Amateurnunciation

I usually have my car radio tuned to the local affiliate of National Public Radio. On the way to and from work, I get a few minutes of their news programs (although, if I'm lucky enough to leave work on time, I enjoy some of the classical music they have on during the day). The local station breaks in to the national feed periodically to add weather, local or state news of interest, etc.

Yesterday morning, a local reporter (probably a journalism major at NMSU) told me about the men's basketball team's journey to the first round of the western conference NCAA playoffs in Spokane, Washington (5:35 p.m. MDT today, if it happens to be on in your area). Unfortunately for both him and you, the written word doesn't always look like the spoken word sounds. You can't hear from my typing that he pronounced the city's name as it is spelled phonetically; he rhymed it with candy cane.

Then, in the afternoon, a different announcer (also a student) read a promo for an upcoming PBS program about Joan of Arc (Jean D'Arc, for those of you even more persnickety than I) and her trial on the charge of hearsay. "Wait a minute," I thought, "You can't be charged with.... Oh, ‘heresy'!"

And these announcements are made by an affiliate of a network that is supposed to be a cultural, scientific, political, humanistic, and everything else -al or -ic paragon? I hope the general manager wasn't listening at those times. Actually, I hope he was, so he can tell his staff to proofread (or whatever you do with audio) before airing the segments.