The Scrivener, I wholeheartedly agree with your opinion of Jackie Lyden. I can’t stand her voice. Nor can I stand Joanne Silberner’s nasality.
Is Claudio Sanchez the “Don Juan” voice?
The Scrivener, I wholeheartedly agree with your opinion of Jackie Lyden. I can’t stand her voice. I just heard her and it sent me running to this thread.
I can’t stand Joanne Silberner’s nasality either.
Is Claudio Sanchez the “Don Juan” voice?
Nope. Claudio Sanchez reports on many different issues, while the Don Juan guy sticks to those that are just Hispanic-themed.
“Clawtheo Sanchez”
We have some guy here who’s on the NW Indiana beat who spiks inna Mezican accent, man… At least I think it’s Mexican. I tend to turn him off (having no interest in NW IN myself).
But but what about Neal Conen? His voice drives me nuts, and his way of saying bye. bye. to callers makes my skin crawl. And his show is stupid, thhe last one I heard was “what are your friends saying about the bailout?” Stoopid, bye.bye.
Thank you for posting this; I feel totally vindicated, even if you and I remain a tiny minority of true Lyden-haters on this thread.
Re. Claudio Sanchez, I dunno, but I doubt it. I don’t recall him as being particularly annoying. The complainers of the “Don Juan” guy are onto something, though, because there is someone on NPR [or PRI?] who fits that caricature.
For some reason, Joanne Silberner amuses me rather than bothers me.
If I had to pick a public radio personality to win the Nasality Sweepstakes, it’d be Daniel Zwerdling… in a photo finish, to be sure, but he’d win… by a nose. Silberner, Ira Glass, and god knows who else are all quite nasal, but Zwerdling turns it into an art form. It makes me just want to, I dunno, slap some Breathe Right strips on him or something.
Thank you! That’s the only annoying thing I find about him is how he pronounces his own name! Mainly because I constantly up until now would think that it couldn’t possibly be “Claudio” Sanchez, and my ears were deceiving me into thinking he had the same name as the singer for Coheed and Cambria.
So the problem is that all these correspondents intonate too much? To me the problem is speakers who don’t intonate enough, like the poet who reads about an onion press in a monotone voice, and expects it to be meaningful.
English–and especially Standard American English–uses intonation to emphasize content words over function words. This is the nature of the language. You do it when you talk to friend on your cell phone when you’re drinking your double caramel latte at Starbucks (admit it)–so why not a radio broadcaster who’s talking to a stressed-out commuter?
Do you want them to sound like computer generated voices? You know, you can get that pretty cheaply by getting a radio with the weather band, and listen to things like the dew report and wind directions to your heart’s content. Also they’ll tell you when high and low tides come. And it won’t intonate, because a computer doesn’t care about high or low tide one way or the other.
I have a friend who makes fun of native Spanish speakers on the radio when they pronounce their names as their parents probably do, but then criticizes my minor Spanish grammar errors–and I’m not a native speaker, and have never studied the language formally–by “over-hearing” my phone conversations.
There is either major hypocrisy, self-contradiction, or xenophobia going on with people like that.
You all bashing on Diane Rehm know she has a disease right? Some kind of abnormal brain function that alters the voice. While some would argue that should disqualify someone from a radio show I think it is courageous of her to come back to hosting.
I like Prairie Home Companion but Garrison Keilor should never ever be allowed to sing anything, ever, ever. And Guy Noir, Privite I needs to go. If I hear that harpie screech from the female character again I may just perforate my own eardrums with a crayola.
It’s called spasmodic dysphonia. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has it too, giving her the schoolteacher-ish sing-song in her speech (which I actually find sort of endearing). So did Katharine Hepburn in her later years. Diane’s is just an unusually pronounced case.
False dichotomy. What I’d like to hear are more “Goldilocks” voices – neither coldly congealed, nor too overbaked, but just right. Something between automated voice mail and smug/self-righteous/overly mannered drama queen. And since I’m checking off my Fantasy NPR League roster card, lemme add that I’d like the men to sound like men, as opposed to teenaged girls or rough trade jailbait, and for the Americans to sound like Americans of one recognizable sort or another, as opposed to trying to come off as H.R.H. the Princess of Wales or something, and for all of them to sound like they’ve got healthy lungs, normal sinuses, undeviated septums, and no jarring dysphonia* problems. Jeesh!
- Look, I understand Diane Rehm’s developed a physical condition, or disease, whatever, that marrs her voice. That’s tragic but as far as I’m concerned it’s irrelevant. She can’t perform any longer as a radio personality or journalist on the same level as the able-voiced, and people’s P.C. contortions of logic doesn’t make her voice any less unpleasant to listen to. There are other ways of working in journalism than being on on-air host. And I disagree with the argument that she should enjoy job protection because she only developed this condition in middle age, after establishing a solid career in radio journalism – that she should be grandfathered in, so to speak. Nonsense. Many people don’t enjoy such protection in their walks of life with respect to all sorts of health-, physical, and mental/psychological fitness-related criteria.
Let’s not forget, though that people tend by and large to conform to stereotypes. (If they didn’t, there wouldn’t be stereotypes.)
People who devote any great time or energy to smooth delivery and presentation generally don’t have much left over for journalistic idealism. They tend to focus instead on ambition and money. And money is not something you make much of in public broadcasting.
From the other side, there is probably a certain amount of pressure in public radio not to sound commercial. It’s not the right ethos - not how they see themselves. And whatever you do, you fare better if you respect the ethos.
I’ve heard this allegation on this board before. I don’t know if you are only referring to his writers here, or whether that extends to anyone on his show.
I met and talked with someone who was once on his show. His name is Chris O’Brien, a local singer/songwriter, and he was on the People in Their Twenties talent show. He said that it was one of the most positive experiences of his career. He’s a young guy, I know, but that’s still a glowing review.
He was flown out to Minnesota, put up in a hotel for the rehearsals and the show, and then stayed for a get-together and dinner for all the staff and guests. He said that Garrison Keillor was a relaxed and genial host, and everyone there was in great spirits and having a great time. In fact, some of the musicians later told Chris that Keillor seemed reinvigorated by the influx of younger people, glad that the show might be appealing to a younger audience. I don’t know if he talked to writers, but he didn’t have a negative thing to say about the whole experience. Just another viewpoint, I guess, but one I wanted to get out there.
Preach it! If I’m sidelined by back problems or hip issues, I can no longer work as a bedside nurse. No one says “awww” and keeps me at the bedside–it’s up to me to find another aspect of nursing where my physical limitations don’t matter. Same with most jobs. You can argue that Rehms has a following of a sort, but that shouldn’t matter if she can no longer perform to general standards–and IMO, she can’t. I refuse to be made to feel bad because she has some kind of disability–that is not treating the disabled (excuse me, the differently abled) “the same” as the able–that’s giving them preferential treatment.
This is bullcrap. Her voice is affected, but no more than one’s elderly grandmother. Would you tell your grandmother that she is no longer able to effectively perform on the telephone so you won’t be calling her anymore?
Basically, Diane Rehm just sounds old, older than someone her age without her afflication would sound. Daniel Schorr and several other people mentioned here also suffer from nothing more than sounding old. Having an old person’s voice doesn’t disqualify one from being a radio journalist. They are able to convey information through speech exactly as effectively as anyone else.
Rehm’s voice is no more annoying than any old person’s voice. It’s not like some grand torture that the radio listening public is being subjected to. I’ve gotten used to it and millions of others have as well.
This is the same point I tried to make earlier. If you subject public radio announcers to the “golden voice” standards of commercial radio, you’ll end up with the same shallow crap that you hear on commercial radio.
This analogy isn’t even in the same ballpark. You could still function as a nurse. Your experience and education isn’t all of a sudden gone because you hurt your back. Her job is asking questions and interviewing people. She can still talk. I haven’t the slightest idea who writes the questions, picks the topics, or chooses the guests, but in my opinion she is the second best* interviewer of my era.
*best being Tim Russert.
Why the arguments about why these people are “able to perform to standards” or whatever? Their employer has set the standard for them, and apparently, they have met those standards. I can’t see what the argument is supposed to be here.
So you’ve heard Goldilocks speak? Wow.
I wasn’t making a dichotomy. But I know SAE inside and out.
Your description: “neither coldly congealed, nor too overbaked, but just right. Something between automated voice mail and smug/self-righteous/overly mannered drama queen,” is–and no offense meant, really–really funny. Am I watching Rachel Rey? Or “Masterpiece Theater”?
You have a point. But I think the OP should find other things to worry about.