There is no NPR voice worse than Jackie Lydon’s - it is Saturday at 5:00pm and she is not on the air - is it safe to go back to the airwaves? Please tell me she is gone? Did she not get the ax earlier? Why is she still there? The nasal and annoying sing-song sounds that she produces leave the listener unable to hear high and low inflections at all - one has to translate what she is saying! She is the worst. She hurts my ears!
(Then come the terrible Steve Inskeep and the insufferable Ira Glass… they are both really nasty and surly men, too, if you listen carefully you wil notice.)
I have been trying to decide if her name was Joann Soburner or Jo Ansoburner. It’s a relief to find out it’s really Joanne Silberner.
I like Garrison. I even think he sings better now than he used to…And the whole notion of a radio variety show is valuable, I think. I also think the world would be a less-pleasant place without The Writer’s Almanac. If your local NPR station doesn’t carry it at a time you can listen, you can have it delivered to your e-mail box and then you can either listen to Garrison read it (I like his voice) or read it to yourself. Nice way to start the day, with a poem.
And, thank heaven for NPR; without it and Vin Scully I could sell my radio.
I will listen to any voice on NPR, including the Car Talk guys…anyone, anytime. (hi Karl!) If you promise me I never have to be trapped in a car for 45 min every weekday listening to MJ. I can only guess that the folks bitching about Ms. Lyden or Ms. Roehm have never jumped in their car, verified the sound was off in the faint, faint hope that they could start the day without hearing the most annoying man on radio.
One afternoon I was flipping stations, thinking I was safe, but NO, they gave him an afternoon show, called the Schnitt Show, I didn’t recognize the name, but the fiber of my being recognized the voice.
What’s the lady with the hyphenated name? It always cracks me up. I keep hoping we are past that. I just have visions of her burning her bra every time she says her name.
Ha! I still haven’t figured out if it’s Mark O’Warman or Marco Warman. And the host of the former News and Notes? Not a clue how she spells her name.
So… is there no hate for Tom Ashbrook? Drives me nuts the way he bumbles through his interviews.
Count me as another one who loves Lynne Rossetto Kasper. I don’t even really get into cooking shows, but her voice just melts me. Oh god, when she gushes about some little place in Tuscany with the divine dish they serve there… Yeah, and I wait with breathless anticipation every Thanksgiving for Turkey Confidential. Lynn, save me! What can I do with five cans of cranberries, some stale bread, and a pear? I’m sure it will be lovely!
Couldn’t understand why so many were rushing to Jacki Lyden’s defense. Her voice is insufferable. In fact, while we’re on the subject, here’s my list of NPR voices I can’t stand:
1.) Jacki Lyden
2.) Scott Simon
3.) Joanne Silberner
4.) Neda Ulaby
5.) Ann Taylor
6.) Mandalit Del Barco
Lest I be thought of as a total curmudgeon, here are some of my favorite on-air voices:
1.) Terry Gross
2.) Wade Goodwyn
3.) Jamie Tarabay
4.) Nina Totenberg
5.) Daniel Schorr (yep!)
Ha! I can’t believe you wrote this post. Were you reading my mind? I’m sorry I didn’t find this sooner-- I’d have bought you a beer. I also felt the same sentiment about our equally nauseating, Deborah Wortheimer, remember her? I’m certain Jackie stole the affect from old Deborah,–having stepped so perfectly in her shoes to ensure my on-going nausea. And just when I was ready to sing, “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead”, enter Jackie. Every time I hear her, I instantly lose the story to an alternative, internal bash fest, fuming over her affect, wondering why more of us haven’t spoken up sooner. Wonder who coached her anyway? Thanks for reading my mind.
I’d be careful about that idea. Many accent free commentators are native speakers and pronounce their mother tongue accurately. Maybe a little jealous?
The one who annoys me is the guy on the weekend who laughs way too much at things that aren’t all that funny–especially when they’re his own jokes.
This.
Or worse, Peter Overby. I swear to God, both Rehm (who sadly enough has some sort of throat condition) and Overby have voices for silent pictures. You know, like some people have a “face for radio”? They have voices for silent movies.
Overby sounds like he’s chewing a goddamn sock whenever he speaks. It’s literally undescribable. That’s as close as I can come to describing it. How he got into radio, I will NEVER know.
I’m kinda embarrassed to admit this, but I LOVE Joann Silberner’s voice. It doesn’t strike me as congested, but I’ll admit it definitely does have a sort of nasally “thick” quality to it.
To me it’s mellifluous. Downright sexy even. Just kinda husky and throaty, with a bit of a nasal overtone.
I can’t explain it. I can’t justify it. I can’t argue that it’s objectively audibly pleasant.
But I swear, Silberner could read the phone book to me, and I’d melt. I have no idea what she looks like–and don’t really wanna know–'cause that’d likely ruin the effect, but I love that voice.
I don’t quite remember who Peter Overby is (is he the one who sounds to me a bit like Mo Rocca?) but I would have used the phrase “chewing a goddamn sock” to describe the voice of Daniel Schorr.
I mean, okay, the guy’s really old and also he’s apparently a real luminary in the news biz. But I nearly switch the radio off whenever I hear him start to speak.
Yep. I turn off the radio when I hear him, too. Schorr and Rehm should, despite what some bleeding-hearts on this board maintain, have been dismissed from their posts years ago. Or maybe they could have competent voice-over artists read their reports and commentaries for them, or something.
But their voices are totally, TOTALLY unacceptable for radio. Rehm has a degenerative voice condition, for Chrissake, and Schorr can’t get through a sentence without his dentures clearly coming loose and his shooting flecks of spittle all over the microphone.
Rehm, Schorr: Time to retire.
I find probably half of all the voices on NPR to be annoying in one way or another, but Schorr isn’t one. So he’s old–he’s usually got something worth saying.
Oh, and I really like Andrei Codrescu.
I don’t understand it. Ms. Rehm just sounds like an old woman. She otherwise sounds fine. Ms. Lyden is more annoying with her idiosyncrasies, but she still a lot better than many people I know in real life. Heck, some of you back in the accent threads had worse voices.
I am convinced that Ira Glass’s real name is Ira Lass, but because he gurgles his L’s in the black of his throat, it comes out GLGLass. Of This American Glife.
Reminder:
The following expressions should not be directed toward Jacki Lyden:
fuck you and variants, e.g., go fuck yourself, fuck-you money, I wouldn’t fuck her with Cokie Roberts’ dick
Yeah, I don’t get the problem people have w/ Schorr. I always think of him as having the near-perfect voice for radio. Teri Gross, OTOH…
What makes for a good radio voice?
Also, one might distinguish between voice and manner of enunciation. Under that distinction, I’d say what makes him unpleasant to listen to is his manner of enunciation. But that doesn’t bother you–or even strike you as particularly less than ideal–either?
I guess I was referring to both of those things. His voice is very clear, and he speaks in what seem to be fully developed paragraphs, carefully enunciating each word. There’s not a whole lot of emotion, but he isn’t dead flat, either.
I agree about Joanne Silberner; her voice bothers me to the extent that I’m distracted by the story. Maria Hinojosa is fabulous.
No one has mentioned Eleanor Beardsley, the French correspondant. Her voice is just ok, but her accent intrigues me. There are hints of magnolia in it, which makes me think she’s from the south, and her French has a bit of that drawl.
The combination makes it sound like she might have done a keg-stand in a French bar the night before.
I would look her up and find out if my speculation is correct, but I admit that I kind of have a girl-crush on her, and I’d be devastated if she was my mom’s age or had a big hairy mole on her nose. 