Radio: So They Say

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Bernard Shaw this week warned foreigners visiting Britain to speak broken English: "Even among English people, to speak too well is a pedantic affectation. In a foreigner it is something worse than an affectation. It is an insult to the native who cannot understand his own language when it is too well spoken."

This mild Shavian spoof (recorded 21 years ago when Shaw was only 71) was broadcast in Manhattan over WNEW's A Treasury of the Spoken Word (Wed. 9 p.m.). Sponsored by the New York Public Library and produced by WNEW's Jack Grogan, who calls it a "literary disk-jockey show," the Spoken Word has brought its listeners the voices of such diverse personalities as Gandhi, Coolidge, Teddy Roosevelt, Cardinal Spellman, Bing Crosby (who gave a reading of The Star-Spangled Banner).

Grogan's program follows no set pattern. The recordings range from such chestnuts as Sheridan's Ride to the Book of Psalms. In the two years the program has been on the air, Grogan has turned down only one recording because he felt it might be over his audience's heads. He found a record of James Joyce reading a portion of Finnegans Wake "a little bit difficult on the ear."