[BC] Local pronunciations

[Scott Fybush]

>Here in Massachusetts, you can always tell the out-of-towners.  We have
>a raft of place names that are pronounced nowhere near what they look
>like.

I was very fortunate, early on in my first paid radio job in 
Massachusetts (WCAP, Lowell) to have one of the locals who hung out 
at the station sit me down and tutor me on the intricacies of 
Merrimack Valley placenames and pronunciation, without which I'd 
surely have made a fool of myself on towns like Chelmsford (it 
doesn't start with a "K" sound), Tewksbury, Dracut and so on.

If you're ever unsure whether or not someone's really from eastern 
Mass., ask them how to pronounce "Billerica."

And back home in my native upstate New York, we have a raft of odd 
pronunciations, some of them from old Indian names (Canandaigua, 
Irondequoit), some just quirky localisms (Charlotte is "shuh-LOT," 
Chili is "CHYE-lye", Avon doesn't sound anything like the cosmetic 
company, and yes, we too have a Medina that's pronounced like Ohio's.)

You can always tell the new guys in town - though, to be fair, most 
of the stations seem to drill them pretty well before they get on the 
air. For a while, our Fox affiliate had its weather coming from 
Sinclair's "News Central" operation near Baltimore, and those 
forecasters must have been coached decently, as it was rare to hear 
them slip up.

s