Time and place, man, time and place  

When proper radio technique and phrases are not used, effective communication does'nt always happen. I have heard a tower controller tell everyone "stay off the radio unless I call you". These pilots added too many extra words, improper technique, etc. The contoller was annoyed to say the least. This was Anoka Mn tower the most layed back easy going tower I know. It would be laughable if it was'nt so pathetic. This is only one example. I could give you more, so it does matter! Mike drop,

You're right.  (How many times have you head *THAT* on this forum?)  At a very busy aiports, sure, brevity and clear, concise communication is all-important.  But the need for that is situational; you have to know when and where infomality is okay.  We can't all be robots - we're humans flying these things and manning the ATC facilities.  Then again, Local contollers can always limit the number of aircraft they choose to handle, so if a controller gets overloaded, it's his/her own fault.  Many, many years ago, I was flying a traffic copter in NYC.  It was early in the morning, and the dedicated TCA freq was silent except for me and one other traffic ship.  We both ended up over the same place, and as we passed each other I keyed up and said, "Morning, Lou."  The "morning'd" me back.  That was it: "Morning, Lou."  "Morning, Bob."  The controller came on and read us a riot act, saying that if we couldn't act professionally on the radio he'd throw us out of the TCA (predecessor to Class B) airspace.  My friend and I were, like, WT-actual-F?!  

Another story: Flying SIC in a King Air, inbound to an uncontolled field one moning, we were listening up on 122.8 but at our altitude, the freq was one big cacaphonous jumble of radios transmitting over each other.  We were approaching at 3 miles/minute.  When ATC finally cut us loose, we were less than ten miles out.  Even slowing down, we'd be in the pattern shortly.  And so I announced our position/intentions and asked, "Any traffic, please advise."  People don't like it?  Tough, sue me.  At any uncontrolled field, if there's only one plane in the pattern, he might not even be talking on the radio, and might not respond to your, "10 miles south, inbound for landing" call.  And no, business jets and King Airs and such do not slow to 100 kts prior to entering the traffic pattern at small GA airports.

So there's a time and a place for everything.  Like I said, we're not robots.