Regional accents on Boston/NE radio

[raccoonradio]

This has been mentioned before--DePetro's accent, for example...You know how in radio you're not really supposed to have a regional accent (especially on a national show) yet some do. There's Michael Savage ("Borston, you're next on the Savage Nation") from the Bronx, for one.

I was listening to WCOD while on Cape Cod and heard their local DJ (hey, at least it was local) talk about the WCOD "radah" forecast, and "Oy-stah Hahbahs" or
something. Meanwhile some of the ads for local businesses used a more non-
New England approach: (a restaurant in) mentioned the "r". HARR_wich,
not HAH-wich.

Sean Hannity has said he curbed his Noo Yawk accent for national radio but a few times I heard him slip back into it.

What kind of accent does Howie Carr have? In his growing up days (Portland ME,
Somerville, Deerfield) he somehow picked up pronunciation that turns "Syracuse"
into "SERRA-kyoose", Wisconsin into "WESS-consin", Illinois into "ELLEN-oy",
and collapsed into "Clapsed". (And what's with Peter Blute and some guy from
WEEI doing Purina ads and they say "Purr-e-na"? It's "PYOOR-ee-na")

Anyway...are people encouraged to try and tone down their wickid pissa
New England accents? DJs? Talk hosts? In some ways I get a kick out of the
N.E. accents, having one myself, but I guess it's more professional to
be "neutral". <P ID="signature">______________
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[FMRadio1]

Regional accents limit your options as to where you can work. Just like a jock with a heavy southern drawl would probably have a hard time finding a gig in Boston, I'm sure a personality with a Ted Kennedy-esque accent couldn't get a job at any station outside of Eastern Massachusetts. Considering the fact that most on-air people move from gig to gig, often moving to different parts of the country in the course of their careers, having a "neutral" accent makes you more marketable and versitile.

There are exceptions though. Personalities that have spent their entire careers in their home markets often use their local accents (Charles Laquidera comes to mind.) Also, southern accents are very prevalent in Southern markets, particularly on country stations. But even in the south, you're hearing more "generic" accents as more people from the northeast and midwest are relocating to those areas.

--Mike Thomas


> Anyway...are people encouraged to try and tone down their
> wickid pissa
> New England accents? DJs? Talk hosts? In some ways I get a
> kick out of the
> N.E. accents, having one myself, but I guess it's more
> professional to
> be "neutral".
>

 

[Shellanswerman]

> Regional accents limit your options as to where you can
> work. Just like a jock with a heavy southern drawl would
> probably have a hard time finding a gig in Boston, I'm sure
> a personality with a Ted Kennedy-esque accent couldn't get a
> job at any station outside of Eastern Massachusetts.
> Considering the fact that most on-air people move from gig
> to gig, often moving to different parts of the country in
> the course of their careers, having a "neutral" accent makes
> you more marketable and versitile.
>
>
>
The prize belongs to the overnight guy at WGBH-FM (their equivalent of Eli Polonski); I don't know his name and I only hear him just before the "Marketplace" snippet before Jordan Weinstein comes on, but he makes Fritz Wetherby of channel 11 sound like Alistar Cooke!