Dash Hyphen Hyphen Dash

Over on my Facebook page, a listener asked me why doesn't "Self Help Radio" have a hyphen?  After all, pretty much every time you see the phrase "self-help," like in this Wikipedia entry, there's a hyphen between "self" & "help."

My response was a little glib & I wasn't really trying to answer.  I said, "Because it's not a self-help radio show.  It's Self Help Radio."

The "real" answer is pretty dumb.  Obviously my show isn't a self-help radio show, & even more obviously, it's not a parody of self-help radio shows or self-help anything.  (Although I have tried to do that - & am just not funny enough to pull it off.)  (Though I've never tried to take calls or things like that, to dispense ridiculous advice.  I always imagine someone will take it seriously & I'll be put in the same circle of hell as televangelists when I die.)

(I know, I'm too self-important.)

The reason the show is called Self Help Radio is that, when I started the show, I honestly didn't know you were supposed to put a dash between "Self" & "Help."  Did you get that?  I just didn't know.

However, I am pleased that it does separate me from "self-help radio" shows.  I can say I do a show called "Self Help Radio" & it does appear, at least in writing, to be different from "self-help radio."  Also, I guess, it's capitalized.

It's interesting that the listener noticed that the show's name doesn't have a hyphen, because other people not only don't notice, they don't care.  In this article from my time at WMUL, the writer (who doubtless got his or her information from the Station Manager) not only uses the hyphen but also puts the show's name in quotation marks.  Like it's the type of show I do, not the name of the show.

Or my friend Hayden, who quoted me on the Fall, over at his blog.  (I asked him to correct it but he didn't.)  (Yes I asked him to correct it!  It's not what my show's called!)

I know, self-important much?