World War: ON THE AIR: The Art of Heckling

For weeks powerful Moscow transmitters have interrupted German news broadcasts with a raucous, heckling voice called Ivan The Terrible or Der Snag (TIME, Sept. 8), which yells such comments as “Hitler kicks the bucket!” By last week the Axis had learned how to heckle back.

The British Broadcasting Corp. had to cope with a voice which was quickly nicknamed Harassing Harry or von Donald—the latter because of its high, rasping resemblance to the quacking of Donald Duck. Into BBC newscasts von Donald injected such quacks as “We want a national Government, not an American Government or a Jewish Government or a Government of the Press. . . . We are being swindled and led up a garden path and sold to America. . . . Too much talk. We want more food. Churchill will get his cigars.”

Sometimes British listeners could hear laughter from the heckler’s studio audience. Once he tipped his location by suddenly speaking, as if to a nearby radio technician, in Italian.

In Rome, Newscaster Mario Appelius was the first of his profession to talk back to a radio heckler. His program was interrupted by a voice exclaiming: “You are an Italian ass.” Signor Appelius riposted: “That’s better than being a British citizen.” This led to an impromptu exchange of high-school wit. Later in the week, when the heckler’s voice was faint, Signor Appelius tried for the large effect by crying: “Speak louder, ghost! No ghost will save England.”

Another heckler disturbed a Rome broadcast of The Barber of Seville. Still another broke into Italian broadcasts from Athens with such snorts as “The Italian Empire is finished!”