[Dr. Sivana]

The station manager told him that “we see a trend in this business towards lousy voices!”

WABC in New York had a number of "bad voices". Most here would have heard Joy Behar. She was a harridan 30 years ago, too. But the stronger accent was on Lynn Samuels (R.I.P.). They even highlighted her voice in the advertisements: Oy was boo-awn in Noo Yawk, Oy was raised in Noo Yawk, Oy nevuh go ennywayuh but Noo Yawk, so this is the way that I soo-ownd!"

She lost it and was fired when paired with Barry Farber (a real pro!). He knew how the punch her buttons. I believe that she was a comparatively honest liberal, and actually was sympathetic to pro-life activist Joan Andrews, having her on the the program.

Besides Samuels and Ed Koch, the station had Ed Koch (umm....ummm). Bob Grant was his own animal. Besides him, only Rush and had good radio voices. Earlier they had mid-westerner Dave Dawson, who was great, but a bad fit for NYC. The roster of bad voices (Samuels/Behar/Kpch) was top rated at the time.

[RipSawyer]

This really cracks me up because in 1962 I went straight from high school to Navy boot camp and all the guys from places like Pittsburgh, Philly, New York etc. thought my South Carolina accent was hilarious. They were convinced that their way of speaking was the ONLY correct way! People seem to like the Southern accent now but in those days they would say things like, “Youse guize shoo doo taawwk funnee”.