Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-23
Behind the Microphone
BY THE RADIO EDITOR.

IF ever Amos n Andy run
short of gags for their daily
comedy broadcasts through
= the National Broadcasting Co.
networks, they have only to fall
back on their fan mail to find
material enough for another 10
years of laughs.
The amount of such mail, it
goes without saying, is tremend-
Gus; but what amazeS Correll
and GoSden when they read it
is the high percentage of genuine
humor found in the great ma
jority of letters.
The two radio comedians, Incl
dentally, just recently received
one fan letter which they prize
above them all. This came in an
envelope which was addressed
neither by name nor to any radio
station. It bore merely a pen
and ink sketch of two black face
figures. Above these is the legend
Il amt agonna do it." and below
the ambiguous address, New
York City, NY"
Yet this letter was delivered
without hesitation to the New
York headquarters of the Ma
tional BroadcaSting Co. and turn
ed over to Correll and Gosden.
1t came from Karl ]. MiSlin of
Kansas City, and inclosed an in
geniouS set of elastic shoe laces'
designed especially for Andy after
hearing him complain about his
feet.
your old friend Pat Pending
was in Kansas City and we be-
came very good friends" Mislin
wrote. "As a result I made these
shoe laceS just for you. A smart
man like you can follow the di-
rectionS for wearing, and don't
forget to explain the situation to
Amos. Perhaps, he'll want some,
too"
Both Amos and Andy admit
they didn't know what they were
starting when they introduced
Pat Pending into their programs.
A deluge of similar names based
on abbreviated symbols flooded
their mail for several weeks.
But not all the letters are writ
ten in a humorous vein. Some of
them are extremely serious. One
of the most serious notes, they
say, is the funniest they ever re-
ceived in their lives. This was
the one from the Treasury De-
partment'S Boston Office inclosing
income tax forms for corporations
and mailed to THE Fresh Air
Taxicab Co., Inc, care of station
WBZ."
THERE are words and phrases
it's best not to use on the air,
according to announcerS and pro-
duction men. They are no naughty
words, either. The ban is not a
question of morals but of diction.
Known as bad air words" it is
part of the radio directors job to
find substitutes, if possible, for
them when he prepares script
for broadcaSting. And in such
commonplace scripts" as the
daily stock market reports come
some of the trickieSt and hardest
words to enunciate before a
microphone.
For example, the combination
of sounds resulting in general
railway signal" causes many an
nouncerS to hesitate. Some one
has to read it everyday during the
stock reports, but every so often
it reaches the listeners as gen
eral wailway signal" The reason
is that the tongue must perform
certain acrobatic movements in
order clearly to enunciate every
syllable. Tongues will slip.
Words with what are known as
explosive" conSonantS are hard
air words. For example, ''indubi-
tably," not easy to handle under
any given condition, makes the
sensitive galvonometer needle
Jump all over the dial, indicating
that it has certain qualities found
not best for broadcasting. "Apa-
thetic" is another, and peep,
simple and inoffensive as it may
seem in print, often causes trou-
BILE. Any combination of letters
that cause ''pops"-say pop