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Poconos / Monroe County question

R

Red_Bull_Ed

In Monroe County along I - 80 towns like Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg, Tannersville, and Bartonsville for example on the FM dial only get Allentown area and western New Jersey stations. A few powerful Philly and New York City FMs fade in and out from time to time. No Scranton stations make it past Mt. Pocono because these towns (with most of the Monroe County's population) are on the Jersey / Allentown - Easton side on the mountians. For easier commutes to New Jersey, New York City, and Lehigh Valley areas. I-80 & PA 33. The TV market is Scranton, that's stupid because myself and everybody I know who lives here commutes to New Jersey, NYC, or Allentown. We belong in either NYC or Philly market. NY more than Philly. But anyway, what radio market is Monroe County in and why?

My Car Radio Presets in Tannersville, PA when Sirius is not on:

FM

93.5 WSBG Stroudsburg
95.1 WZZO Allentown
96.1 WCTO Easton
103.7 WNNJ Newton, NJ
104.1 B104 Allentown
106.3 Max Blairstown, NJ
107.1 BONE Warren Cty, NJ
107.9 KRZ Mt Pocono, PA

AM

660 WFAN New York
770 WABC New York
790 WABE Allentown
880 WCBS New York
1010 WINS New York
1230 ESPN Allentown

So the Allentown, western New Jersey FMs and New York City AMs should be getting the highest ratings in Monroe County (Stroudsburg / Tannersville) areas. What are the ratings?
 
Monroe Co is part of NEPA. Monroe has 5 commercial stations itself; one simulcasting KRZ and one simulcasting Rock107, both NEPA stations. ARB subscribers choose if Monroe is in or out of NEPA. Pocono Lake, Mtn, Pines; Tobyhanna (and army depot, one of NEPA's largest employers); Blakeslee, and Long Pond are clearly part of NEPA.

KF
 
To clarify KF. Monroe County is part of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton market. It's even part of the metro. Arb subscribers voted that in many years ago with KRZ leading the fight.
 
Speaking of which, I hear two different pronunciations:

MON-roe and mon-ROE. The first seems to be from the locals there and the second seems to be from us'n here in the Valley. Is it just a localism? Or is MON-roe the proper way around these parts to designate that section of real estate?
 
TomCarten said:
Speaking of which, I hear two different pronunciations:

MON-roe and mon-ROE. The first seems to be from the locals there and the second seems to be from us'n here in the Valley. Is it just a localism? Or is MON-roe the proper way around these parts to designate that section of real estate?
Click to expand...

Do you pronounce it Marilyn MON-roe or Marilyn mon-ROE?

So, the other way is just a commonly used mispronunciation.
 
You don't live in Marilyn, despite how desperately you might have wanted to.
 
The reason Monroe County is a part of the WBS metro ( or NEPA, as the locals call it) was due to an Arbitron subscriber vote.KF is correct. Specifically, it was put to vote at least twice, once in 1985 and once in 1993.The thinking then, when it was market 58 and then 63, was that without Monroe County it would have slipped to market 75, which would have adversely affected national spot business coming into the market. Whether it was true, we will never know because of the way the market subscribers voted.The vote was unanimous.The GMs had a secret meeting, which today might be viewed as collusion.
With NEPA today at market # 70, it might be 85 or 90 without Monroe.( btw...I say MON-roe)
 
Area Mispronunciations

Often local ways of saying things come from being said so often the names become slang.
Bethlum, Mahnoy City, Shendo, and Wilkes-Bear are incorrect, but heard in their towns.
Maybe you could let us know of other locally mispronounced names.

My ears perked up recently during a spot for an area furniture store. The announcer said "bedroom suits." We wear suits, "suites" is pronounced sweets.

Traffic reporters know it's "Root 80" though locals may think "route" rhymes "kraut". Professional broadcasters have an obligation to educate the listener while informing them.
 
You say it the way they say it.

WBBM in Chicago says "ve-hick-icles," as that's how it's pronounced there.

San Sooey is correct here; San Souci is correct in Quebec and France.

Bedroom Suits is perfectly acceptable in many areas and I've heard it done that way here; it's a variant of a suite. Little used these days, but gramatically correct.

Route/Raut 80 depends on where you are from; Toby's Creek/Crik, ditto.

When it comes to municipalities, depends on whether you are doing news or sports (!). Billport?? Quick, get a map! Where's Billport?
 
Professional broadcasters have an obligation to educate the listener while informing them.
Click to expand...

Uhh, no, no they do not. Professional broadcasters need to inform, and of much greater importance, they need to know their market. If one does not know one's audience, one is destined to be quickly identified as an outsider who thinks they are so much better than the locals. Where did you ever hear the term Wilkes-Bear spoken in NE PA? I have never heard one of us "locals" call it Wilkes-Bear. It's always Wilkes-Barry/Berry or Wilkes-Barruh, neither of which may be actually correct, I will give you that.

Bethlehem, BTW, should be pronounced BETH-lee-ehm. Then there's Norfolk...forget it, no thanks. Only those who live in Norfolk have the guts to pronounce it properly.

Just sign me...

A former professional broadcaster who never cast himself in the role of teacher...
 
Vince Sweeney said:
. Where did you ever hear the term Wilkes-Bear spoken in NE PA? I have never heard one of us "locals" call it Wilkes-Bear. It's always Wilkes-Barry/Berry or Wilkes-Barruh, neither of which may be actually correct, I will give you that.
Click to expand...

When The George Banks Incident Happened Back In The 80's, (While I Was At WILK),
I Fought With The Associated Press And ABC News For Like An Hour On The Correct Way To Pronounce Wilkes-Barre.
 
I remember one of the first things Bob Neilson said to me at WNAK....its Nan-t-coke......not nanny-coke ......
 
Vince- How do you sing 'O Little Town of Bethlehem'? I stand by Z95's legal- Beth-le-hem....

As far as the Monroe County area stations go, most SCR/WB stations peter out by the time they hit Tobyhanna. Execptions- 105.5, 104.9, and 107.7 when GEM had it. From the other way- 105.5, 106.1 simocast of WPDH. Sitting on the depot, can pick up numerous stations from NYC & Philly, along with Frank-FM from Reading?
 
Famed newscaster Edwin Newman came to town many moons ago promoting a book about colloquialisms. He said no matter what the PROPER pronunciation of a town, the way to pronounce it is the way the majority of the inhabitants do. Thus, the t in Nanticoke is silent. There's an extra "a" in Archbald. Reading sounds like the color. And the county is Loo-zern. He was intrigued by haina

I once saw a pronunciation for Wilkes-Barre in a Dictionary as Wilkes-Bare (as in nude) and Wilkes-Bare-ah...then we added the "y". LOL

P.S "The little town of Bethlehem" is not in PA. Bethlehem, PA is. Say it the way the locals do.
 
all of us old timers in broadcasting got into the business because we love radio. most of us started out by hanging around control rooms, taking out the trash, going to the coffee shop to pick up goodies for the guy thats on the air.. all this, just to get in the control room. we never had the chance to go to college, so we pronounced the towns, cities, etc,etc, from what we heard as we grew up in this area. and alot of great talent came from this area. jones evans, dick whitaker, johnny foster, little bill phillps, and of course the guy who could sell you a ton of sand in the middle of the desert..jim ward, who said living room suit, and sold alot of them for kurlanchicks in duryea. how suite it was for kurlanchicks and for jim. all of the above would mispronouce towns, and street names, but they sure did entertain the listner, and collected alot of money for people in need.
 
When working in TV production, I often had to tell rookie and sometimes experienced reporters who were "from the city" that in Upstate NY (and everywhere else in the US) we call it "waiting in line" to see a movie, etc.

They would write news scripts with the NYC version, "Waiting ON line"... To most of us, that would now mean a slow internet connection!
 
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