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WRKO news: "Titans shut out the Patriots, 59-0"

Is Metro still in Boston or were their offices moved to the mid-west somewhere?

The writer and or news reader must not be anywhere NEAR Boston for that gaff to have happened!
 
The "reporter" identified herself as Christa Marx. Who can believe a Marxist?
 
Her name is Kristen Marks (sp?), I think. Kristen lives and works in Boston for Metro, I know. This was just an honest mistake. Lord knows I've made many.

K~
 
A cautionary tale about news operations management for sure.

Here in New York, WNYC radio, our local NPR station, which usually gets it right, was reporting all day last week that the Yankees would begin their ALCS playoff series that night against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Right city, wrong team.
 
I was allowed to guest co-host a show on a small radio station in Suburban Hartford back in 03. I reported that the Boston Redsox had won when in fact they had lost. It all comes from copying the scores off of ESPN too quickly and not being able to read my own handwriting. I realized my mistake a little while later as I was sitting in the lobby reading the newspaper while the host of the show was in the studio doing a phone interview with a guest. Once the interview was over I was able to go on the air and correct myself.
 
.....What happens when you outsource the news; tip of cap to Maloney/REqualizer.....

This, of course, only makes sense if you assume that local news readers never make mistakes. Does anyone, even someone in end-stage EDS like Maloney, really think that? Hell, I've heard local play-by-play men get the score, inning, venue, and even the name of the opposition wrong during a game they were covering at the time. Is this kind of idiotic crap what Maloney's crusade against Entercom has finally come down to?

Hey, Rac, next time you're chatting up your buddy Maloney, run this one by him....from last march

Analyst Rates Entercom A “Sell”tip of cap to Maloney/SaveWRKO


I guess this is what happens when you outsource your stock picking.

Regards,
TSB
 
What time of day was this report? If it was during morning or afternoon drive, that's pretty inexcusable. If it's at 2am on a Sunday...well...meh.

I'll never forget my "best flub" was the 9pm Saturday newscast...my first newscast ever...at WBUR about 10 years ago when I said "Leo-minister" instead of "Lemon-ster" and the phones lit up like a goddamn Christmas tree. Even all the private numbers. Who knew that many people were listening at 9pm on a frickin' Saturday?
 
Supposedly it was during the morning but not sure if it was morning drive (I think Maloney said it was during the morning, or Howie "Stuck at Entercom With A Ball And Chain Around My Leg" Carr said it was "this morning" during his show)

Yeah we all make mistakes but this is like saying John McCain beat Obama, the day after the election.

Indeed we do make mistakes (played back an aircheck of my blues show years ago and found I had accidentally
ID-ed an artist as "Billy Blue Bland" (not Bobby).
Maloney can't be right all the time. Take note however that he broke, at least for one, the Leveille-Out-At-WBZ
story. We pajama bloggers/journalists do get it once in awhile :)
 
aaronread said:
I'll never forget my "best flub" was the 9pm Saturday newscast...my first newscast ever...at WBUR about 10 years ago when I said "Leo-minister" instead of "Lemon-ster" and the phones lit up like a goddamn Christmas tree. Even all the private numbers. Who knew that many people were listening at 9pm on a frickin' Saturday?
Click to expand...

You know something? If they're gonna call the radio station and complain because you mispronounced the name of a town then they're a bunch of losers and kooks who have nothing better to do with their time. So you mispronounced the name of a town. Big frigging deal.

I remember when I was interning at that station in suburban Hartford they got a bunch of complaints because the news guy mispronounced the names of some in town politicians. He lived in another town and had no idea who these politcos were. That being said the GM of the station said that an on-air personality can not always go asking how to pronounce stuff. He should do his best and use his own common sense. If it's wrong, it's wrong. It's not the end of the world.

If you're new to an area and not familiar how to pronounce a brand that's not familiar to you, you do your best. The GM of said radio station spent time in Columbus, Montreal, North Carolina, and South Lake Tahoe before coming over to Connecticut. One time he pronounced Guida's Chococlate Milk wrong. Long time Connecticut residents know it's pronounced GUY-DUH's, but since he was new to the state and unfamiliar with it he pronounced it Gwee-duh's. Like Guido only with an A sound at the end.

If someone let's them know it's wrong they'll eventually fix it. Another example. About 10 weeks ago at a bunch of different hotels in CT they began holding these Gold Shows where you can bring in your old gold and get cash for them. About 3 weeks in they added a hotel in the town of Southington, but the VO Guy in the ads were pronouncing it as it's spelled SOUTHington. After about 4 weeks they corrected it with the proper pronounciation. But others get thrown by that one to. When Infinity flipped WZMX in Hartford to hip-hop they hired Jenny Boom-Boom from HOT 106 in Providence. She made the same mistake with regards to Southington.

Then there's the old spell it the same and pronounce it different. WORCESTER comes to mind. There is a small township outside of Philly called WORCESTER TOWNSHIP and they pronounce it as WARCHESTER TOWNSHIP.

And Berlin, Connecticut is pronounced differently than Berlin, Germany. The accented part of the word is on the opposite side of the word.
 
WERS news reporters are infamous for mispronouncing everything from town names to the name of the street the radio station is located on (Tremont). Understandable, though, considering most of the kids reading the news were in high school in California the year before.
 
Yeah Mark, a newbie can easily make a pronunciation mistake; however, one of the first things a pro does is to learn at least how oddly pronounced communities in your market are to be said. That's the difference between someone who's smooth and someone who's not and it conveys a lack of credibility when you make such an error.

As for Southington, that's a basic one to know if you work in that market, just as you'll sound like a fool mispronouncing Groton or Greenwich. Berlin is a little more subtle and you can get away with not using a CT accent on it. Sorry, but it's just how it is - an occupational hazard. I once worked for a national network and believe me, I had to learn a lot of odd place names from all over the US. A colleague actually worked with me on some of the names and I was already pretty well traveled by that point. There are a lot of them to know. My phone lit up with our San Antonio affiliate one day when I phonetically pronounced Bexar County as "BEX-are" rather than as "Bear." It was my first week and believe me, I never did it again.

So, no, I don't find the called in complaints to be from "kooks and losers". They're your listeners and their expectation is that you are a member of the community as they are. And the examples you cited involved people who should have known better. The Leominster one is the same deal; as is Leicester (pronounced "Lester") - it's your job to know this stuff.

The names of local politicos may be a different issue, it guess it depends on how small the town is and what level of visibility that individual has. Let's just say you get one screw up for free. But screwing up on a 59-0 score when it's the LOCAL NFL team who played is really bad and it makes your station sound like a bunch of clueless clowns. I don't care whether the girl doesn't know football or can't read her own writing, that one is a big mistake which she apparently failed to even catch. If "kooks and losers" were forwarded to Metro news to complain, more power to them. Perhaps it's the only way she'll learn.
 
One time he pronounced Guida's Chococlate Milk wrong. Long time Connecticut residents know it's pronounced GUY-DUH's, but since he was new to the state and unfamiliar with it he pronounced it Gwee-duh's. Like Guido only with an A sound at the end.
Click to expand...

I was born, raised, and lived in Connecticut for 18 years. I never knew that it was pronounced that way. For that matter, I still don't really know what the hell a "coffee cabinet" is. Although I do know what a "grinder" is, and a lot of my friends don't. (sub sandwich)

In fairness, my foulup at WBUR did teach me one of the better tricks of the trade - if you're ever unsure of a pronunciation, call up the non-emergency line of the local police station. It's usually staffed 24/7 and if you're polite they'll usually help you. If it's not staffed, just listen carefully to the voicemail greeting...usually the name of the town will be said in there somewhere. Similarly, the main phone number for town/city hall can work that way, too.
 
'Cabinet' is a Rhode Island term... it's a milkshake.

Another Rhode Island term... Clam Cake... Think 'fritter' you buy 6 or 12 at a time they are GREAT! Maine screwed it all up with a hocky puck shape compressed minced clam piece of crap, call it a clam cake and sells for $2.00! They SUCK!

The chick that screwed up the Patriots score... needs to be canned and sent back to Emerson. Stupid, not in touch, no business being on the air, when a jock 3,000 miles from Boston can voice track and get it right for less than $12.00 per hour! Sarcasm RULES!
 
Cut the woman who screwed up the Pats score a break; there's no evidence she did anything other than misread or mis ad-lib. Anyone who has been behind a microphone has made an error that defies explanation; in the old days you may have stuck in a cart when you entered the booth and hit "play" to make sure it was re-cued and then lost concentration by continuing to check on it as it continued spinning and you wondered if the old sparta had missed the cue tone again. Other things happen so that your reading goes on auto-pilot while you think of something else. No, it's not supposed to happen. Yes, it does happen. Sometimes that cutie/hunk from sales/traffic will wander into the main studio and you get distracted (if you don't then someone should take your pulse.)

Pronunciation is another matter. A newcomer will mess up some uniquely local pronunciations that defy logic. Most announcer ask about oddly spelled words, but something spelled conventionally, but pronounced with a unique local flavor, will often be screwed up the first time. Local stations used to stick a local pronunciation guide inside the NBC Pronunciation Handbook. But I'll bet most of you never heard of the NBC Handbook of Pronunciation.
 
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