Pictured above Ken Sibley (flannel) talks with a new friend at the Springfield Art Association reception for Our Town: A visiual Journey. The exhibit continues through October 27. To view more pictures from the happy confluence, visit www.civag.com/vv.htm
For the past year a tacit war has raged — that’s the best kind; especially if there are no broqn bones or blood shed — at WUIS, the public radio station of Springfield, Illinoise. As far as I can determine, it began when the new program director whose name is Sinta, I believe, apparently issued an office memo directing air talent to refrain from pronouncing the decimal separator between 91 (and) 9. For the record, this woman’s voice is velvet and a delight to encounter when I tune in. It’s as USA as ample pie, and like Rich Bradley, when she speaks, she doesn’t seem to be telling nursery school children how to wash their hands after making a doo doo. As a result of the presumed dictum from on high, when most UIS announcers state the FM frequency, its as “ninety-one-nine” and “91 (short breath) 9. The new directive seems part of the same revisionist conspiratorial led by in vitro fertilization excess embryo killers like #43 and his dimented accessories, but I’m probably reading too much into it. They’re the same people seeking the wholesale slaughter of hymens — make that hyphens — from the USAn lexicon and turning “217-894-1245″ into “217.894.1245″ a sneering, loathesome bunch, the lot of them.
Does it matter that a stated decimal “point” is omitted when voicing the obligatory station ID? It should matter to thinking hummin’ beans, folks who don’t believe “oleo” is a chocolate cookie with white frosting in the middle. All the digital tuners include the DP (decimal point for you oleo consumers), and if the announcers don’t say the point, they’re short sheeting our language. And that’s not good. On the other ‘and, we don’t say “point” or “period” at the end of a sentence we’re reading aloud. We’re also evolving away from saying “dot” when speaking a web address. How long has it been since you heard someone say “www dot civag dot com? Or even www-anything?
In the last week or so, there has been a crack in the firmament of that once immutable “no point” rule. I don’t want to name names because those who say the point are my (unintentional) new friends. BRAVO! When you listen to WUIS, I hope you will silently celebrate the affirmation of the proper way of speaking an ident when you hear the specially dedicated, talented and competent announcers speak 91 POINT 9. You can bet your frequency modulator I will.
Live long aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand proper
