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General

My greatest weakness

General, History, People

In 1980, my first full year working at a radio station, there were two announcers doing commercials that I especially admired and wanted to emulate.

One was Jim Kelly, who had worked for a while at that same suburban Chicago radio station where I got my start. He then went on to work at the old FM 100, (4th bullet point) a Beautiful Music station. And to do a lot of radio commercials.

The other was John Doremus. One memory of John Doremus that is especially precious to me, was a series of announcements he voiced for the Union 76 service stations during the Bicentennial in 1976. Wonderful patriotic messages, delivered in that classic Doremus style.

Both of these men were examples of the archetypical big-voice announcer guy. And back then, that’s what I wanted to be too. To some extent I guess I succeeded. Or at least, I’ve made a fair amount of money doing the big-voice announcer guy for lots of different people since 1979.

However, since 1997, I’ve been working very hard to get as far away from that style as I can. Because, more and more, the only people who want that kind of sound are people who are stuck in the past. And the advertising that’s using that kind of voice on television or radio is losing effectiveness. Every day, a little at a time. But, it’s happening. And the pace is starting to accelerate.

The natural human voice is the sound. Authentic. Raw and unpolished. That’s the sound that’s coming. That’s already here. And I’m working hard to stay as close to my natural voice as I can. To unpolish what I worked so hard for so many years to polish. Because, I want to keep working. And not just on little jobs. And not just on things that are losing ground and losing effectiveness.

As strange as it may seem, my greatest weakness as a voice-over talent today, is the very thing that has been my bread and butter for the last 20 years. My “announcer” voice.

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Don’t miss this

General, People

Every year since 1997, I’ve spent a weekend in Los Angeles, getting better at voice-overs and at writing. The event is called The Interional Radio Creative and Production Summit. It’s two long days, filled with good, indeed often great, information.

Last year, for example, one of the seminars was led by Cindy Akers. I was very grateful that I got to be one of her volunteers. From her time coaching me, and from watching and listening to her coach a number of other talented voice performers in the room, I learned enough about auditioning that a few weeks after I returned home, I auditioned for and was cast as the narrator for a national Canadian History Channel program. All because I started to put into practice what I learned in one 2 hour seminar on the second day of last year’s Summit.

By the way, Dan O’Day (the host of the Summit) sells complete recordings of the last several years of the Summit in his on-line catalog. (Search on Summit in the catalog for a complete list of recordings available.)

They are well worth the investment. (And, no, I don’t get a commission from Dan.) If you buy one of the packages, you’ll probably hear me a few times, because I learned at my first Summit, how valuable it is to volunteer.

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Phone patching

General

(corrected) What a great delight it is to talk with someone on the phone. Get direction. Record. Edit. Save. Post. Email. And boom, a few minutes later, a radio station on the other side of the country is producing two promos with my voice tracks.

As Yakov would say, “What a country!” Uh, yes, I know, people do this sort of thing in lots of countries. I just happen to be in this one.

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What can I study?

Career Advice, General, People

Nearly everyone who does voiceover work professionally these days understands the value of training as an actor. Even straight single-voice copy often requires the ability to act in order to deliver the message effectively. Any acting classes, and especially improv, are beneficial.

But, I suspect not nearly enough people understand the value of musical training for voiceover work. I first learned this from Marice Tobias a number of years ago. I attended a master class she gave in Nashville, TN. During the class she made an off-hand comment about her experience that often the best voiceover people had some kind of musical training. As an illustration, she told us about an orchestra conductor from Canada who was at that time one of the hottest voiceover talents working.

In the years since then, I’ve often thought about that comment and about how valuable musical training is. For one thing, I’ve long believed that the most basic unit of spoken communication is the phrase. Not the sentence. Not the word. The phrase. Each phrase (typically) contains a single coherent thought or concept, which is connected with the other thoughts and concepts of a given sentence. How we shape and connect these phrases makes a huge difference in our ability to communicate clearly. (On the other hand, my friend Roy Williams breaks this idea down even further into thought particles. But, that’s another story for another time.)

And it is in this matter of phrasing where musical training is so beneficial. Because in order to play or sing well, we have to be able to shape and connect the musical phrases in a coherent manner or else our music doesn’t hold together the way we want it to.

Intimately bound up with phrasing (both musical and in voiceover) is the matter of timing and pace. Again, musical training helps us understand the value of timing. On the one hand, accurate…on time. On the other, not too rigid or we run the risk of seeming robotic rather than alive.

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Some people I’ve learned from

General, History, People

In my first post, I linked to a few of the people who have helped provide some polish to my voiceover craft. Without a doubt, the greatest influence on my work has been Dick Orkin.

Not that I can hold a candle or even a damp, unlit match, to Dick’s great talent. But, he has been kind enough to teach me a few things at various seminars over the last 8 years. Mainly at this one run by Dan O’Day, (though sadly Dick doesn’t seem to be actively taking part in these annual events any more).

Another powerful influence has been Dick Orkin’s creative and business partner, Christine Coyle (second item). Christine is one of the most gifted directors on the planet, at least when it comes to voice actors, and at these International Radio Creative and Production Summits each year, she has provided much valuable direction and encouragement.

Two other guys have influenced me a great deal, more as a writer than anything else; but writing, like music is extremely useful in the voiceover business. They are (the already mentioned) Dan O’Day and The Wizard of Ads, Roy Williams.

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