Where Have All The Good Sounds Gone?

You know that static noise you always used to hear when a TV was first turned on?

OK, maybe you have to be of a certain age to remember. For younger folks, I'm talking about the "white noise" that HBO uses at the opening of its shows and movies. Somebody's put a sample on YouTube here.

Well, as All Things Considered plans to report tomorrow, come Friday that white noise is basically joining other sounds that once were familiar but aren't around anymore. With the switch to digital TV, snow and static will be part of the past for America's over-the-air TV viewers.

NPR, which obviously loves everything aural, has been on the look-out for lost sounds for years.

For me, the once-familiar sound I miss the most is a "real" telephone ring:

Frank, a guy who still has some newsprint in his veins, misses the clacking of a typewriter.

NPR's Linton Weeks suggests the classic thwackety-thwackety-thwack of a playing card hitting a bicycle spoke and the grinding of an old hand-cranked pencil sharpener.

What about you? Feel free to use the comment thread in this post to suggest sounds that you miss.

To find an NPR station near you that broadcasts ATC, click here.