It's a(n affected) professional demeanor. Some are more artificial than others (and the similarly artificial frantic delivery of Top 40 radio and, to an insufficiently lesser degree, commercial news radio was what the NPR folks were striving against from the beginning, as were the Free-Form FM djs who were arising at that same time). I think the Pacifica folks and the likes of Harry Shearer these days strive to divorce themselves from that NPR default, except when mocking that default...Shearer, in his first year on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (1979-80, as the only New Guy added after Aykroyd and Belushi left), did a memorable one-handed sketch where he was the AM and FM dj for a station, all adenoidal shouting for AM and all pseudo-stoned purring for FM. Eric Martin & Co.'s lampoon here is rather better than even the DELICIOUS DISH parody of THE SPLENDID TABLE that the more recent SNL women used to do.
Well, as I mention above, the audio podcast is just as impressive...and as I didn't quite mention, this is the first of a short series of videos they'll be doing...
At the moment, this post has 786 hits as counted by Blogger...while the video at YT has 791 hits. I think YT doesn't count embed plays, for some reason.
Wow, that really does fit public radio to a T, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteI don't know if public broadcasting folks realize how...NOT like everyday people they are.
It's a(n affected) professional demeanor. Some are more artificial than others (and the similarly artificial frantic delivery of Top 40 radio and, to an insufficiently lesser degree, commercial news radio was what the NPR folks were striving against from the beginning, as were the Free-Form FM djs who were arising at that same time). I think the Pacifica folks and the likes of Harry Shearer these days strive to divorce themselves from that NPR default, except when mocking that default...Shearer, in his first year on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (1979-80, as the only New Guy added after Aykroyd and Belushi left), did a memorable one-handed sketch where he was the AM and FM dj for a station, all adenoidal shouting for AM and all pseudo-stoned purring for FM. Eric Martin & Co.'s lampoon here is rather better than even the DELICIOUS DISH parody of THE SPLENDID TABLE that the more recent SNL women used to do.
ReplyDeleteSo close to the truth, it's almost not a satire.
ReplyDeleteWell, as I mention above, the audio podcast is just as impressive...and as I didn't quite mention, this is the first of a short series of videos they'll be doing...
ReplyDeleteAnd that's what satire often is at its best, after all, Patti!
ReplyDeleteAt the moment, this post has 786 hits as counted by Blogger...while the video at YT has 791 hits. I think YT doesn't count embed plays, for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI was hoping that Robert Segal would ask a sexually inappropriate question, but they probably didn't want to bash NPR that much!
ReplyDelete