Work-related communicative profile of radio broadcasters: a case study.
Lady Catherine Cantor-Cutiva, Pasquale Bottalico, Eric Hunter
PMID 30183443WHAT IT FOUND
Two radio broadcasters showed no hearing loss over one week, but voice patterns shifted.
The male broadcaster had high vocal load and signs of fatigue, while the female had moderate load. Results are preliminary and cannot confirm if broadcasting causes voice disorders.
Key findings
01Noise exposure during broadcasting was below safety limits and caused no significant hearing threshold changes in either participant.
02Voice use varied greatly: the male broadcaster had a high phonation time percentage (approx. 38-42%) resembling a monologue, while the female had a lower percentage (approx. 12-14%) due to co-hosting.
03Fundamental frequency increased slightly at the end of the work week for both, which may indicate vocal fatigue, though Harmonics-to-Noise Ratio changes were inconsistent between participants.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size is extremely small (n=2), preventing any generalization to the broader population of radio broadcasters. Non-occupational voice use was not recorded, so it is unclear if voice changes were solely due to work. The study duration was only one week, which may not capture long-term effects of vocal or noise exposure. Intra-individual variability and natural daily voice changes were not controlled for.
Declared interests
The authors report no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that radio broadcasting is safe for voice or hearing based on this study. The findings are from only two people and cannot prove that other broadcasters are at low risk. The observed voice changes are preliminary indicators of fatigue, not confirmed diagnoses.