RADIO ANNOUNCING

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21414, 5 March 1935, Page 8

RADIO ANNOUNCING

in tub r.niTOK or tub I'nr.ss. Sir,—Are Christchurch people doomed for I lie term of their natural lives to listen lo radio announcers of dull mediocrity? Not one dT them has a voice ol pure, unaffected English quality, f should imagine them to be half-educated, self-taught people. They might, no doubt, be a success in many walks of life; but as exponents of good English or pleasing speech they are at best C 3. One of them has a pedantic knowledge of Maori, which leads him into conflict with custom, but of French pronunciation none of them has a glimmering. A simple word like "fracas" is a hopeless hurdle Surely this is a matter in which it is the duty of those in authority to aim high? The vory best cannot be too good. The sole qualification for the post of announcer is the gift of a pleasing, cultured voice. It is the unmistakable sign of a well-bred, welleducated man. I am sorry to say it, being a New Zealander myself, but a pure English voice is a thing seldom possessed by colonials unless they have been educated in England. Among the young nothing is more catching than modes and tones of speech, good or bad. Hence the need of care in the choice of those who speak daily to thousands.—Yours, etc., SYNTAX. March 4. 1935.