Please Stop Shortening Words & Abbreviating On-Air ...

The "abbreviation epidemic" has made its way to the airways. I'm referring to the ongoing practice of shortening words and labels to initials (acronyms); we don't know what you're saying --OMG, please stop (pun intended).

Abbreviations On-Air ...

It's hard enough to understand when people write with newly created acronyms, but for any personality to talk that way on the air, it's too much. (Technically they are not all acronyms, most of them are just initials or abbreviations. To meet the definition of an acronym the abbreviation must be able to be pronounced as a word, for example, NASA SCUBA, and TASER, but I digress.)

One of radio's goals is to appeal to 100% of its target audience and not just those who relate to the latest trendy verbiage. No listener will ever accuse any announcer of "not being with it" because they actually say the words and not something like: "my bbf's MIL HMU and said YOLO, lets listen to that station." Let me translate; "my best friend's (bff's) Mother-In-Law (MIL) HMU (hit-me -up) and said YOLO (You Only Live Once), lets listen to that station.

It's Cute ...

I know as a society it has become common place to abbreviate a lot of things -even relationships; J-Rod (Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez), Kim-Ye (Kim Kardashian and Kanye West), and an oldie but a goodie --Brangelina (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie). On the air, you want to make sure everyone knows who or what you are talking about.

Different Situation, Same Problem ...

There was a station I was working at where the air talents came to me to find out what our Program Director (PD) was saying in memos. These were smart people, but I had worked with the PD previously and I understood that his well-written directives read like great literature instead of simple instructions. I can still hear myself explaining, "He wants us to talk about the contest going into commercial breaks." The PD didn't understand that most of the air staff thought his memos were written in a foreign language. The same can be said for verbal abbreviators.

Common Knowledge Isn't So Common ...

Regardless of age, the listener knowledge base varies, and it's a part of human nature to say nothing rather than admit they don't know. KIM (keep-in mind), in radio we never talk to or meet most of our audience -- say the words and stop with the abbreviations and acronyms. TTYL (talk to you later)