Gregg Wiggins, an old friend and frequent theater production colleague, issued this Comment of the Day in explanation of the reasons for my complaint yesterday about NBC’s crack staff repeatedly mispronouncing the name of the Radio City Musical Hall Rockettes during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade broadcast yesterday…. three different ways!
Not very related to Gregg’s post but related to the parade: The New York Tines reported yesterday that the parade became “the most-watched entertainment show in the United States only over the past three years.” Theories for the reasons this has happened vary. One is that the event is still completely apolitical (unlike almost every other form of entertainment programming); another is that the public increasingly longs for a simpler time, remembering that their families watched the parade when they were children and the holidays seemed magical. Yet another holds that a lot of people can’t afford to go to see shows in New York City any more, and the parade’s (lip-synced) street performances of current Broadway fare is the closest they will ever get. I think the development may be an encouraging example of how the culture can still be unified and brought together by shared traditions and experiences. The closest thing to a consensus that the New York Times found is that everyone agrees about the parade remaining essentially the same decade after decade, unlike almost everything else.
Except that the network broadcasters no longer know how to pronounce “Rockettes.”
Here’s Gregg Wiggins on the post, “Stupid Thanksgiving Tricks”…
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A career broadcaster on the notes that should be in front of every on-air person on mic for the parade coverage. Setting aside whether someone who takes part in U.S. culture should know the name of that iconic 99-year-old dance troupe (I looked it up), the production assistants should have provided prepared note cards (in 2024 maybe digital pages on the tablets they’re working from) with phonetic pronunciations* of the names of every participant in the parade. In this case it would read “rok-ETTS”. If it wasn’t in the talent’s notes, not only did they mess up, but the ‘backstage’ people did as well.
*The broadcast industry’s standard reference for this is a regularly updated guidebook first published in the 1930s by the radio network that devised the pronunciation symbology for their announcers. It’s now an e-book and website but I still have a hard copy, from my radio days, of the NBC Guide to Pronunciation.
Ethics Alarms 
Even if a host had never seen the name before they should know it is not pronounced “Rockets” or “Rockeets”. Do people no longer know how to read simple English? As for “ROCK-ettes” or “rok-ETTS” I think that I would have probably got that right even without pronunciation notes.
A lot of sports commentators do not even try to pronounce players names correctly. There are a few basics for commentators; know the rules of the sport, know the competition rules, e.g. how many players or teams go to the next round, pronounce the player’s names correctly, and if their is time then give a little info about the player. For example, a few Olympics ago I listened to a British commentator who endeavoured to talk to weightlifters before the competition so he could pronounce their name correctly and he would give some background information as they came out to lift.
I’m with Errol’s line of thought – ette is a common English ending.
BTW – Is there a Black Friday Open Forum? All Fridays Matter
Yikes. Completely forgot…going uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup…