ANNOUNCERS' VOICES

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 44, 10 May 1935, Page 5

ANNOUNCERS' VOICES

GREAT deal: has ‘been said and written lately about the voices of the announcers at the New Zealand national. stations, the argument being crowned last week by a Christchurch correspondent who suggested that "there are quite a number of Oxford and. _Cambridge men out here who are doing very little good for themselves yet who have just those qualities of speech which are so desirable in an announcer." While there are one or two junior announcers in the New Zealand. service whose voices will never be ideal for broadcasting, we consider, at the same time, that the senior announcers at the YA stations have voices that are both cultured and pleasant. The person whose duty it is to make announcements over the air is entrusted with a considerable responsibility. There is a minority of listeners who would have our announcers adopting the free-and-easy and often facetious manner of speech of some American and Australian announcers; there are others who would like to gee the adoption of the rod-of-iron speech of some of the more pedantic of the British announcers. The New Zealand men pursue a happy middle :path-and please hundreds of thousands of listeners by so doing. Some of the junior announcers may benefit from a little criticism-but hands off the senior men!