US cities where newscasters speak with local accents

[Dan]

I'm visiting the 'rents for the holidays, back in Buffalo, New York. Watching various newscasts of local stations, again I noticed that about half of the anchors and reporters often talk with very strong Buffalo "eyacksints"; the very pronounced nasal flat A is quite prevalent, among other traits of Buffalo English. Nuh der, ya don't heyar dat der Chickatavaga eyecksints der, gutdemmet.

When I've lived and visited cities throughout the country, newscasters seemed to speak mainly in a generic Midwestern accent; they all sound like they're from Kansas City or Salt Lake City. I didn't hear southern drawls on newscasts in Atlanta or Charlotte, clinched-teeth cowboy accents in Denver, nasal south suburban inflections in Chicago, or Brooklyn and Long Island accents from stations in NYC. Okay, they do pop up occasionally, but it's usually a feature reporter or some "gotcha" consumer advocate; not the anchors and reporters.

Are there any cities in the US where local accents are the norm, or even very common, for local newscasts?

[drucee]

The sports anchorwoman on KTLA in Los Angeles used to have some of the heaviest Spanglish inflection I've ever heard. Similarly, many of the WGN anchors in Chicago have noticeable Chicago accents. Listen to Tom Skilling do the weather on the 9:00 news and you'll hear his pronunciation of the word "Chi-cawwww-go" that could only come from the City of Chicago itself.

[otterpop]

A local accent is important to newscasters in New Orleans. Growing up I can remember Hap Glaudi - the local sportsguy. You couldn't get much more New Orleans than Hap. Even pompous Phil Johnson - the editorialist - was a local boy.

I remember Garland Robinette too. He was an outsider - came from Boutte. .

[mgk920]

The TV and radio guys here in northeast Wisconsin (especially the long-timers) generally have it down pretty good. One can easily tell the non-locals for saying it as GREEN-bay and not the correct 'green-bay' (equal semi-soft stress on both words) and 'sha-WA-no' instead of the correct 'SHAW-no' (a small, strategically located city in northeast WI and the name of a major street in Green Bay).

Although I seldom watch her 'missing person du jeur' broadcasts, Greta Van Susteran of Fox News still has a lot of her Appleton, WI accent.

Mike

[Joe Iliff]

I don't watch a lot of local news, but I would suspect non-Texans would detect local accents from the local newspersons. Course to Texans, this is "normal" and everyone else has the accent.

[Masswich]

In the old days before media mergers there were some wickid pissa accents on the local news in Boston, esp. the 10 pm. early news on UHF stations. The last local 10 pm. news was just eliminated and now the accents are all very muted.

[Zoning Goddess]

We haven't had anyone in Orlando with a southern accent since the '70's. They're all non-entities who can't pronounce the local names.

[biscuit]

I just spent a week watching the local news in the South Carolina upstate (#36 in market size) and every station had newscasters with Southern accents. Granted, they weren't all the local accent but they were Southern. Mrs. biscuit even commented on the fact that you won't hear local accents on the news in Pittsburgh. Although, there's probably a good reason for that.

[Richmond Jake]

No southern twang in her voice. Our local news talking head. Yes!!!!!

http://www.wjhg.com/station/bios/news/4318837.html

I shouldn't have forgotten Sabrina.

http://www.wjhg.com/station/bios/news/1929827.html

I like being in the South. Go ahead, call me a pig.




ZG has a twang sometimes. Cute.

[cch]

I get Madison, WI stations at my home in northern Illinois, and I can tell a definite Wisconsin accent coming from some of their newscasters.

[ICT/316]

Wichita definitely fits in the generic Midwestern accent. On a side note; when ever I hear of some “significant” news from other parts of the country, I just search for that cities local stations national affiliates news and watch. A good case in point would be BEARS Toledo 2005 riots. I watched it all. Today I watched the dead birds on Congress St. in Austin. I love the internet.

Bill

[Jazzman]

Back home in Birmingham the newscasters do tend to have a southern accent. It's pretty noticeable, and actually I find it to be a bit embarassing. Makes us sound like a bunch of country bumpkins.

[DetroitPlanner]

You don't notice these things in Detroit, until you get someone who is not used to saying use to using french. I was having a heck of a time pronouncing stuff in Orange County, CA (spanish). Typical Detroit names include Cadieux (Kad-chew), Gratiot (Grass-$h!t), Schoenherr (Chene-or), Lahser (even locals have a hard time deciding if it is Lahs-her or Lash-er), Grosse, Livernois (Liv-Er-Noi). Hen I go to Chicago and I hear people say DePaul or Des Plaines, I cringe.

[paiste13]

[QUOTE=RichmondJake;360171]No southern twang in her voice. Our local news talking head. Yes!!!!!

http://www.wjhg.com/station/bios/news/4318837.html

Whoever does the hiring at that place sure knows what he likes I'm assuming it's a "he" and one quick trip to the "meet the staff" page will confirm that.

[GratiotStreet]

Sportscasters in St. Louis often have the impossible to describe "St. Louis Accent," as they are often natives.