I always thought it was sort of homely hearing the Heathrow ATIS get read out by a local lad. As a rule of thumb, the quicker it was read out the better the weather was, but copying it was at times a bit of a struggle. Nonetheless, the occasional cricket score would brighten up a four sector day, not to mention the additional information provided by the sound of a torrential downpour in the background.
D-ATIS is the way forward though, particularly for our longhaul colleagues.
Agree about the runway exit closures - surely one of the assistants could just tag the whole message on the end of the broadcast, rather than have the synthetic voice go "Runway 09L exit A10E is closed. Runway 09L exit A10W is closed. Runway 09L exit A5 is closed blah blah...". Also, are we heading in the Scottish direction of the runway being reported as 'wet' rather liberally?