Tyrah Majors this morning on KOMO 4. Using WashDOT cameras to report on freeway backups in Tacoma due to a semi crashing into a barrier. Dispatching a reporter to cover a fire in Tacoma is not a priority. KOMO had no information as to whether the fire was caused by a vehicle or, as Majors alluded to in one of her reports, a possible lamp post fire. (!!!)
The location of the accident, which resulted in the death of the truck driver, near the 84th Street exit northbound I5. Just south of WAPATO PARK. Not WAPA-DOH, as Majors pronounced it. What is with young people and pronunciation of the letter ‘T’?
Do you order your hamburger with dohmatoes or without? Tomatoes/Dohmatoes, Wapato/Wapadoh.
Tyrah on helium?
Jason Remington • February 11, 2026
Checked in today to see if Tyrah still has any pronunciation issues. After all this time, it appears her reading comprehension or speech still leaves something to be desired. Star Lake pronounced Star Link, but she was talking about Sounders rail connections. Plus, it was obvious that she is trying to get all this traffic info across in a time crunch. So, I will give her some grace on that one.
Voice sounds a little nasally. Maybe she has allergies?
OK, ok. I will stop. Will check in again a few months from now.
Pronunciation – B
Overall presentation – B+
Bullet IN, Bullet IN
Jason Remington • April 30, 2025
It’s a hard ‘T’ but today’s generation pronounces it like: Bul-led IN. The ‘D’ in Bulled replaces the ‘T’ and the IN is emphasized. Drives me crazy! Butt IN. Push the butt-IN to ring the door bell.
Feng Shui
Dick Ellingson • April 30, 2025
I went to the florist yesterday looking for Rose Butts to lay across my mantle, but it was her day off.
How you say?
Jason Remington • April 30, 2025
During the Vietnam skirmish, a few of us youngsters, just learning the radio newsreading ropes, decided to rename some of the names in the newscasts into to something easier to say. Niet Dang Tuang became Jonathan Smythe etc.
Sayin' it wrong
Dick Ellingson • April 30, 2025
I was doing news on KFKF one Sunday and pronounced Sahalee about four different ways before surrendering with an apology. The phone lit up immediately.
I heard a national radio news guy say Pie-al-up WAH-shington when I was a kid. And a friend of mine, when he first came to Washington, pronounced Skamokawa SCAM-uh-COW-uh.
Tyrah may have been preoccupied from what she found in her purse after returning from her Roman Holiday.
And one Saturday at KMPS, a frantic listener called about a missing dog. My brain couldn’t figure out whether it was a pooch or a pup, so I announced that a lady in West Seattle had lost her poop. Dick Goodman ran in from the newsroom and smiled gleefully.
As Kay Kyser used to tell erring contestants on the College of Musical Knowledge, “That’s right, you’re wrong!”