The bleat button might be on its way out, but not for the protect children reasons favored by tim winter and the p t c. It's because swearing across society has become more and more accepted. A riters pole found that only 14 % of americans never swear in dayto day life. Most stations don't bleap words like bitch or ass any more.
There's a particular one-kilohertz tone that is universally understood to be covering up inappropriate words on radio and TV. But there are other options, too, like silence -- so why did this particular *bleep* sound become ubiquitous?
Bleep!