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CNN Live At Daybreak

Look at World Champion Whistler

Aired November 07, 2002 - 05:51   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: With the threat of war and the struggling economy, we may just need a little happy whistle now and then to lighten the mood.
CNN's Jeanne Moos found one New Yorker who's practiced that and made it perfect.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Remember the days when everyone used to whistle? From dwarfs to prisoner of war...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just put your lips together and blow.

MOOS: Which is how Steve Herbst got to be the world champion of whistling.

(on camera): Wow.

(voice-over): From "Hungarian Rhapsody" to "Danny Boy," if you can name it...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Someone To Watch Over Me."

MOOS: Steve can whistle it. At 13 months, he mimicked his father whistling. Almost half a century later this ad (AUDIO GAP) is king of the world of whistling. Watching home video of his winning performance earlier this year...

(on camera): You look a little like a joker.

STEVE HERBST, 2002 WHISTLING CHAMPION: I must stand for the idea that whistling is an idea whose time has returned.

MOOS (voice-over): Every year whistlers return to Lewisburg, North Carolina for the annual international competition. Contestants range in age from 80 to 12. Steve says whistling gets no respect and most folks put it in the same category as...

HERBST: Calling the hogs in for the night or something.

MOOS: Skip the souee (ph). We're talking Debussy (ph), as in Claude Debussy's "Claire de Lune." Steve has to be coaxed into whistling low brow tunes.

(on camera): We do want to hear "Mayberry."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, let's hear "Home On The Range."

HERBST: "Home On The Range?"

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a good...

MOOS: And then your wife saying you're a good kisser?

HERBST: That's what she says, yes.

MOOS (voice-over): At his Web site, stevethewhistler.com, he sells a CD of whistled favorites. Lip syncing to whistling is a piece of cake. That's Steve's parrot, who's just learning to whistle. This is a guy whose whistle spans three octaves, but he says he can't whistle loud enough to hail a cab.

HERBST: So I usually rely on the raising of the arm.

MOOS: He can whistle Stevie Wonder. He can whistle "My Way."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can play at my wedding, my second wedding.

MOOS: His way is the pucker method, while this guy prefers throat whistling.

(on camera): How is he making the sound?

HERBST: Beats the hell out of me.

MOOS (voice-over): Steve loves whistling in the shower, where his parrot has a bird's eye view.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired November 7, 2002 - 05:51   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: With the threat of war and the struggling economy, we may just need a little happy whistle now and then to lighten the mood.
CNN's Jeanne Moos found one New Yorker who's practiced that and made it perfect.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Remember the days when everyone used to whistle? From dwarfs to prisoner of war...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just put your lips together and blow.

MOOS: Which is how Steve Herbst got to be the world champion of whistling.

(on camera): Wow.

(voice-over): From "Hungarian Rhapsody" to "Danny Boy," if you can name it...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Someone To Watch Over Me."

MOOS: Steve can whistle it. At 13 months, he mimicked his father whistling. Almost half a century later this ad (AUDIO GAP) is king of the world of whistling. Watching home video of his winning performance earlier this year...

(on camera): You look a little like a joker.

STEVE HERBST, 2002 WHISTLING CHAMPION: I must stand for the idea that whistling is an idea whose time has returned.

MOOS (voice-over): Every year whistlers return to Lewisburg, North Carolina for the annual international competition. Contestants range in age from 80 to 12. Steve says whistling gets no respect and most folks put it in the same category as...

HERBST: Calling the hogs in for the night or something.

MOOS: Skip the souee (ph). We're talking Debussy (ph), as in Claude Debussy's "Claire de Lune." Steve has to be coaxed into whistling low brow tunes.

(on camera): We do want to hear "Mayberry."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, let's hear "Home On The Range."

HERBST: "Home On The Range?"

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a good...

MOOS: And then your wife saying you're a good kisser?

HERBST: That's what she says, yes.

MOOS (voice-over): At his Web site, stevethewhistler.com, he sells a CD of whistled favorites. Lip syncing to whistling is a piece of cake. That's Steve's parrot, who's just learning to whistle. This is a guy whose whistle spans three octaves, but he says he can't whistle loud enough to hail a cab.

HERBST: So I usually rely on the raising of the arm.

MOOS: He can whistle Stevie Wonder. He can whistle "My Way."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can play at my wedding, my second wedding.

MOOS: His way is the pucker method, while this guy prefers throat whistling.

(on camera): How is he making the sound?

HERBST: Beats the hell out of me.

MOOS (voice-over): Steve loves whistling in the shower, where his parrot has a bird's eye view.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com