For years, CBS sneakily used canned bird songs when broadcasting golf tournaments on television. That all came to an end when people who know their birds began noticing that they were hearing songs in the background at golf matches that didn’t belong in the tournament locations. The Buick Open, for example, was being held in Michigan, but the soothing sounds of a canyon wren were distinctly heard in the background. There’s just one problem: wrens never venture east of Texas. It wasn’t long before a CBS representative confessed to using recorded songs. The network took the unusual step after attempting to get local talent to perform, up to and including bribing them with birdseed left next to microphones at tournament sites. From now on, CBS promises to only use natural sound or no sound at all in the background of its broadcasts of golf tournaments.
