“Great” Overdose
January 12, 2010 7:36 am Commentary, MediaWTPL-FM is a local talk radio. Commentary is right of middle, but civil and informative. One host, Jack Heath, has an afternoon show. He is a self-proclaimed conservative and runs a PR company on the side (having once run for US Congress and produced TV News). If nothing else, Jack is media savvy.
Therein is the problem. Despite media savvy and passionate (politically) personality, Jack just can’t get away from describing everything positive as “great”. Some broadcasts become endless streams of “great”, “great”, “great”, “great”,….
Is it truly bad? Mindnumbing repitition, diminishing value, bland and ambigious description. Hey, monosyllabic descriptors are easy and saves time and effort—but at what cost?
Words like awesome, fantastic, pretty neat, innovative, rich, astounding, classy, first rate, top notch, supreme, first class, unbeatable, etc. are workable substitutes.
Not only will their use spice up the broadcast, but the sponsors who you coddle (in a commercially nurturing way) will appreciate your expansive and expressive bounty beyond the “Great” wall of monotonous description.