It’s the Kielbasa Kid…

…and if you’ve ever wondered if you’ve been saying a word correctly your entire life, Google will now let you know. You can simply type in “how do you pronounce ____ ?” into the search bar, and Google will give you an audio clip of that word’s pronunciation. Also, privacy concerns aside, Google says if your phone is Google Assistant-enabled, you can speak the word into your phone’s microphone and “receive feedback on what, if anything, can be adjusted in your pronunciation.” The feature is already available in American English and the company says it will soon be rolling out in Spanish as well. Believe me, being in radio that is one dandy tool to have so I hope it works cause I’ll google names to pronounce and sometimes it works like a gem.Then there are times when I’ll google the persons name I need a pronunciation for but instead get a video of that person being interview. That’s not what I googled. So, I’ve got to watch the video hoping his or her name will be mentioned. I remember one time my first job in radio, i think only a week in but i was doing a news story about a Russian noble prize winner for literature Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s who was arrested and thrown in a Russian Gulag. I think i called him Alexander Souja-kneeza-wheatzin. Oh the news director just loved that one and let everyone know about my Alexander Souja-kneeza-wheatzin gaffe. Of course that was long before the internet and makes me wonder how my radio career lasted this long  but then again all I have to do is think about the old TV show WKRP in Cincinnati. I’ve worked with people who never worked in radio before and have asked if working here was like anywhere else that I’ve worked before and the answer to that is yes. I’ve worked with folks like say a Less Nessman. WKRP was so true to what it’s like to work in radio and I’ll bet that even if WKRP’s Less Nessman had a chance to use google to pronounce a name like Chi Chi Rodriquez he wouldn’t , too much pride.