"Wesconsin" (Wisconsin)...Now that I think of it Howie's live reads have him kind of
admitting that it's a script: "It says here that I enjoy this product when I go jogging"
(in other words, Howie doesn't jog despite what the script might tell yoU!)

 

[Laurence Glavin]

Is McMahon the one who kind of pronounces it as "debble-you-bee-zee"?

In some ways Howie isn't bad in his live reads but he is well known for mispronunciation,
with words like "clapsed" (collapsed), "Ellenoy" (Illinois), "Serracyoose" (Syracuse),
"Wesconsin" (Wisconsin)...Now that I think of it Howie's live reads have him kind of
admitting that it's a script: "It says here that I enjoy this product when I go jogging"
(in other words, Howie doesn't jog despite what the script might tell yoU!)

I don't listen to Howie enough to hear these spots; I do try to tune in to the
J. Max Robinson segment though. Anyway, if what you say is true, it lends an
air of HYPOCRISY to his rants about "Mumbles" Menino and Senator Ted.

 

[raccoonradio]

Yes and some listeners have pointed it out (even Sandy has). Sometimes Howie will mispronounce something
and Sandy will correct him, and he'll stubbornly say that in HIS world or in HIS studio, he's pronouncing it
right.
But Menino's malapropisms ("bugahoo" is the latest) are much funnier. Now, we don't want youse
conjugatin' on Baws-thin common...

 

[ChrisNH]

Is he the one that use to enunciate it, 'Dorble-You-Bee-Zee?'

God, no wonder iPods are stomping on commercial radio these days.

 

[TSBench]

Is he the one that use to enunciate it, 'Dorble-You-Bee-Zee?'

God, no wonder iPods are stomping on commercial radio these days.

If you actually think that folks are bailing out on the only all news station in town because of an announcer's enunciation of the call letters, I think it is about time that you find a life away from media commentary.

Regards,
TSB

 

[Neggy]

TSB I am more aware of it, because I was brought up in a world where dead air of any duration was a no no.

I took that with me when I was working as an engineer, and now when I occasionally board op. the only thing that gets my attention faster than a split second of dead air is an EAS squawk. I bet if someone had an old EBS tone lying around and played it within earshot I would perk right up too.

 

[NHRadio]

I was just thinking of that pause thing today. It does sound like he's unprepared.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

I was just thinking of that pause thing today. It does sound like he's unprepared.

Is he the one on Sunday mornings? It sounds more like he's compensating for a speech problem, like he has to stop and make sure that he's going to say "Double-You..." properly before every time he says it.

I'm not one to talk though, I'm sure I've been heard flubbing many a break... especially when overtired...

 

[Neggy]

Eli this guy is on mid days on WBZ... and as you know every third word over there is WBZ this or WBZ that.

Any time the guy goes to say "WBZ" as part of anything there is a pause before he says WBZ.

"Now its time for (pause pause pause) WBZ (finish the read)". It's not like he just came in from Bangor and is afraid of saying the wrong calls and is trying to be careful, this guy is a BZ vet.

it is intentional and recent. I would have noticed long before this. I take my mid day nap listening to WBZ's mid day news from around 11 to 1 so I listen a lot.

Also on the subject of BZ, Anyone want to chime in on Jordan Rich's answer to the Andlemens taking their Lobster Rolls and high tailing it to 96.9 with their dad? Connoisseurs Corner? With some guy from Boston MAgazine.. is there a more irrelivent publication in Boston than that "pay for print and get a Best of Boston Award" rag? ( Well maybe John Wilpers "Boston Now" that Metro wanna be.. Wilpers must have gotten canned by Metro and decided to compete on his own... but I digress.) I always thought the best feature of the 38/Phantom marriage was the frequent top of the hour reviews that were heavily promoting the franchise. I can't imagine that 96.9 is giving them that much exposure.

 

[fhigginsa2]

DRouble you BZ..............

 

[Garrett]

Is anyone else driven crazy by Bob McMahon's consistent pause before saying the call letters WBZ. This happens all the time. I'm wondering if the news director or program director told him to pause before he says WBZ to allow his "double you" to sound better. He might be one of the "dubba you" people.

I must be having deja vu, but wasn't this discussed already?

 

[pdwips]

Bob McMahon is a total class act. He's a top-notch journalist who cares about the things newspeople should care about: Getting it right. I know because I worked with him for several years at WEEI Newsradio 590.

I can find such traits in just about every air-person's delivery. You find this one annoying. Fine. Totally your right. But I just didn't want to stand by and see this man's worth as a broadcaster reduced to a tiny idiosyncrasy without responding.

The truth is we need more Bob McMahons and fewer news bim/himbos in this business, no matter how "flawless" their deliveries.

My two cents, and I'm waiting for change...

 

[dhoule]

Thanks for saying this. Again, I find it annoying but at the same time I do agree that Bob, in general, is a class act. As mentioned, I recall him on morning drive at WNCR in Worcester and 14Q and, of course, his days at the old WEEI. I would just prefer to deal with a "doubleya" here and there (not George, of course) than the constant pausing. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Thanks for saying this. Again, I find it annoying but at the same time I do agree that Bob, in general, is a class act. As mentioned, I recall him on morning drive at WNCR in Worcester and 14Q and, of course, his days at the old WEEI. I would just prefer to deal with a "doubleya" here and there (not George, of course) than the constant pausing. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Were it not for the fact that I haven't heard any other WBZ anchors use the same trick, I would say that this is a device recommended by a consultant. If the news reader pauses 1/4 second before mentioning the call letters--and the entire listening audience KNOWS that the pause is to be followed by the call letters--the reader is giving the listeners the opportunity to think of the call letters on their own. Surely the result is that more listeners remember the calls of the station they are listening to than would do so if this device weren't being used. Moreover, 1/4 second later, when the news reader voices the calls, he provides positive reinforcement to the listeners for being wide awake enough to have remembered the calls. Now, if it weren't so annoying, it would be a great deal for the station--must be worth a couple tenths of a share point. But even more annoying is McMahon's frequent use of the calls three and four times within a 10-second span. That MUST be dictated by management, and to me, it's more artless and clumsy than the 1/4-second pauses.

Also, if, the pause is effective in producing a small ratings bump under the diary system, it will be completely ineffective after the switch to PPMs. So the downside is that the advent of the PPM will be followed by a ratings downtick--or less of a ratings uptick. I can imagine that the brass at WBZ must be at least a little concerned about the effect of the PPM on the station's ratings. The heritage calls have been in the market for more than three generations and my guess is that, under the diary system, if WBZ went dark tomorrow, it would continue to place in the top five for at least another 18 months. Not so with the PPM. OTOH, IIRC, sister station KYW (another big-signal AM with a three-letter heritage call and an all-news format, and Philly's only K call--despite having spent a couple of years in another market about 30 years ago) did just fine in its first book under the PPM.

 

[RandomLetters]

I've always assumed Bob McMahon had a speech problem / pain with actually saying the letter "W". You can almost hear the pain in his voice as he gets closer to the dreaded pause-then-gulp-WBZ. I don't think it's some marketing stunt at all. Years ago I started saying Doh! (homer simpson) alot for the fun of it. After about 2 weeks of saying "Doh!" i noticed it was becoming very painful for me to make the "Du" sound (i stopped saying Doh! immediately after that). I'm not saying Bob is a Simpsons fan but I do know that it can be physically painful to make certain sounds especially if you have to repeat them over and over.

 

[Infidel]

Why not advise him to omit the "dorble-you" altogether?