Originally posted Tuesday, February 5, 2019 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Cox Washington radio bureau chief Jamie Dupree's mysterious voice malady has afflicted him for nearly three years. Jaye Watson's GPB show "Your Fantastic Mind" explores the confounding situation in detail.
He is unable to talk and two dozen doctors nationwide can’t figure out how to fix it. He can speak in a limited fashion if he sticks a pen in his mouth and says he wakes up every morning hoping it just solves itself. It hasn’t.
A neurologist at Emory Brain Health Dr. Hyder Jinnah in the segment said Dupree's brain and tongue are not in agreement when he tries to speak. The tongue does too much, interrupting his ability to articulate words clearly. It's a type of dystonia that is super rare.
He said he sometimes calls friends to talk because he wants to talk. But the situation makes him cry. The irony, he said: “When I cry, I talk better.”
Cox Media Group last year worked with a Scottish company to create a robotic voice substitute using previous audio recordings of him so he can now be heard on the radio again. It’s dubbed “Jamie Dupree 2.0.”
He said he will keep seeking a solution. “What am I supposed to do?” he said. “Curl up in a corner and give up?” As a father with two sons, he said he just cannot.
“Your Fantastic Mind” airs weekly at 8 p.m. Mondays on GPB.
Jamie promoted it here on his blog.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WSB radio are both part of Cox Media Group.
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Trevor Noah on his Comedy Central show had fun Monday night about the discovery that Atlanta rapper 21 Savage is actually British and may be deported.
“He is pure Atlanta hip hop,” he said. “Or at least I thought so until yesterday.”
Then he played a clip from CBS This Morning (sourcing the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) after the rap star was arrested by I.C.E. for overstaying his visa back in 2006 when he was a teenager.
“We expect rappers to arrested for guns and assault, not tea and crumpets,” he said. “Apparently, his real name isn’t 21 Savage. It’s Lord Savagington the First!”
He kept going: “This has rocked the hip-hop community. This is like finding out Tupac is really Chad from Vermont. Or Cardi B is German.”
He then did an imitation of 21 Savage in an Atlanta accent, then answered the phone in a British one. "Honestly, I haven't been this stunned since I found out Dr. Dre wasn't a board certified urologist. I kept the appointment but I was a little surprised..."
If you want to see him live, Noah is doing stand-up in Atlanta next week at the Fox Theatre Feb. 15 and 16.
Conan O'Brien on his TBS show also made jokes Monday about Maroon 5's halftime show because why not?
“For the halftime show, the stage was designed to look like the letter M. Apparently, the M stood for ‘Maybe we should tried to get Beyonce,’” he said.
“And what about when Big Boi came out in a fur coat?” he continued. “It was from an animal that took its own life during Maroon 5.” (That second joke merited major applause.)
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Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
With R&B station Mix 87.7 gone as of last Thursday, the signal is now playing regional Mexican music.
The signal is licensed to Prism Broadcasting in Norcross. I left a message on the answering machine at the number provided online but have not heard back.
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