This is from a large Los Angeles radio station, owned by a very large radio group.
Is it just me, or….?
That was logged both as an “information” break and as a paid radio advertisement.
Would you say listeners received any value from the “information”?
Did the advertiser receive any value?
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a) Everyone’s too busy texting to be listening or caring
b) The most memorable part of this is the commercial
c) In a Zen way, she sounds like she’s one with the traffic
When Don Imus first went on the air at WNBC, he would read the traffic info without having any idea what or where these roads and landmarks were, making all kinds of mistakes. I worked for the NYC Traffic Dept. at the time so it was real obvious, but clearly it did not ruin his ultimate career path.
Another point that no one’s ever written up to my knowledge is that a traffic report for a city you’re not familiar with is completely incomprehensible under the best of circumstances. Inevitable but amusing.
Sounds like she had too much 7-11 coffee. If that’s what the spot was for. Between the speed and the monotone, I couldn’t tell.
I had to listen to it twice to find out what happened on the 405, by far a waste of the “sponsors” value-added spot revenue. Best traffic reports in the country?,, WBBM Chicago.. they make it a point to be clear concise and they leave the advertisers out of the report, everything is either inbound (am) or outbound(pm) and makes it very easy to dodge the delays.. that being said, when is there ever NOT a traffic problem in LA?
@Pete Ferrand: I live in the market and I couldn’t comprehend it.
When I did recognize freeway locations, usually it was after she’d made her incomprehensible comment about them, which is more basic than Radio 101.
@Scott Larson: Too bad in-car listeners don’t have the luxury of a replay button so they can listen repeatedly to the traffic report.
Pathetic. But I bet she has a very pretty picture on their website.
I don’t pay attention until I hear MY ROUTE mentioned.
Unfortunately every radio traffic report says [problem] THEN [route].
By the time I realize they mentioned my route, the problem is long gone.
One would think the answer should be a resounding NO but have we taken an honest look at who is staffing some ‘major market radio stations’ these days? The industry has undervalued talent and experience (to say nothing o lackluster training) for 15 plus years now in the interest of bottom line save a buck thinking- so why are we, collectively, surprised when the end product sounds like this?
Mike Casey nailed it.
Sounds like they pulled somebody out of “traffic” to do the traffic.
Commercial stations have gone the route that Mike Casey described, and I for one am elated! Increasingly, if you want to hear quality in both content and production, the answer is often Community stations.
When they hired the girl from McDonalds drive through, she must have brought her microphone with her.
Wow that’s terrible.
Did she deliberately speak so that we can’t understand the actual traffic report, but we can make out every word of the sponsorship?
But sales got the dollars and THAT is all that counts to most of them these days I think.
at least she got the sponsor in…whew!…
Steal this idea:
Use your liner guy or another voice (of a different sex of the traffic announcer?) to say the route names.
Voice Of God: “105”
Whiney Traffic Lady: “an overturned truck near exit 102”
VOG: “710”
WTL: “50,000 pounds of bananas on the road near Alice’s restaurant…”
Of course, if the VOG is pre-recorded, you might need an unmanageable number of route names. But if you have an extra member on the team who could just say them….
Hmmm… I’m going back to my morning coffee.
@DJJackD: That’s a very good idea.
7-eleven would’ve gotten much more value out of that mention with a different voice at the end, cleverly tied into the quality of her traffic report: “That total MESS brought to you by your spotless CLEAN 7-eleven!” Or, “That completely UN-helpful report brought to you by the VERY helpful people at 7-eleven!” As it was, they should demand a make-good…with the emphasis on GOOD.
The answer to both your questions is NO! And it becomes much sadder when you consider the source and what was certainly paid out for this “spot”.
What we have here, folks is a good old fashioned train wreck. Everything which can go bad in a traffic report/commercial went bad. The audio is atrociously bad, our announcer mumbles badly, and sounds like she’s drank 25 gallons of 7-11 coffee. To get to essentials. Epic Fail!