WHY SLOPPY DICTION FROM MARK WAIT AND BRUCE SEELY ON KBYU-FM?

KBYU-FM is owned and operated by a great university with a solid intellectual tradition and foundation, Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.  KBYU also offers mostly classical music, adding some LDS religious programming to the mix.

So why then must listeners to KBYU need to suffer sloppy and lazy diction from some of its announcers?

I refer to the diction of both Bruce Seely and Mark Wait, when they each say "twenty" without the last "t," so that it comes out "twen-ny."  This example is only one of many.  "Zubin Mehta" comes out "Zubin Meh-da." "Sonata" for Mark Wait becomes "sâ-nâ-tâ," the pure Latin vowels of "o" and "a" being ignored in favor of English diphthongs.  For Bruce Seely, "partita" comes out "par-ti-da," the "t" being replaced with a "d."

For a station like KBYU whose signal originates on the BYU campus and whose format is mainly classical serious music, such sloppiness of pronunciation constitutes an offense against listeners who expect and know better.

I could more quickly ignore the offense if it emanated from a country music station or from a sports jock announcer on one the various local TV news programs.  But when veteran classical music announcers, like Seely and Wait, seemingly unaware offer up their lazy and sloppy diction, it is incomprehensible and insupportable, given that they represent a renowned university and are not presenting country music.

It is up to Marcus Smith, general manager of KBYU, and Eric Glissmeyer, program director, to correct the situation.  So far, they also seem blithely unaware, or worse, unconcerned.