By Mark Willis, Region 6 Coordinator

I had a little time off recently during the holidays. But I am now getting back into the full swing of things, like catching up with emails and keeping up with the latest trends.

I also had the chance to actually sit down for a few days and listen and watch radio and television newscasts in the DFW market, where I am.  And wow, what an eye opener. Or should I say what an earful!

There is a very disturbing trend I am noticing that would make Walter Cronkite spin in his grave. I heard too many mispronounced town names, street names and lack of articulation for some of the most basic phrases. Sure, everybody fumbles a word from time to time. But reporters and anchors have got to be above the herd.

This is journalism 101.  Make sure you really do know what you are talking about and where you are talking about.  Let me give you a case in point.  One of the network television O and O stations had a very prominent anchor read a local story about an event in the town of Sachse Texas. Yes, it is correctly spelled, so let me stop you there. The town is pronounced “SAX-EE.” It’s not “Say-She” Texas, as she rattled it off. I was very surprised. Longtime residents will pick up on the mistake. People new to the area may not. But the point is, she said it wrong. Not only did she make a mistake, but the mistake leads to the impression that the station is not connected to the community. That’s bad news.

There is also a problem with the station management for not making sure their talent is well versed in local pronunciation. That is a failure of leadership. If I were the station General Manager, I would have a long talk with my News Director.
And please, tell your anchors and reporters to speak clearly.  I heard one radio news anchor say during his newscast “watch out for the emergency vehicles on their way to the big tar-far on Highway 5.”

I thought, “Tar-Far?” What in the world? Then it hit me. He meant to say “tire fire.” It sounded funny at first, but then I thought, what are his listeners thinking?

My point is simply this: don’t underestimate your viewers or your listeners. They are smart people. Give them a quality product. Don’t take them for granted.

If you are going to be on the air, do your research. Get out into the community and meet people, learn the town names, learn the street names and most importantly, get it right. People at home are laughing at you and the station when things are not pronounced correctly. Don’t embarrass yourself or your station.

POST A COMMENT

Radio speech

Yes, when I was told I had mispronounced a word as a young wise guy kid, new in the business, an old pro explained, somebody has to set the standard or we won't be able to understand each other. And that's what it's all about, isn't it? When I got to the network, I quickly learned how important my bosses considered the use of words. And they are right. We must have communication in this communications business.

Pronunication

Great Article! The first thing I teach new news people at my station is that the name of the Village of Chauncey, Ohio is prounounced CHANCE-ee. Also in Ohio, Lancaster is pronounced (LANG kuhss tur). I once heard a CBS anchor pronounce a town in Georgia as Mar-teen-ez. Nope. The name of suburb of August, where the Augusta National Golf Course is actually located, is pronounced mar-TUH-nez. Everywhere you go something is going to be pronounced in a way you might not expect. i once lived in Humphreys County, Tennessee. That's pronounced Umphreys. I've always wondered that if a former US vice president had come from Tennesse, if he would have been called Ubert Umphrey. By the way, my last name is pronounced BAY-et.

On-Air Mispronunciations

I'm a former TV news director and I can certainly sympathize with your complaints about on-air vocal problems, ranging from accents to mispronunciations.

I now teach a college course in Broadcast Voice and Diction. If you're looking for help in solving vocal problems in your newsroom here are a couple of resources you might want to check out:

The latest edition of Dr. Ann Utterback's Broadcast Voice Handbook is available from her web site at http://www.utterbackpublishing.com/bookstore.html
It's loaded with valuable information.

I also highly recommend a set of CDs available from Dr. David Alan Stern called The Speaker’s Voice. They're available at http://dialectaccentspecialists.com

Dr. Stern has also produced a series of recordings to help speakers who hope to reduce their accents, whether domestic American or foreign. You'll find those CDs at the same web site.

Good luck!
Dave Cupp
School of Journalism & Mass Comm
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
dcupp@unc.edu

Virtual Newsrooms

I'm wondering whether the news anchor you heard was even in the community he/she was covering. With so many companies using one news dept. for several markets and these new virtual news sites with people literally stealing our stories for rebroadcast ... I'm not surprised someone might not know how to pronounce a local town's name.

Get it right!

I learned the hard way as a young thing right out of J-school it is better to ask first, than look like a moron after.(Lone Butte - I figured it was like butter without the "r". Wrong.) These days I often find myself having to read a sports cast on radio due to staffing issues. Even though sports interests me as much as a jab in the eye. I always check the names. Especially tennis. Come on - are those real? Let me leave you with this -- it's not just the news people that can make a station sound idiotic. We had a disc jockey go on air to put out a wind warning for the Juan de Fuca straight. Do NOT read that phonetically. He did.

Pronunciation

The first thing journalists in my newsroom receive is a pronunciation guide featuring phoenetic spelling of local places, streets and towns. This document also contains a warning: if you're not sure, ask before going to air. Any ND who does not take these steps is asking for trouble. Listeners/viewers believe 'outsiders' do not understand local issues, and that is poison when it comes to credibility.

Preach!

As a local news anchor and reporter --- I completely agree with you. I have though, been guilty of mispronouncing towns, streets, etc, especially the first week in the job here. For the most part, viewers were kind and sent an email to the tune of, "sweetheart, we know you're not from here, but it's pronounced xx." I responded to the emails with a big THANK YOU! Because otherwise, I would have never known I was saying it wrong! Like all cities, Lexington has towns, streets, etc that most people would pronounce one way, but here in Kentucky, it's another way. Example: Versailles, Ky, is not pronounced "ver-sigh." It's "Ver-sails." Exactly. So while I should have asked before I sat on the desk the first time, I certainly agree that station management should have a sit-down with talent about common mispronounced words in the area. Maybe I will create an index of "how to say things in Kentucky the right way." That will be my legacy here :) Thanks for the post!

Pronunciation

When I was a news director, my GM called me in one day to complain about a news anchor. "Bill, you have to do something about his mis-pronounce-iation." "That's very funny," I replied. He never did get the humor that he couldn't pronounce mispronunciation.

Mispronunciations

You can always tell out-of-towners, you just can't tell them very much! One of the worst was when traffic was on XM Radio. The reporter talked about "...an accident in San Rah-FY-el when it was in San Ruf-FELL. (San Rafael). Or the car fire near the Waffle House on McGavock Pike in Nashville. McGavock Pike is pretty long and there are lots of Waffle Houses.

Media Morons

Well, media folks generally are morons. I should know, having worked with an endless stream of them in 30 + years. However, no excuse today with the internet, and 5 seconds to research something you are unsure of.

what'd he say?

My dad was managing our small town country station when we had a fresh out of journalism school fellow reading local news. At the end, after multiple mispronunciations, Dad said, "That's local news with Jeef Smayeth (Jeff Smith.)"

In the words of E.B. White

I remember reading a quote from E.B. White, the linguist and writer. He said, "If you are going to mispronounce a word, do it loudly and clearly. Do not compound your ignorance with inaudibility".

I read that while I was in radio school. The instructor also told of during the early days of the Vietnam War when the major network faces had to learn to pronounce those names; Huntly/Brinkley at NBC, and Reynolds at ABC said a name correctly but hesitantly. Cronkite slaughtered the pronunciation but said it with absolute pontifical authority. The next day and for the rest of the war that word was mispronounced on the radio and TV.

I guess it is like the politicians; you don't have to know what you are talking about, you just need to sound like it.