Well, this will likely put me in dutch with some of my broadcast news friends but I can't sit quietly about this any longer cause it BUGS me...radio news reporters and anchors should NOT be doing commercials...period.

Now before you cry discrimination, the TV news people shouldn't either but I've not seen that happen. I have heard it far too often for my liking on the radio. It's wrong.

While there was a time in radio and television's history where news people often read live commercials, that practice dissolved as broadcast outlets' news divisions evolved and the integrity of the news department became sacrosanct. Today, radio news departments have to scrape and claw for the money they need to do proper field reporting with decent technology while being first and accurate with the story in an amazingly short production window. In such an environment, salaries wane and integrity teeters.

At such a critical time when broadcast corporations often seemingly replace "public trust" with "shareholder's investment" the news divisions and their leaders should not muddy the waters regarding their market's perception of their talent by allowing those newscasters to read a murder report one moment only to have that same reporter's voice heard on a pre-recorded car commercial the next. Not on their station or any other in their market.

What about out of market spots or corporate narrations for videos or even audio books? I have no problem with any of that. But in a local market, if you're a news voice you cannot be a commercial voice. News integrity means never having to say "24 months interest free financing on approved credit."
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