TheAgitator.com
The Host Whisperer
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008You Washingtonians who get your morning news fix from National Public Radio may have noticed something over the years: All those NPR hosts, well, kinda sound the same. There’s a very distinct NPR voice: Quiet, calm and careful.
Well, it’s not an accident. Turns out NPR actually has someone on staff to help radio hosts perfect that soft and lulling voice: David Candow.
“Weekend Edition Saturday” host Scott Simon talked about Candow during a “Q&A Cafe” interview last week at Nathans restaurant.
“There is a man named David, who’s called ‘The Host Whisperer’ and he works with people on their delivery skills,” said Simon.
Say “David Candow.” Even the guy’s name comes out in hushed tones.
I enjoy listening to “All Songs Considered” because it exposes me to some good new music, but Bob Boilen drives me nuts because he’s just so NPR-ish. I suppose this story explains the unified delivery, but do they have somebody else teaching them the standard, pretentious NPR vocabulary?
I like the guy with the lithp.
I’m not surprised at all. BBC does the same thing from what I hear.
I like the NPR voice (and the BBC voice too if I really want to fall asleep) a lot. Very comforting and soothing.
Speaking of NPR, the mere sound of Larry Mantle’s voice is enough to make me turn the radio off. He’s even worse than that woman who always sounds like she’s got a mouth full of marbles.
Is he on nationwide or is that just a Southern California thing?
i dunno. the NPR sound always struck me as being just a little superior and condescending.
like when you have to talk about something complicated to your idiot brother in law, who you always suspected had a touch of brain damage.
based on what we’ve seen of the media’s opinion of the public, i might be onto something here. “we’re gonna have PIE, darrel! do you like PIE?!”
Can Candow talk to Diane Rehm?
I know, I know, that was low, considering that her voice is a product of a very unfortunate medical condition, but my empathy for her problem doesn’t solve the fact that her voice gives me the creeps.
Daniel Schorr would have a nice voice if he didn’t have a mouth full of the marbles of self-righteousness.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2101143
Does Candow moonlight for the BBC?????… both sound rediculously simmilar… my voiced opinion for years has been that NPR was infatuated with the british accent and the bbc delivery style… very funny to now read this…
Bob Boilen was a member of Tiny Desk Unit,a very cool New Wave band in the early 1980s. Don’t know about the other.
Fox News has a voice coach, too – Gilbert Gottfried.