Sigalert (1954)

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MISC. OFF-TOPIC:

FAT ALBERT--An interesting part of my Saturday walk was seeing a store
called FAT ALBERT. Outside the store, on the sidewalk, they were selling DVDs of
FAT ALBERT for "fie dollars."

SKIDOO--It ain't Syrian. I explained this term in the old ADS-L archives.  It
was combined with "23" by vaudeville performer Billy Vann.

2004--Yeah, I took some trips to Mali, Senegal, Ghana, Namibia, Panama,
Bhutan, India, Singapore, and such, published two books, started a web  site, and
was featured in articles in the NY Times, Chicago Tribune, and Toronto  Globe
and Mail. But the bottom line is, I didn't make a single bloody nickel  from
all that. The Times article was twelve years overdue; it was humiliating to
smile for the photo.  I decided to stay in town for the Big Apple Fest  summer,
and not a single radio or tv program interviewed me. I have still not  been on
radio or tv anywhere in New York or in Chicago; nor has my work on the  names
of those cities made the evening news.. I was in town and they were short
judges, so I thought it would be a good idea to do parking tickets five days a
week again. In my spare time, I begged (unsuccessfully) to pay someone for
health care. And on a vacation from all that to Bhutan, the tour guide told  me
that I was too old to be loved, and I was on the internet too much, and my
friend David Shulman, well, he was 93 (I had said about 92, maybe 93) and had it
 coming. Yeah, it was a great year in a wonderful life.
...
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SIGALERT

Mr. Mullins posted:
  .
The familiar phrase, universally understood as meaning a bad traffic  tie-up,
was created in the mid-1950s by LAPD Police Chief William H. Parker  as a
tongue-in-cheek tribute to broadcast pioneer Loyd C. Sigmon.
...
...
(GOOGLE)
_LA  Observed: Loyd Sigmon, LA traffic icon was 95 *  Archives_
(http://www.laobserved.com/archive/001992.html)
... Loyd Sigmon, who  created the traffic warning while a co-owner of KMPC
radio,
died  yesterday in an Oklahoma assisted living facility. ...
www.laobserved.com/archive/001992.html - 101k - _Cached_
(http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:-DgXZPA7mZoJ:www.laobserved.com/archive/001992.html+loyd+Sigm
on+died&hl=en&ie=UTF-8)  - _Similar pages_
(http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&c2coff=1&q=related:www.laobserved.com/archive/001992.html)
...

Loyd Sigmon, L.A. traffic icon was 95 *
Get ready to hear yet again, over the next 24-48 hours, the story of how
radio SigAlerts came to be part of the Los Angeles lexicon. Loyd Sigmon, who
created the traffic warning while a co-owner of KMPC radio, died yesterday in an
Oklahoma assisted living facility. LATimes.com has an _obit _
(http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-060304sig_lat,1,3425046.story?coll=la-home-headlines)
by Roy Rivenburg.
A SigAlert, issued when one or more lanes will be blocked for at  least half
an hour, originally warned of other dangers On Labor Day 1955, the  first
SigAlert was broadcast by six radio stations warning of a train wreck  near Union
Station.
Other early bulletins included five warnings of rabid dogs and a ship
collision in Los Angeles Harbor. One time, a pharmacist who made a potentially
fatal error in filling a prescription called police, who issued a SigAlert.  The
customer heard it in time...
The term has become so familiar that it was added to the Oxford English
Dictionary.
...
...

It's in the Oxford English Dictionary? Where?
...
And if it began in 1955, we shouldn't see it in 1954, should we?
...
...
(PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS)
17 November 1954, Los Angeles Times, pg. 9:
Finger-tip pressure on the red button of a device called a Sigalert in the
City Hall last night cut out the regular program of a radio station as Civil
Defense officials went on the air to demonstrate a new warning system.
(...)
The device was designed by Loyd Sigmon, KMPC official.
...
...
25 October 1955, Los Angeles Times, pg. 16:
Traffic authorities and the Los Angeles Police Department are continuously
examining new methods of making current, overcrowded freeways more efficient.
"Sig-alert," a warning system whereby motorists now can be warned in advance
by  radio of freeway jams and congestion, has been out into operation. For this
 reason, motorists driving the freeways are advised to keep their car radio
on at  all times.
...
...
26 November 1955, Los Angeles Times, pg. A1:
_Raid Siren Test_
_Late--Wrong_
_Button Pushed_
(...)
Sheriff Biscailuz tested the county air-raid-siren system by pushing a
button in the radio communications room of the Hall of Justice which activated
sirens in West Hollywood, Lennox, Downey and Lakewood.

This new attack warning system is the invention of Lloyd (sic) Sigmon  and is
known as the "Sig Alert."
(...)
A subaudio signal was also aired over Radio Stations KFI, KNX and  KMPC.