BEFORE THE "MIKE"

Radio Record, Volume VII, Issue 18, 10 November 1933, Page 41

BEFORE THE "MIKE"

A Lecturer’s First Impressions "Nor since, as a school boy, I waited in a blue funk to go. in to bat, have I been so nervous as I was when

TY faced the microphone for the first time," says a New Zealander who recently made his debut as a broadcaster from 1YA, when asked for his impres‘sions by the "Record’s" Auckland correspondent. "In the interval I had had a good deal of experience as a lecturer and occasional speaker, and I had managed to acquire a fair degree of confidence. But asI sat there in the studio waiting for my turn, my pulse went about a hundred and fifty to the minute, and I sweated all over. When I sat down at the.microphone, my voice sounded as if it did not belong to me. Then, after I had said about a hundred words, I suddenly felt cool and collected. I had an intuition that the talk was going across well. They told me afterward that I was heard excellently. » 99 "y have found in public lecturing and speaking that deliberation pays, and so it must in broadcasting. Speak slowly, and make special points with special emphasis. If a point is vital, it is a good plan to go over it again, or at any rate repeat a word or two. And pauses are very helpful. They allow what you have said to soak in." "Tt is a new experience to talk to so large an audience as radio offers, and it is very pleasant to find that what is said is appreciated. Not only people -- 5

you know well, but people you hardly know, and people whem you did not. suspect of interest in your subject, ring you up or stop you in the street and mention your talk. It gives you a wider sense of brotherhood."