The term Operator
As a current, license holding ATCO, I have no problem if a member of the public uses the word operator - anyone with a dictionary or a grasp of basic English will know that it is a valid noun for our profession, if not the one that we use ourselves.
Mike, one of the reasons mooted as possibly being responsible for the 'tinny' sounding R/T (which is evident on most of the TC frequencies) is the fact that it is all digitised and therefore somewhere in the process, quality is affected.