Oxford Accent Unintelligible

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 37, 24 February 1939, Page 39

Oxford Accent Unintelligible

problem of organising listening centres for the isolated hill people of Eastern Kentucky, U.S.A., was attack-

ed in 1933 by the University of Kentuexy, which, with the co-operation of NBC and other educational broadcasting groups, gucceeded in placing wireless receivers in twenty-seven isolated communities. Miss Judith Waller, Educational Director of the NBC Central Division, who recently made a personal inspection of the listening centres, discovered many interesting effects which broadcasting exercise, over the people. They prefer wmphony music tc their native hill-billy swing; they unanimously follow news _bulletins; and they find an Oxford accent completely unintelligible. Each group is in the charge of a "listening director," who receives guidance as to the choice of forthcoming programme, from General Supervisor Miss -orsia Whitaker, who each year spends a week with every one of the communities. Arriving by all conceivable kinds of conveyance, the listeners come from twenty-five to thirty miles to hear programmes, and audiences number anything from 2 to 75 people.