That ‘radio’ voice

I don’t usually listen to the radio. Hate all the commercials, hate the music transitions, usually don’t like the music. But for the past few days I’ve spent some time in waiting rooms where the radio was playing, and now I am wondering: Why do all DJs sound alike? And the corollary question: Which came first, The Voice or the job?

Who decided what the norm should be? Who decided there should be a ‘norm’ in the first place? How did this get started, and why does it continue?

Is it that you don’t get a chance if you don’t sound like that in the first place? Or maybe everyone who aspires to a DJ position practices sounding like DJs are ‘supposed to’ sound before they even apply for the job? It is a ‘voice’ I can’t duplicate myself – something about the production of it, and the projection of it…

(All women sports announcers sound alike too – same accent, same tone, same ‘hardness’ in their delivery. Like they are all trying to sound like men. An equal but, I realize, irrelevant mystery.)

I don’t get it. DJs have sounded like that for as long as I can remember. And for the life of me I can’t figure out what could be so appealing, so compelling, so irrefutable, so… perpetual about ‘that radio voice’.