NOAA Learns Lower Case Letters For the First Time Ever

In case you haven't noticed it, the creative types who work in broadcasting are slightly, ahem, different from the average ordinary person.

For example, it is not uncommon for us to read from scripts written in all capital letters. The text will be doublespaced and largely of a uniform height and width.  It's a holdover from the old AP wire days with the teletype machine slapping paper all the time at high rates of speed.

Geez, I just LOVE that sound!  I want to scream out, "it's the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite!"

Announcers needed to be able to rip and read news from the wire at a fast pace. Indeed, the term rip and read has become somewhat pejorative, describing a news reader who has not prepared and is winging it with copy he/she has not seen before speaking it.  In other words, Ron Burgundy.

Now comes the vword from NOAA that America's  National Weather Service will no longer issue it's forecasts in all caps effective next month, updating its method of delivery after several attempts to add lowercase since the 1990s.  I don't know if this is a good example of tax dollars properly spent.  If anything, I'd like to give the meteorologists up at the NOAA facility in Dallas Fort Worth raises and big hugs from everybody.  Texas has some of the most varied weather in the country  and they do a damn fine job forecasting it as best as anyone can.  Capitalization exclusivity never stopped them.

I know all you sensitive souls are tired of being shouted at by the weather forecast on weather.gov. But at least you have your participation trophy to snuggle with at night. Still, time marches on.  I just hope my colleagues in the business can handle it.  I'm just glad Walter Cronkite is in here to see this.