The radio is great, informative, and fun. It is not as dangerous as TV. It gives accurate current information, as well as very inaccurate weather information for your enjoyment\frustration. (Recently, camp was going to our grand trip, but being geniuses, we checked the weather for the next day. There were supposed to be severe thunderstorms on the morrow, so we postponed the trip. The next day, there was a torrential drizzle lasting 6 minutes that didn’t even leave puddles big enough to step in and make a splash. But I am heading away from my topic, so I digress.)
You will usually hear the traffic reporter saying something like this:
The traffic on the eastbound highway is backed up due to a rollover in the left lane.
However, you will usually hear the ending of his report like this:
I’m traffic manager Robert Crew on NPR newshave you ever wanted a car with cushiony seats?
Notice how much time elapses between each word and how the ending of our pal Robert Crew’s report mysteriously ends with no spaces and a car commercial comes on. To the regular listener, it’s business as usual. For the rare listener, it sounds strange, to say the least.
I asked around about the nospaceinbetweendifferentshows thing, and I found out that they do it so stupid people won’t get freaked out that their radio isn’t working. I mean, if there are 2 seconds of blank space, it must mean that the radio is broken.
The obvious problem: If this is true, than why do the talkers actually pause for, like, 1.5 seconds between words? I really don’t get it.
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i read your cute post!
ReplyDeleteProbably the fact that you live in an area with very little traffic, accounts for the fact that your traffic reporters need to stretch out their report! In the NY metro area there port is given at a fairly fast pace, because there's so much to talk about.
ReplyDeleteGet out of the sticks, and people will talk faster!