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We killed Loyd Sigmon twice.
The first time, the universe killed him -- in the cosmic fashion of the universal adios, that is, for someone who was 95 years old.
But his second death? We did that. Death at the hands of tech. Death by erasure. Death by us trusting apps over our own brains.
No denying it -- the driving-directions app that bosses you around on the road is squeezing the life out of Sigmon's name and his namesake baby, that fine Southern California creation, the preserver of life and saver of time: the SigAlert.
A SigAlert is the Caltrans heads-up to two- and four-wheelin' Southern Californians that there's an unexpected highway or freeway snafu that will be lasting at least half an hour -- so make your way accordingly.
Lots of broadcasters once carried regular traffic reports, and some still do. A few local TV stations' newscasts will send you off to work or home or for an evening out with roadway updates.
And if you're already on the move, radio stations do the same -- but fewer than there used to be.
KIIS and KFI are among those that are still in the traffic mix, and KNX delivers its "traffic on the fives" reports. Yet the most sought-after traffic news is found on K-APP -- phone apps.
But they're mostly sans Sig. As people turn away from terrestrial radio, they also move away from SigAlerts.
The word entered the Oxford English Dictionary in the 1990s, but Caltrans says that as far as it can tell, "SigAlerts" just don't show up in your average traffic apps.
It'd be a darn shame if the SigAlert word is aging out. Navigating the gorgeous mess of L.A. freeways is easier with SigAlert's 30,000-foot view, versus a phone app's close-quarters navigation.
Sigmon was a radio exec and part owner -- along with cowboy star-mogul Gene Autry -- of radio station KMPC. Sig's baby was born 70 years ago this autumn, on Nov. 17, when he first demonstrated how it could alert any ordinary Joe Schmo listening to the radio.
His red light setup was not as majestic or noble as "What hath God wrought?" --...