Re: [ARSCLIST] Edward R. Murrow "Hear It Now", etc.

["Steven C. Barr" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lou Judson" <inaudio@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Not sure about the speaking/reading speed, but the homogenization of 
> the American spoken language really started with the first national 
> RADIO broadcast, and affected the speech of Americans long before 
> television. As a former and now part time radio producer, I consider it 
> "TV chauvinism" to think that TV did it all. It's like saying the DVDs 
> changed the amount we go out to movies hen most of the change was in 
> the VHS era.
> 
> Just a vote for the history of reality... I was born before television, 
> and got a new perspective from my owrk with Buckminster Fuller, who was 
> born before radio... It affects what you think is natural and what is 
> new and artificial! Like youngsters who never touched analog recording 
> media, a different way of thinking.
> 
Well, the thing is...for the first couple of decades of radio, most people
listened to their local stations...and they broadcast mostly local shows
until evening "prime time" when network programming took over. As well,
radio announcers had a certain voice style that was unlikely to be copied
for everyday speech (which can be heard on recordings of things like
syndicated programming on disc). Finally, network radio wasn't aimed at
children, who were assumed to be in bed by then...it was aimed at adults,
who had for the most part formed their speech patterns.

Since most TV programming is network these days, even daytime shows...and
since networks encourage this sort of bland, no-particular-accent speech
(actually, upper midwest if anything)...and since kids spend a lot more
time in front of the family TV that kids of my generation spent next to
the family radio...this sort of vernacular/generic speech is becomning
the North American standard. I can even hear the difference comparing
the Ontario I first encountered ('73 or so) with the Ontario of today.
We still say "eh?" a lot, but I haven't heard "oot" or "aboot" in
some years!

Steven C. Barr