I don’t have any problems with any of the voices on NPR (well, Peter Overby does stray a little further than most from the standard golden radio voice), but since we’ve branched out to the unusual names or spellings of NPR personalities, I’ll mention my favorite:
Ofeibea Quist-Arcton. Great name, great voice, great reporter, and just looking at the picture you can well imagine she’d be an interesting person to have dinner with.
Hijack: there is an uncomfortable amount of dead space on the air when they plug the Amazon Nook…
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[goes on for a couple of years]
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E-Reader. Wouldn’t want to sully the reputation of NPR by hawking pron right?
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The Nook is, IIRC, the Barnes & Noble one. Amazon makes the Kindle.
One of my NPR peeves is the strange cadence sometimes heard among the announcers.
“This is NP [brief pause] R. National. [3/4 second pause] Public. [3/4 second pause] Radio.”
Funding is provided for some shows from the “NEEKC Foundation at a [1/2 second pause] e [1/2 second pause] c [1/2 second pause] f [1/2 second pause] dot org”. Why not put the pauses where it belongs, so it actually sounds like they’re saying “Ann E. Casey Foundation”. There’s also “Robertwood Johnson Foundation” and “Robert Woodjohnson Foundation”, never enunciated clearly as the “Robert [pause] Wood [pause] Johnson Foundation”.
So we have a new-ish NPR station that’s actually in my small Indiana town (maybe 45 minutes from Chicago). They play some Car Talk, lots of Marketplace, some Indy and local news. Great station, and so cool to have an NPR station from my town! Like Hollywood almost 
Last month, they played a promo for a new show that would be on in the mornings - I was horrified, because it sounded like they picked some old broad who had a stroke to host a show! We couldn’t run with the big boys if we’re putting up local “talent” who sounded like horrid old women with brain damage.
I just now, in this thread, learned that “Diane Rehm” was someone more than a local that they decided to put on the air.
I’m real sorry that she has some kind of horrible disease - she needs to get off the air now. To be in radio, you really only need one thing - a good-to-great distinctive voice. And while sounding like a stroke victim is distinctive, it is also horrid to hear. I’d of course talk to my Grandma on the phone if she sounded like that - Rehm just sounds like some horrid old witch.
FTR, Lyden doesn’t even ping my radar, I love me some Ira, Garrison and Sedaris. And yeah for “Sneak Paprikash”!
If that were the case, there would be no reason for you to be so excited about public radio. You would have been satisfied with commercial radio, which actually does apply the standard that “you really only need one thing - a good-to-great distinctive voice.”
I knew this would be mentioned - NPR snobbery knows no bounds. In any case, I listen to all sorts of radio, and lots of NPR.
My point was that, if someone really wanted to be on the radio, all they would need would be a good voice. They could just read the news, just like several NPR reporters, who sometimes rotate in and out of the newsreader job as they take breaks from reporting. Rehm is the opposite of what you need to be on the radio. It’s like going to see a band with instruments that have never been tuned. It’s just horrible.
And, we have a lot of good commercial radio around here - the AM dial isn’t just the last bastion of Rush and Co. Lots of good, interesting, intelligent talk and news exists as well. You’re missing out if you turn your nose so rudely at “Commercial Radio”
Back to thread - I just found the normal voices I hate - Brook Gladstone and Milos Stehlik. Ugh…
Speaking of snobbery, I’m surprised no one has mentioned Robert Siegel. He does a fine job otherwise, but his delivery seems to me to have a tinge of pretentiousness.
And for those of you who are wondering why these people are working in radio and not TV, you can see why by clicking on any of the names in NPR’s on-air-contributor list.
I clicked on 25 contributors on that page, and evey one of them was better looking than the average person. Not anchorperson-gorgeous, but certainly not face-made-for-radio quality, on the whole.
Holy shit. I’ve been listening to NPR for years, and it wasn’t until I read your post that I realized it WASN’T the “Annie E. Casey Foundation.” Seriously. My whole world has been rocked. I’m going to need to recline in my Herman Miller Aeron chair, now available in True Black. But you know, NPR doesn’t have advertising, so I feel better now.
The most annoying thing on NPR is “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” which has millions of fans (including on this board) but is utterly repellent to me. It’s a bunch of snobs tittering about how they know what’s going on in the news. Congratulations! Now please punch Mo Rocca in the face.
Have you seen any anchors lately? The network ones around here are nothing to write home about. And sadly, I can’t even point to their chops as reporters as compensation…
The person to punch is Peter Sagal, who really thinks highly of himself. He is more repellent in print, though, IMO. I love the show, but really, they could get another host.
My bad: it is the “Annie E. Casey Foundation”.
When I lived in Cleveland, on Sunday morning the local NPR station would broadcast My Word, a game show from the BBC, where the host and all participants were insufferably posh. We’re not talking mere Received Pronunciation, but accents that make the Queen sound like a North Country commoner in comparison.
Crap.
After I posted that, I took another look at the portraits. They are definitely better looking than I remember from the last time I visited the site a year or two ago.
I would apologize to the NPR staffers, but it would have scant effect in the face of all the vitriol being dumped in the rest of the thread.
So let’s continue the snarkfest, shall we.
Ah herewith the snarkfest does indeed continue.
Does anyone else think Cash Peters from Marketplace sounds a little too full of himself? They should lock him in a room with Peter Sagal until at least one of them goes mad. Or maybe they’d just feed off of each other, in which case we’d never dare let either of them out.
That’s the name I was trying to think of. Cash Peters. I just know that someday they’re going to reveal that it’s just a sequel to the The Upper Class Twit of the Year. He’s probably the great-nephew of Gervaise Brook-Hamster and is married to a very attractive magazine rack.
I happened upon this thread while looking for EXACTLY what the OP started with. Liane Hansen is gone from Weekends Sunday…and Ms. Lyden is in her place. I wrote to NPR BEGGING them to find someone else to sit in the host chair.
I’m saying, ‘ME TOO!!!’
I’ve spent some time in broadcasting..on air. I know what it takes. I know what ‘good’ is, and I sure as hell know what screeching irritation is! To top it off, Ms. Lyden has a BIG chip on her shoulder concerning the woebegone condition of women in the workforce about which I don’t want to hear her sermonizing. Besides, did Liane and Michele not get that memo? I’m not arguing the existence (or not) of the situation, but AM saying the host chair is NOT the place to orate about it.
Scrivener, I got a big kick out of your assessment. It is distressing to read that not all can understand what is so obviously, plainly, and PAINFULLY a fact.
Lyden is simply awful. Maybe she’s a great person! Don’t know…don’t care. Her voice, her attitude should be stink enough to keep her OFF the air.
Fucking zombies. Why did we decide to be google-searchable again?
raised from the dead twice but not Schorr (he was good while he lasted).
I have to say, I found Ms. Lyden’s handling of the puzzle segment yesterday just a little bit off-putting, but I put that down to me being spoiled by Lianne Hansen’s superb performances over the years. I hope that she (Jackie Lyden) settles down and matures into her new position in the years to come.
There are some grating voices on NPR, but this isn’t one of them. I’m floored that anyone would react strongly to it. She just sounds… completely normal.