I’ve been listening to NPR for probably half of my waking hours – sometimes more, rarely less – for decades now. Couple questions for the TM:
You ever notice how, almost every reporter, at the end of almost every report, almost always imparts a noticeably distinct quality of finality to the final syllable of their report? I’ve developed a Pavlovian foreknowledge of the moment of their exit byline: [final syllable; beat;] “For WBEZ, I’m Adriana Cardona-Maguigad.” Anyone else play this little game with themselves, predicting that coda? Everyone ever get it wrong? So far I never have.
Is BJ Liederman the most frequently mentioned name on NPR? I mean after Trump or Biden or Kanye? (<- yes that’s a joke)
Anyone here have any other noticeable quirks to share?
I love hearing from Ofeibea Quist-Arcton in “Dakaaaaar”.
(Yes I had to look up how to spell her name.)
I also really like Dhwaily Saltcowtaw’s voice. (didn’t look that one up) She usually has a report during my drive home, so hearing her is both a good voice and a Pavlovian response to being done with work for the day.
Does NPR have the most reporters with difficult to spell and cool sounding names of any network?
Sylvia Poggioli. Neda Ulaby. Jim Zaroli. Lakshmi Singh. Robert Krulwich.
I notice that I have begun to associate certain NPR reporters with the regions they typically report on. When I hear Wade Goodwyn’s voice in the middle of a report when I turn on the radio, I know it’s something about Texas. Same with Eleanor Beardsley and France.
I also often find myself taken with NPR’s bumper music. I’ve even managed to identify some of the songs they’ve used over the years.
In the radio & TV news biz that is called the “throw”, it’s pretty common, indeed expected. It lets the person running master control know that “yup, that’s the end of this piece”. It gives them a half a beat of time to push the button that starts the next event, whatever that event happens to be.
In theory every report and every event should be timed out to the second but people make mistakes on their timing. Sometimes there is no log and the master control operator has no idea how long a report is going to run. So you have to pay attention and listen for the “throw”. The “throw” is proof positive that it’s time to start the next event and make the transition smoothly.
I absolutely detest the way they so often use indistinct terms for time spans.
“John has been serving lil’ chocolate doughnuts from this neighborhood storefront for nearly three decades.”
"Abby started teaching infants Tibetan throat singing over a quarter century ago.
Just say 27 years or since 1993 or whatever. It sounds like they’re high school student trying to pad a 200 word essay assignment.
Her voice is OK but has she ever delivered a story without goofing something up? Not that I’ve ever heard. Cool name though.
Something I’ve noticed is that when a reporter is interviewing someone, after they ask a question the interviewee very often responds with the word “sure” before answering. Even in cases where “sure” doesn’t seem like it would be a natural response to the question. It always kind of makes me wonder if the question was actually longer when the actual interview was taking place, but got edited down before airing.
I believe the “throw” is explicitly verbal – “Back to you, Ted,” e. g. I’m talking about the final syllable of the report, before the throw. It’s just a tonal shift. Usually a slight uptick in volume and a hair longer than previous yllables. It’s been parodied many many times; think of Dana Carvey’s imitation of Robin Leach: "And I don’t know whYYY . . .’
Though she’s not on NPR, Sabina Castelfranco, a Rome-based reporter and producer for several news organizations, including Voice of America and CBS Radio, does something similar. She signs off on her reports for CBS Radio with “Sabina Castelfranco, CBS News, Rhauuuuummmmmm.”
That assumes the person they’re referring to can always give them a precise date when they started. If the person being interviewed says, “I can’t remember but at least 25 years; no, it might be a bit more, may be 27 years? hmm, I’d have to pull out my tax records…”, the reporter will say “she’s been doing it for nearly three decades.”
That too! These are supposed to be trained and experience professionals, but they so often sound like high school kids… (Yeah, I know, I couldn’t do it even as well…)
Questions are often phrased in the form of “can you tell us …?”. I think we tend to subconsciously respond to that phraseology even when it isn’t there, hence the “sure, …”. Much better than “so, …” which usually makes no sense at all and quickly gets very annoying when overused.
I would add that too often it’s obvious that the interviewer knows the answer to the question, and that makes for a boring, if not disingenuous, interview. A lot of leading questions are asked, especially when politics is the subject. That’s just for the straight NPR news programming. The syndicated shows like Fresh Air, for example, are much better. Terry Gross makes for a great interviewer.
