I'm sure everyone's read my big complaint about KROI News92 from a few weeks back. That was just the beginning of some of the problems I see with the quality of newsreaders and reporters at the three stations that produce news.
This rant is aimed solely the other two stations that produce news: KUHF and KTRH.
KUHF: As much as I love this station and the quality of news they produce on a daily basis, two of their reporters make it very hard to listen at times -- Laura Isensee and Gail Delaughter.
I really liked Gail Delaughter back when she was on the court beat at KTRH back in the day. Can barely stand listening to her now. She and Ms. Isensee have the same problem -- they have mistaken speaking sloooowly for "conversational" news reporting. It's to the point, where at times their reporting seems to speak "down" at the listener instead of speaking "to" the listener.
I don't notice this particular trait among the other reporters at the station.
The other complaint I have is with the overnight news anchors at KTRH (which, truth be told, are the only anchors I hear on my way into work late at night).
Both of them, Eric Sharpe and Shelley Fox, are just bad.
Does Eric Sharpe even bother use scripts when he's reading his newscasts at the top and bottom of the hour? I have never heard so many flubs, stumbles, umms and ahhs in a 3-minutes newscast than what comes out of his mouth. In the several months I've been listening, I don't think I've ever heard him successfully get through an entire newscast without a stumbling over a story.
Shelley Fox (weekend overnights) is somewhat better, but still stumbles and bumbles her way through the news. What really turned me off was a couple weeks ago when she mispronounced the name of a certain National Park in California threatened by wildfire. During both hits (at 11pm and 11:30pm) she pronounced it "YOH-sem-ITE" park instead of "YOH-sem-uh-TEE." Really? Yosemite has been around for what, about 100 years, and you don't know how to pronounce it? And you're working professionally in the media. Really?
Surely I can't be the only one that notices this and feels that way.
This rant is aimed solely the other two stations that produce news: KUHF and KTRH.
KUHF: As much as I love this station and the quality of news they produce on a daily basis, two of their reporters make it very hard to listen at times -- Laura Isensee and Gail Delaughter.
I really liked Gail Delaughter back when she was on the court beat at KTRH back in the day. Can barely stand listening to her now. She and Ms. Isensee have the same problem -- they have mistaken speaking sloooowly for "conversational" news reporting. It's to the point, where at times their reporting seems to speak "down" at the listener instead of speaking "to" the listener.
I don't notice this particular trait among the other reporters at the station.
The other complaint I have is with the overnight news anchors at KTRH (which, truth be told, are the only anchors I hear on my way into work late at night).
Both of them, Eric Sharpe and Shelley Fox, are just bad.
Does Eric Sharpe even bother use scripts when he's reading his newscasts at the top and bottom of the hour? I have never heard so many flubs, stumbles, umms and ahhs in a 3-minutes newscast than what comes out of his mouth. In the several months I've been listening, I don't think I've ever heard him successfully get through an entire newscast without a stumbling over a story.
Shelley Fox (weekend overnights) is somewhat better, but still stumbles and bumbles her way through the news. What really turned me off was a couple weeks ago when she mispronounced the name of a certain National Park in California threatened by wildfire. During both hits (at 11pm and 11:30pm) she pronounced it "YOH-sem-ITE" park instead of "YOH-sem-uh-TEE." Really? Yosemite has been around for what, about 100 years, and you don't know how to pronounce it? And you're working professionally in the media. Really?
Surely I can't be the only one that notices this and feels that way.
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