Opinions on WAMU reporters?

[Anonymous]

An intervention!!!!

L O V E I T


Yes, all the way. I'm on board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think pubic radio reporters and announcers, in general, sound snooty and that turns me off. A la "Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?"

That's funny, because I think the pseudo-folksy tone the national NPR hosts have adopted, especially on Morning Edition and especially the male hosts, is incredibly annoying.

Their reporters are great, though, aside from the occasional twenty-five-year-old with a bad case of vocal fry (http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/employers-look-down-on-women-with-vocal-fry/371811/). I love their science reporting (although it, too, suffers from an increasingly patronizing tone) and their international reporting rivals the NY Times.

I think the local WAMU reporters and hosts are generally excellent (love Kojo in particular) and I like that their tone and accents vary. There are only a few whose vocal mannerisms gall me: Memmo Lyons--probably spelled wrong--who reports on things "starting at 4," with a creepy downtone on the end, and the woman who does Metro Connection, the WAMU news magazine, who sounds like she's explaining worksheets to 5-year-olds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So many of the WAMU 88.5 reporters (the local ones, not the NPR ones) have what I consider to be very annoying quirks.

Both Matt McCleskey, the main morning anchor, and Elliott Francis, who sometimes subs for him, have trouble reading their scripts, like they're fed on a prompter but the lines aren't coming through fast enough.

Meymo Lyons sounds like she's drinking whiskey and smoking cigars.

Michael Pope ends every segment with "I'M Michael Pope." I always picture him popping a blood vessel in his eye when he says it.

Martin Di Caro has a very soap-opera-esque quality and over-enunciates his tag line: "I'm Mar-Tin Di-Car-O."

Markette Smith over-enunciates to a tortuous degree. She also sounds spitty.

And Armando Trull sounds like he's doing his best impression of a reporter.

I do like Kavitha Cardoza though! Her voice is very soothing and lyrical.

I would think in a metro area this large, they'd be able to find reporters with fewer distracting tics.

Michael Pope think's he's Walter Cronkite, but it comes out like a shitty impersonation of William Shatner. I punch my radio everytime I hear him.

[Anonymous]

Elliott Francis needs to stop speaking through his nose.

[Anonymous]

Michel martin's show was so dull.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Elliott Francis needs to stop speaking through his nose.

I HATE the way he reads his script, like he's being fed one word at a time and has no idea where to put the inflection and emphasis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Michael Pope ends every segment with "I'M Michael Pope." I always picture him popping a blood vessel in his eye when he says it.

Oh my goodness, yes! I thought I was the only one who noticed this.

Yes, please make him stop doing this. He sounds so immature. I don't know why his boss hasn't told him to cut it out.

I dislike Kavitha Cardoza the most. Her love if her own voice and over pronunciation make me run to shut the radio off every time. I don't even care if I stay ignorant about local education. I just don't want to hear that prissy little shit in the morning. (Although she is probably a very nice person IRL).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I LOVE Ofeibia Quist-Arcton!!! (Had to look up that spelling.) She speaks with such drama and excitement. I find her voice completely compelling. Especially how she says "Dakar!"

Omg, me too, exactly, down to "DAKARRRR."

Yep! Love her too! I want "DAKARrrr" to be my ringtone or email alert just so I can hear it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know it's not PC to mention it, but I can not listen to Diane Rehm. Mostly because of her voice but also because of her old lady questions and opinions. She ain't what she used to be.

I like Diane Rehm for the very reasons you dislike her. I love that a person with a speaking disability is on the radio! Yea! And I love her quaintness. I feel transported to a different era when listening to her. It's a break from dismal reality.

I love Diane Rhem and I think it is a shame ladies like her are a dying breed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:(Sorry, Cardoza.)

Lolol.

[Anonymous]

I'm a big NPR and WAMU fan. Sure, some of the reporters have weird vocal tics, but, I just find them amusing. And, yeah, some of the programming is on the dull side (I'm talking to you, Metro Connection producers), but, you know, that's why God made XM (loove Outlaw Country and the 40s station).

What's interesting to me is that this thread has generated so many strong responses. Wade Goodwyn fans of the world, unite! He is the iconic NRP reporter -- great stories and a great voice. Wade, take me to the Hill Country with you, please!

Eleanor Beardsley fascinates me -- I picture her growing up in Birmingham -- her dad was a doctor and they lived in a split-level. In the summers, her mom drove Eleanor and her sister to the club every morning at 9 and picked her up at 4. Eleanor was supposed to play tnnis and go to swim team, but, instead she spent the day sitting under a magnolia tree, reading. Much to her parents' dismay, she turned down Duke and Vanderbilt in favor of Barnard because she wanted to live in NYC. Of course her parents were right, she hated Barnard, and was repulsed by Columbia men. She escaped to the Sorbonne for junior year abroad, and, in Paris she felt completely at home for the first time in her life. Her parents had to send her older sister over to bring her home 2 weeks before the start of senior year.

After college, she spent a year slaving away at Vogue (she didn't make the cut for the Bloomingdale's buyer training program because she never did get the hang of percents and decimals). She quit to nanny in Paris for a Times reporter and his family, and they introduced her to Alice Furlaud, NPR's Paris correspondent. Alice hired her as a stringer and equipment-schlepper, and under Alice's tutelage, Eleanor started reporting stories on her own. When Alice retired to Cape Cod, she fought hard for Eleanor to get a chance as correspondent (despite the fact that she found Eleanor's French accent just a touch too self-consciously nasal). The rest is history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a big NPR and WAMU fan. Sure, some of the reporters have weird vocal tics, but, I just find them amusing. And, yeah, some of the programming is on the dull side (I'm talking to you, Metro Connection producers), but, you know, that's why God made XM (loove Outlaw Country and the 40s station).

What's interesting to me is that this thread has generated so many strong responses. Wade Goodwyn fans of the world, unite! He is the iconic NRP reporter -- great stories and a great voice. Wade, take me to the Hill Country with you, please!

Eleanor Beardsley fascinates me -- I picture her growing up in Birmingham -- her dad was a doctor and they lived in a split-level. In the summers, her mom drove Eleanor and her sister to the club every morning at 9 and picked her up at 4. Eleanor was supposed to play tnnis and go to swim team, but, instead she spent the day sitting under a magnolia tree, reading. Much to her parents' dismay, she turned down Duke and Vanderbilt in favor of Barnard because she wanted to live in NYC. Of course her parents were right, she hated Barnard, and was repulsed by Columbia men. She escaped to the Sorbonne for junior year abroad, and, in Paris she felt completely at home for the first time in her life. Her parents had to send her older sister over to bring her home 2 weeks before the start of senior year.

After college, she spent a year slaving away at Vogue (she didn't make the cut for the Bloomingdale's buyer training program because she never did get the hang of percents and decimals). She quit to nanny in Paris for a Times reporter and his family, and they introduced her to Alice Furlaud, NPR's Paris correspondent. Alice hired her as a stringer and equipment-schlepper, and under Alice's tutelage, Eleanor started reporting stories on her own. When Alice retired to Cape Cod, she fought hard for Eleanor to get a chance as correspondent (despite the fact that she found Eleanor's French accent just a touch too self-consciously nasal). The rest is history.

Your insightful, humorous, witty life stories are one of my favorite things about dcum.

[Anonymous]

What about Michele Block and/or Scott Simon?

[Anonymous]

What is it with Memmo Lyons???? If she is so experienced, where does the overblown, hysterical and over -inflected (in the wrongs places, mind you) come from? Surely this awful dramatic delivery style must have been addressed somewhere in her past? Now that she's in charge, we have been hearing more and sadly more of her terrible delivery. Some people should work behind the scenes and stay off the air before they drive the audience away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is it with Memmo Lyons???? If she is so experienced, where does the overblown, hysterical and over -inflected (in the wrongs places, mind you) come from? Surely this awful dramatic delivery style must have been addressed somewhere in her past? Now that she's in charge, we have been hearing more and sadly more of her terrible delivery. Some people should work behind the scenes and stay off the air before they drive the audience away.

I heard her earlier today and wrote down her name so I could fid this thread to see if anyone else had commented on her delivery. She reminds me of Armando Trull, in that they both sound as tough they are speaking to very young children. I have to say, Armando Trull has grown on me though, especially his recent reporting about undocumented children.