"MICROPHONE FRIGHT"

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 15, 28 October 1927, Page 2

"MICROPHONE FRIGHT"

"Microphone fright’? is a very real dificully broadcast studio announcers have to contend with when some people are about to make their first broadcast speech. At 3L0, Melbourne, only recently a successful sporting man and his coach -were billed to broadcast their experiences and sat before the microphone for sonte time to acclimatise themselves, but when the fateful moment came neither of them was able to collect either his wits or his breath sufficiently to break into speech, and in dumb show they netified the infuriated announcer that they could not go on with it. The rest of their time had to be eked ont by gramophove records. Occasionally, however, a very poor starter develops with practice into quite a creditable long-distance speak er, once the ‘nerves’? have been mastered. The announcer is in such cases a very present help in time of trouble. "Oh! Mr. Andrew!’ wailed a lady speaker one afternoon to 31,0’s announcer, "I am shaking all overI don’t believe I’ll be able to speak!" Mr. Andrew replied: ‘"That’s nothing; I often feel that way myself. You just have to screw up your courage! After a few words you'll be all right." Amazed at this confession from a personage regarded as the verv embodiment of sang froid, the lady screwed her courage to the sticking-point and made her talk one of the clearest and best she had ever done. Countless other performers have also testified to the helpfulness of the announcer’s presence and kindly smile at a critical moment.