Her show comes on during my drive to school, and when I hear her voice, I can’t help but reach for the dial. The topics on her show are extremely interesting and she has very good experts on as guests, but I can’t get past her voice. I understand the poor woman suffers from an extremely rare form of throat disease which distorts her voice, but she speaks. So. Agonizingly. Slow. My guess is that she’d be able to fit in nearly 50% more content if she just doubled the speed at which she speaks.
Thoughts? Please share if you love the show or hate it.
Either I am getting used to her voice, or all the therapy and treatment has improved her voice. She is a lot more listenable to these days.
The guests are usually top flight. I prefer the hard news guests in the first hour, rather than the human interest/literary guests in the second hour. Although she had the author of a biography of the wife of Pres William Howard Taft as a guest about a year that was great show.
I like the Friday News Round Table, though I generally only listen in the car.
I can’t listen to her because strikes me as one of those interviewers who likes to hear herself talk. She seems unable to ask a simple question - she has to elaborate and inject her opinions and observations. Much as I’d love to hear some of her guests, I can’t take her style.
It took me a while to get used to Ms. Rehm’s voice, but I don’t notice it much any more. I like the show-- she usually has interesting guests, and she will sometimes pursue questions that the guests are dodging. I kinda wish they’d drop the call-in portion, and just read listeners’ e-mails; Ms. Rehm is slow but measured, and she sounds prepared-- the callers aren’t, and oftentimes they sound like they have stagefright as they stammer out rambling statements.
(As a hijack, the NPR show I can’t stand is Krista Tippett’s “Speaking of Faith.” She sounds to me like Diane Rehm does to FairyChatMom: an interviewer who likes to hear herself talk… or meaningfully interject “Mmm-hmmm” after a guest says something “deep.” An in-depth look at world religions could make for a great show, but this isn’t it.)
I listen to her. I can tune-out her voice, but she drives my wife bonkers. Most of the callers ask reasonable questions, but she occasionally gets someone who just wants to ramble.
I think she’s great. Her show is my favorite event on any broadcast medium - she’s reset the standard for how good radio and talk shows can be. Her voice is rough, and she does speak slowly, but these are minor issues relative to the excellent content.
People who listen to her often are fine, as they tend to filter out her voice issues. To be sure her interviews are top knotch and she has great speakers, what get’s me is her Station Identifications - they take 15 seconds…TH-A-A-A-AN-N-K Y-Y-YOU F-F-FOR L-L-LISTENING, Y-Y-YOUR L-L-LISTENING TO THE D-I-I-I-ANE R-R-E-E-E-H-H-M-M SH-SH-SH-O-O-W on NNNNPPPRRR.
And by the time she’s done I forgotten what the last speaker was saying.
I respect the woman. Her shows are always informative and her guests are amazing.
Some of her questioning techniques are of the “I understand your point, but here is MY point,” rather than letting the guest completely clarify theirs. However, on the topic of her voice, it used to drive me batty, but then I started listening during my break at work. Now it reminds me of gritty honey. Not too bad, just a little different, is all.
Hate her, haven’t listened to her in years. She talks so goddamned slowly that she takes 5 minutes to ask a question, but I seem to remember her always cutting callers off for taking too long asking their questions. :dubious: It’s a shame she gets so many good guests.
By far my favorite NPR show. I like the first hour better and consider her Friday news roundup to be one of the best sources of info on radio. Her voice doesn’t bother me at all.
Check out the pics of her on the WAMU.org site. She’s kinda hot for a seventy-ish lady. Looks nothing like I expected. HERE
Add me to the group who couldn’t stand her voice when I first heard it, but now find it somewhat melodic. Plus, I find her show brilliant. Admittedly, I don’t get to listen to it often (damn this work thing I must do), but I enjoy whatever opportunities I get to listen to her.
I first heard Dianne on a cross-country road trip via Sirius Radio. At first, I couldn’t stand her voice/speech pattern. After awhile, though, I overcame my sonic prejudice and ended up enjoying her show quite a bit.
As a further hijack, as smarmy and self-congratulatory as SoF (it seems like every guest thinks exactly like the host), at least it stays confined to its time slot. “Marketplace” seems to have taken over our local public radio stations. Oh, how I hate that show.
I’m not sure if these are local or national, but it took me a while to get used to the hosts of “Science Friday” and “Bookworm.” Neither one seems to have a speech impediment exactly, but I doubt if either one of them was ever told they had the perfect voice for radio. They’re both intelligent and insightful though in their respective fields.