Affairs: Omission Accomplished

Ever feel like something’s missing from KYW 1060 sports reporter Phil ­Neuman’s stories on the 76ers — like, say, the name of the building where the team plays its home games? You’re not losing it. In the 11 years the venue has been saddled with corporate sponsorship, Neuman has always omitted the sponsor’s name — whether it was CoreStates, First Union or Wachovia — from his reports. On the air, he refers to the arena simply as “the Center.” And though KYW management has never mandated that its talent refrain from calling the city’s stadia by their proper, if ungainly, monikers, other personalities have also taken to the practice. One can sometimes hear stories about the Phillies on KYW coming live from, yes, “the ballpark.” Still, Neuman is the most conspicuous omitter, a custom born of his desire to avoid sounding like a cog in a marketing machine. “Wachovia didn’t buy time on my station,” he says. Yet even he calls the Eagles’ home field the Linc: “There’s nothing else you could call it.”