OVEREAS MESSAGES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4522, 12 January 1942, Page 4

OVEREAS MESSAGES

SOLDIERS AND “MIKE FRIGHT” To many New Zealanders stationed in the Middle East the opportunity of sending messages to the Dominion by radio has a real appeal (states a writer in Fanz, the magazine of the New Zealand Field Ambulance). “To most of those soldiers who wish to broadcast, facing the microphone is a unique experience, and ‘ mike fright ’ claims a large number of victims, rendering burly soldiers strangely silent, and the toughest ser-geant-majors all a-twitter. “ The records upon completion are despatched to the Egyptian State Broadcasting House at Cairo, and the rather round-about yet interesting method of presenting them to New Zealand listeners begins. At a certain hour each day the Egyptian State Broadcasting * goes over to London ’ (a radio term which is self-explanat-ory), with the greeting, such as ‘ Hello, 8.8. C, How is everything tonight ? I’ve a few recordings for you.’ In a typically 8.8. C. voice there will probably come back, “ Hello, Cairo. Go ahead, old man.’ “ The records are played over and recorded again in the 8.8. C. studios, where they are held until the hour for the broadcast to New Zealand, in the form of the Sunday morning sessions of soldiers’ greetings.”