I like Randy Michaels.
According to Robert Feder, Randy recently issued a memo to WGN Radio staffers. The goal: to stamp out “newspeak” on that News/Talk station.
Feder’s publishing of the memo wasn’t meant as a compliment, and I can’t say I agree with every piece of it. But since when do I insist upon agreeing with everything someone says? I do agree with with the substance.
If it’s true that Randy wants people to inform on their co-workers for committing linguistic infractions — Well, that’s difficult for me to defend.
The obvious reason is it can’t help but create a culture of suspicion and resentment.
(Unless Randy secretly expects staff members to be so outraged that it actually encourages a greater sense of being a team, as everyone bands together against Big Management. Randy’s smart enough to do that, too. But I kinda doubt that’s the case here.)
An equally important reason is that the task of enforcing station guidelines should be that of the Program Director or News Director.
And as I further explore this, a suspicion dawns that the “bingo cards” are a dramatic, playful way of making his point…But that they won’t actually be used to punish infractors.
Here’s the list of words and phrases that reportedly have been banned from the WGN airwaves.
• “Flee” meaning “run away”
• “Good” or “bad” news
• “Laud” meaning “praise”
• “Seek” meaning “look for”
• “Some” meaning “about”
• “Two to one margin” . . . “Two to one” is a ratio, not a margin. A margin is measured in points. It’s not a ratio.
• “Yesterday” in a lead sentence
• “Youth” meaning “child”
• 5 a.m. in the morning
• After the break
• After these commercial messages
• Aftermath
• All of you
• Allegations
• Alleged
• Area residents
• As expected
• At risk
• At this point in time
• Authorities
• Auto accident
• Bare naked
• Behind bars
• Behind closed doors
• Behind the podium (you mean lecturn) [sic]
• Best kept secret
• Campaign trail
• Clash with police
• Close proximity
• Complete surprise
• Completely destroyed, completely abolished, completely finished or any other completely redundant use
• Death toll
• Definitely possible
• Diva
• Down in (location)
• Down there
• Dubbaya when you mean double you
• Everybody (when referring to the audience)
• Eye Rack or Eye Ran
• False pretenses
• Famed
• Fatal death
• Fled on foot
• Folks
• Giving 110%
• Going forward
• Gunman, especially lone gunman
• Guys
• Hunnert when you mean hundred
• Icon
• In a surprise move
• In harm’s way
• In other news
• In the wake of (unless it’s a boating story)
• Incarcerated
• Informed sources say . . .
• Killing spree
• Legendary
• Lend a helping hand
• Literally
• Lucky to be alive
• Manhunt
• Marred
• Medical hospital
• Mother of all (anything)
• Motorist
• Mute point. (It’s moot point, but don’t say that either)
• Near miss
• No brainer
• Officials
• Our top story tonight
• Out in (location)
• Out there
• Over in
• Pedestrian
• Perfect storm
• Perished
• Perpetrator
• Plagued
• Really
• Reeling
• Reportedly
• Seek
• Senseless murder
• Shots rang out
• Shower activity
• Sketchy details
• Some (meaning about)
• Some of you
• Sources say . . .
• Speaking out
• Stay tuned
• The fact of the matter
• Those of you
• Thus
• Time for a break
• To be fair
• Torrential rain
• Touch base
• Under fire
• Under siege
• Underwent surgery
• Undisclosed
• Undocumented alien
• Unrest
• Untimely death
• Up in (location)
• Up there
• Utilize (you mean use)
• Vehicle
• We’ll be right back
• Welcome back
• Welcome back everybody
• We’ll be back
• Went terribly wrong
• We’re back
• White stuff
• World class
• You folks
Observation
Many of the angry reactions to that list amount to, “Why doesn’t the CEO of the company have anything better/bigger to concern himself with?”
Personally, I find it refreshing that a CEO actually cares and knows about his company’s product.
More Observations
Although I expect most readers to be outraged by that list, I agree with many of those examples of “newspeak.”
Why say “flee” when listeners would say “run away”?
“Laud” may be good in print, but it’s wrong for radio…because real people never speak that word (except when playing word games).
Anyone who says “5 a.m. in the morning” should be banned from broadcasting. Or from speaking anywhere, publicly or privately.
“After the break” — We call it a “break.” Listeners don’t. Speaking a language other than the one your listeners use is…well, dumb.
“At this point in time” — Uh, y’mean “now”?
“Behind the podium” — A podium is something you stand on. A lectern is something you might stand behind. Unfortunately, so many people have misused “podium” that a secondary definition has begun to creep into newer dictionaries, imbuing the erroneous usage with a degree of legitimacy.
“Down in (location)” — Common as that is, it’s really stupid…especially when applied to southern portions of your listening area. If a Los Angeles radio announce refers to listeners “down in Long Beach,” to those listeners they’re not “down in” Long Beach. They’re in Long Beach. It only accentuates the geographic and psychological distance between the announcers and the listeners.
“Fatal death” — Someone has said that on WGN? More than once? What authority figure gave that person the opportunity to say it twice?
“Fled on foot” — Y’mean, “ran away”?
“In other news” — It’s a newscast. Of course the next story will be about “news.” It’s the News equivalent of the classical music announcer who says, “Coming up, music from Beethoven.”
“Literally” — Nothing wrong with using that word, unless you’re using it improperly. For decades the L.A. Times employed a music critic whose lack of writing skills matched his lack of musical knowledge. He’d write about how a record “literally sizzles on the turnable” and how a musical act “literally stole the show.”
“Senseless murder” — versus all those logical murders.
“Shower activity” — Let me guess: You mean rain?
“Untimely death” — One of my pet peeves, most often encountered when I accidentally walk past a television broadcasting a newscast. What are “timely” deaths? (“And in other news, Big Celebrity died at just the right time today…”)
“Up in (location)” — See “Down in (location).”
“Utilize” — Okay, you think I’m being picky. But how often do you hear this in Real Life:
“I can’t get this damn thing open.”
“Why don’t you utilize the monkey wrench?”
Another Observation
There are times when you must say “alleged.” Randy’s gotta know that.
Comments on this entry are closed.
That’s a great read. But I have to wonder why “Parent’s worst nightmare” was omitted?
I thought I was back in a weekly air check session. These seem like they are common mistakes that younger broadcasters make mainly because they haven’t been brought to the attention of the jock or in this case the newscaster. My favorite program director didn’t dictate what I said, but he was maticulus about the way I said it! It was imperative that the listener did not have to wonder about what I said. Also, unless you are doing a show that covers AT LEAST two time zones do not use the words “after the hour” when doing a time check, and never, never, never start a sentance with the word “AND.” Although these mistakes seem to be made by rookies for the most part, even us radio vets need an occasional refresher course. Also anyone who gripes anbout a CEO not having anything better to do than write such a memo, is obviously disconnected from reality. It is your job to do the air work, and it is the CEO’s job to make sure your air work is as good as it can be so that you produce a “sellable product.” Ad sales = station revenue = paychecks for staff!
To quote Forrest Gump…”That’s all I have to say about that.”
“Alleged”(ly) is a legal term that we as broadcasters have been told to use under threat of dismemberment by various bosses.
But lets not forget “at the end of the day”.
And my favorite from my New York radio days: “misplaced tractor trailer”. Sounds like it’s lost, right? This usually meant that trucker decided it was a good idea to drive on a “cars only” parkway and got jammed under a bridge.
And the WORST PHRASE EVER: “found missing”! Was he found or missing? One can’t be found missing! How about “reported missing” instead?
while I tend to agree with a majority of this list, other items seem to be on it in order to bolster the dumbing down of the language. Proper use of a large vocabulary does not speak down to the listener (as I have been told in the past) but in fact, assumes that the audience is not full of monosyllabic neanderthals without the ability to ascertain proper meaning of a sentence.
i think it’s great WGN is pushing people to think of new ways of writing and speaking. broadcasters have so many bad habits…
Somewhere Ted Baxter and Les Nessman are spinning in their graves…after their untimely deaths of course.
“Found missing”! Which is it? Found or missing?
that list is crazy…..although there is a lot of it I agree with (the 8 a.m. in the morning part specifically)
A station where I worked banned the word “resident,” replacing it with “neighbor.” Which led to some stories about the Israseli/Palestinian conflict referring to “neighbors in the West Bank.”
Ahhh a CEO who actually listens to the station and has actual constructive input – I salute Randy Michaels. Though his staff may have some issues with the list and it’s “dob in a fellow collegue” attitude – I think it is quite constructive. Making you think before you open your mouth – especially in Radio is a good thing. Too often I hear inncorrect grammar in news reports on TV – radio has a better record – and, as with everything – can be improved upon.
Now if only there were similar stations who took to task the ad speak used in commercials and banned cliche’s and phrases of the same ilk. (whoops did I just say ilk?)
I’d love to see a similar list appear with “commercial/promo” speak so we can stamp that out too.
I want to call the station owner every time I hear an announcer or news person ending a sentence with the word “at.” Didn’t they complete third grade? That should be an automatic termination from the station, where they’re at.
I think both the list and the unwritten encouragement to think before you speak (and to be intentional in your word choice) are a no brainer. They’ll encourage the news team to give 110% going forward. In all seriousness, every station should send this memo to its employees.
I do agree with Scott Bradley Hancock, though, on the point that we don’t need to reduce our vocabularies to match those of the least educated listeners in our audiences. A broad vocabulary can make the telling of the story that much more interesting, as long as we don’t use so many “big” words that we totally exclude our audience from being able to understand what we’re saying.
Keep in mind these are phrases banned from a news station. Ours is a music station and I encourage our on air people to use a few “lazy” or slang phrases like dubbya instead of double-you on occasion just to sound real.
Back in the 90’s when I was the Tech editor of a well-known broadcast trade paper, we regularly excised the phrases, “The Swiss Army Knife of xxx”, and “The best thing since xxx”, in equipment reviews. These reviews were primarily submitted by new and emerging writers.
Many things have come along over the years that are better than sliced bread, and the iPhone is infinitely more versatile than a Swiss Army Knife, yet the cliches roll on.
This is also no different than in academia: if an art instructor assigns a class to create a painting without using any yellow, then that’s what gets handed in.
IMO, the list is fair. I would not make someone’s job dependent on following the list to the letter, but repeat offenders might deserve at least a Hairy Eyeball in the hallways.
Alan Peterson, Radio America Network
Washington DC
Sportscasters are notorious for saying “hello everybody” when in fact, “everybody” isn’t listening or watching. Their viewers/listeners aren’t sitting in some giant room!
Another phrase that’s missing from the list is “fatally wounded” or “fatally injured”. Cops say that all the time , and rookie reporters have picked up the bad habit of repeating it. And one more: “At this point in time” instead of just saying “now”.
Disc jockeys have been norotious for saying “its currently 75 degrees outside right now”. Really? I thought they were giving the temperatire from three days ago!
Sadly, broadcasters have picked up these bad habits, and nobody has ever bothered to correct them. dl
I agree with Dan’s observation. I don’t think the writer intended for every phrase to be omitted. It was designed to force the news people out of their element. This goes right along with the spoken work in advertising. We have to stop being “announcers”! Spots have to sound less like spots. A grocery mom doesn’t car if a mini-van has a V-6 or a V-8. The most technical thing she cares about is; does it have a DVD babysitter? How does buying that van impact her life? Is she going to be able to go picknicking, get the car pool, take the kids to the mall, ect. And for god-sakes quit using announcers that scream at the listener!