Evening star., 1936-05-10

Particularly their linguistic lives, VIII
Twist the dial to a favortte static
at least-a smooth flowing verbal bar:
rage, ripping along with an ease that
bellies the training and rehearsals that
ere responsible for its perfection.
THE Harmony Boys from Wisteria
Gulch will now play that favorite
darnce number Sweet Peas in a
Pod" you are told. Twist the knob
again and, my goodness! the an
nouncer is saying, THE Cape Cod
Rhythm Gentlemen will now perform
that fascinating dawnce selection,
HOLSTERS in a Kettle" Another twist
and it will be daance number. Still
another and it will be dance, as IN
Dan McGrew.
All that assumes, of course, that the
dial twisting has covered stations from
a considerable geographic area. Who
pronounced dance correctly? 1t mostly
depends on the particular dialect that
prevails in the stations vicinity.
Ask an expert on the pronunciation
business and his reply probably will be
that all four ways are all right, so long
as it isn't done through the nose. And
announcers who detour very many
words via the proboscis usually don't
hold their Jobs very long.
Radio is bringing certain stand
ardization to the country's speech
habits, aiding and abetting consider
able amount of uniformity in language
that the printing press has achieved.
Both are leading English-speaklng
nations toward a better type OF
talking.
Announcers are keenly conscious OF
their verbal problems, for they run
into dozens of them every day. They
know that listeners will criticize oil
ferences in the announcer's lingo and
their own. Very often they take pencil
in fingers to complain to the station
management, even though 1t may be
only a matter Of difference in dialect.
Let the announcer say that the
iively "Tannheuser" from the composer
Vawgner's works is to be performed
and a flock of listeners will mutter
that he's trying to high-hat them.
Let him pronounce it Wagner, as
it's spelled, and those who take their
music seriously will moan in agony
at what they suppose is criminal igno-
rance.
DERHAPS his continuity includes
= reference to village in Wales. A
continuity writer has mercilessly Sc
lected that lovely little hamlet, Liam
fair-Pwll-GWyngyll Having futilely
secured all the office reference books
and called up the control mans Welsh
grandpop without success, the an
nouncer simply makes the best Of the
situation, knowing that dozen Welsh
listeners will write dirty letters to
the station.
Maybe it's an ever-So- common name
like Roosevelt. 1t is heard as Roos-a-
welt, Rose e-a-velt, Roosevelt and Roos-
welt. The third way usually gets the
call, and millions Of people have
unconsciously adopted it In the last
few years.
An orchestra conductor can give
his bow-pushers and valve-pressers-
down a standard pitch, but not even
the lexicographers and other experts
on tongue calisthenics can lay down
standard rules on whether it's "laff"
or "lawf."
y
IF EVERY radio set in the country
= were turned on at the same time,
three -fourths of the Nations populace
would be listening in their own homes.
This is the result of the latest nose
count" of radio families undertaken
comparatively by the three groups most
vitally interested in such vital statls-
tics-the broadcaster, the radio ad-
vertiser and the advertising agency
which places the commercial program.
Because there hasn't been an ac-
tual radio population survey" since
1880, when Uncle Sam undertook one
as part of the regular population CEN
sus, those three groups got together
and decided to make one for them
selves. They did not make a door-to-
door survey, for such project would
be almost prohibitive in cost Instead
they used all available trade informa-
ton and reached an estimate On which
all were in agreement.
Here, in nutshell, are the figures:
The number of radio families as OF
January /, 1886. is estimated at 22,-
$4,000, or IA per cent of all American
families. This represents an increase
Of 1,413,000 families, or 6.6 per cent,
over the estimate for the same time
last year.
PASED on reports from radio deal
~ ers and manufacturers, it was
concluded that during 1885 a total
Of 100000 sets were sold, exclusive