The Need for Speed

I switched on to the Europe 1 radio station this morning and wished I hadn't. The speed these people speak at these days has to be heard to be believed, if not understood. What on earth do they think they're playing at, speaking at these speeds? I am not suggesting that they should adopt the measured cadences of the Archbishop of Canterbury. After all, who among us hasn't been driven to distraction by having to listen to a 65-year-old grandfather 85-year-old grandmother struggling to put a sentence together? (My children for a start! That's one of the reasons I write this blog: nobody can tell how long I actually take to string a sentence together.) But that doesn't mean they all have to talk like 25-year old rappers.
Nowadays, much of radio is little more than a wall of sound, and actually trying to understand and assimilate something, like the weather forecast, leaves you limp and exhausted.