RADIO LINGO – Drew Pearson, April 18, 1937
Most readable of recent government publications is one which goes to the heart of the radio industry with definitions of drooling, ‘dead spot , ‘ ”in the mud,” and “schmalzing it.
The Department of Interior has gotten out a glossary of the vernacular growing up in the radio industry. In this lively pamphlet, you may learn that:
- “Drooling” means padding a program with talk in order to fill out the allotted time.
- A “dead spot,” also known as “white space,” is a period of silence when a program is supposed to be on the air.
- “In the mud” is what they say of a lifeless delivery with an< uninteresting quality of voice.
- “Schmalz it” is what the production director says to the orchestra conductor when he wants the music played in a sentimental style
- Any word that is mispronounced or distorted in meaning is said to have “fluff” or ”beard,”
- A program scheduled five days a week at the same hour is booked “across the board,
- A program which, while on the air, appears to be on time to the second is “on the nose.”