THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

A COMEDY OF ERRORS | 2005-05-14

I turned the mike off in the middle of the program. Kelso notified me, and I finally found out what this "technical" problem was.

One person said I sounded like I was on "downers," meaning tranquillizers like Valium. Unfortunately, I was perfectly clean and sober. What happens is that, with all you have to say, when that mike is suddenly open and under your nose, even the pros speak haltingly.

That is why professional announcers are so energetic. When you listen to the replay, you keep telling yourself, "For Heaven's sake, get to the POINT!" The words don't come to you, and every break for thought sounds very, very long on the listener's end.

It also doesn't help if you turn off the mike in the middle of the program.

When I didn't see any comments on Stormfront and my blog was dead in the water, I closed out the program at 6:58 instead of 7.

The reason I had none of the many comments on Stormfront was because I had not hit the "Refresh" button.

When, once again, I found out what this complicated technical problem was, I got back on the show and dealt with the comments on Stormfront.

The blog stayed dead. Whitakeronline.org has the least responsive audience on Planet Earth, but the ideas get out, which is what I am after.

Also, I am not used to a headset. In ham radio and back when I did my stint as a radio announcer, there was a separate set of earphones and a separate microphone (or a code key, or tom-toms -- this was a LONG time ago). Any motion you make with this microphone attached to the headphones can result in a sound like an explosion.