Holland Cooke
News/Talk consultant Holland Cooke reports:
“Heard it with my own ears, Saturday on WCBS NewsRadio880/New York…
“It was a story about Justin Bieber making amends for canceling a mall concert by recording some public service announcements.”
But not once did the story news story mention “Public Service Announcements.”
Instead, the “story copy included ‘PSA’ four times (once in the anchor lead-in copy, three times in the package).
“Note to radio news reporters: To people who don’t work in broadcasting, ‘PSA’ is a test for prostate cancer.
“Unrelated to the WCBS gaffe, but while I’m at it: To people who don’t work in broadcasting, ‘remote’ is a TV clicker.”
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i seriously doubt any of us are free of sin on that one. deadlines, editors with an agenda (been there, holland?); backs up against the wall. it all contributes to less time to proofread. how easy our lives would be if it would all fall into place lol…
(Expletive deleted). Not a Time issue. How about the use of the word ‘Promotion’ in the title of a campaign or promotion.? Only in the minds of the marketers…
A classic example of not thinking like a listener. Too many of us lose that all too important perspective.
Radio is the Easter Islands of media. The talent bar hasn’t been lowered… it’s been dropped on the floor. The few remaining talented people in the business are too busy, doing too many jobs while surrounded by minimum wage noobs. Those noobs are happy just to be in the business but have no idea what they’re doing and there’s nobody left with any time to teach them. Then again, what do you teach someone who’s “radio job” is to voice track the evening shift and gas-up the station van?
A PSA is more known then say a “streeter” or “actual” but certainly still isn’t as known to the general public as it is jargon. Every industry has it, and those in each industry too often forget to translate to the a more known term. The problem is that media is supposed to be Lowest Common Denominator friendly. Jargon doesn’t do well with that thought.
See what I mean? Don’t we know the difference and the proper usage of the words ‘then’ and ‘than’?
Unfortunately very few people actually bother to proof read copy any more. And writers are getting more illiterate every year largely due to low salaries and lack of interest from management to ensure that anything other than basic spellcheck is used. Spellcheck is nice but it doesn’t correct poor grammar. Loading the news stories with terms that are industry specific and not applicable to the general public is just laziness.
Every day we get copy that has not been proofread, is full of jargon supplied by clients, and has no relevance to listeners. We try to rewrite or revise when we have the time, but to what end? Most of the salespeople refuse to take any time at all to learn how to write better copy – they don’t even proofread for crying out loud! – and though I go to their meetings sometimes and try to help them, I only occasionally see any of them trying to improve. I suppose that one or 2 actually do care is enough to keep me from giving up entirely.
Did you really write this sh it article? How f***ing old are you dude? You and people in nursing homes would only associate ‘PSA’ with prostate cancer. Give the listeners a little credit… and please stop writing because you’ve clearly already peaked… Now it’s just embarrassing.
Maybe he’s because Dan said something about Justin Beiber.