Radio: Mike Frights

The word once spoken flies beyond recall—Horace.

In London, at the end of the 9 o’clock news, Britain’s most popular radio program, Chief Announcer Stuart Hibberd opened his mouth to announce something from BBC’s unco-respectable studio. Just then a faulty light signal flashed—Off The Air! Listeners all over the United Kingdom thereupon heard, in cultured tones: What the hell?” (Observed the badly shaken BBC: “Involuntary. . . .”)

In Los Angeles, on ABC’s unrehearsed Bride & Groom program (TIME, Dec. 17), Emcee John Nelson, vimful of interest, asked impending groom Monroe St. John: “Did you propose, or did Jane [Pedley]?” Replied St. John, with a faraway look in his eyes: “. . . We were just lying down on the—” (Emcee Nelson interrupted, in a rapid gasp: “You were sitting this one out? )