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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:(Sorry, Cardoza.)

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.

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."

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.

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

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.

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?"