Back in 1985, when I was working at WVUD-FM in Dayton (now WLQT), CBS Radio affiliates were given early access, via network satellite, to “We Are The World” before records (yes records) got mailed to stations. WVUD as a CBS affiliate could download it and as production manager, that’s what I did, running the cart down to the on-air studio so Pat Haverland, our midday guy, could be first to air it in the market; he did and we were.

So the song has always had a special place within me…and (for different reasons) just about everybody else.

I will grant you that 25 years ago and then again this year, the professional singers who participated in the recordings had the best of intentions and indeed turned in fine performances.

But when I saw George Whittam’s facebook posting of this very unique video of a less famous rendition, it made me think that maybe this was how it was supposed to be performed in the first place. Social media done extremely well? What do you think?

Tags: commentary, radio, social media, youtube by peter o'connell voiceover
1 Comment »

Some sad news for voice over and social media folks.

You may or may not have had the chance to interact with voice talent Justin Kaiser. I did, on-line, and he was a very pleasant guy with talents in a multiple of disciplines: voice over, social media, marketing.

I was terribly saddened to read on the VO-BB early this morning that Justin had died. While I am unable to find an obituary to link to at the moment, there is some info on the VO-BB link above. The WGFA radio web site (where Justin was Operations Manager and Morning Show host) indicated at the time of the post that Justin was suffering from complications following surgery around Christmas time.

While I am unsure how long his family will keep up his web sites, for the time being I think all you need to know about Justin and his family is found in this video that Justin recorded as he and his wife Diana hopefully mailed their adoption paperwork. Watch, listen and remember with a smile.

P.S. Here is a link the WGFA Radio fan page on Facebook, where you can also leave a message. We’re not bound by zip codes anymore.

Tags: commentary, radio, requiescat in pace, social media, voice talent, voiceover by peter o'connell voiceover
8 Comments »

There are many reasons I am odd in spite of my usually relatively composed demeanor:

* There are certain restaurants (many actually) where I always have the same thing everytime I go there. This makes some people in my life nuts because of my sameness and my disinterest in cooking

* I am fascinated my many aspects of design but I have always been fascinated by TV set design (side note: great web site here about set design). This fascination is especially odd because I am not handy at all…I couldn’t build a bird house let alone a news set.

* Finally (at least for this current list) I love jingles…commercial jingles, TV network promo campaign jingles and especially radio station jingles

Now maybe this last oddity is a hazard of my bidnez but I have always been drawn to it. I have collections of reel to reels and cassette demos of radio jingle packages from all the major companies and to this day I still have book marked sites for TM Studios , Jam Creative Productions, Reel World, M-Edge (which used to be N2 Effect), Studio Speak and others.

Prior to the internet, I thought I was alone in my enjoyment of all things jingle…but I am not.

There is a blog and podcast for us jinglephiles or jinglites or jinglonians (or what we’re supposed to be called): The Jingle News Show hosted by Stuart Barret with voice imaging for the show done by friend, voice over great Bob Taylor. It’s an especially cool show because it features radio jingles from around the world. I may not understand what they are saying by I like the musicality of many of them.

There are probably more but right now this is the one I subscribe to so if you’re interested, there you go.

If not, well, I am sorry but I can’t give you those wasted three minutes of your life back.

Tags: commentary, commercials, jingles, radio, voice talent by peter o'connell voiceover
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So my voice over compatriot Rich Brennan in New York observantly posted on the Yahoo Voice Over Message Board an ad he saw recently on Joel Denver’s truly great radio webzine (recently and beautifully redesigned) All Access.com (the following ad is no reflection on Joel, or his fine site at all):

Need 2 male voices-Ages 30-50
Production company looking for male talent ages 30-50 to do voiceovers for small and medium market radio and t.v. Must have access to a professional studio Mon-Fri and be available at least one hour per day. We pay $7 for each dry unedited v/o regardless of length. (One word, one line, :15, :30 or :60)Please send :60 unpolished raw demo to voice4radio@comcast.net.

No professionally mixed demos. They seem to be rather misleading.

Deadline to submit demos is October 8, 2009.

Rich added this resonating comment:

SEVEN DOLLARS????

I agree…that fee is absolutely insulting; a reflection of how poorly some people view what voice talents do professionally. So I decided to respond to the ad in my own way. This is my complete,and I thought, fairly restrained response:

—– Original Message —–
From: “Peter K. O’Connell”
To: voice4radio@comcast.net
Sent: Thursday, October 1, 2009 7:50:30 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: VO needed

$7.00 per voice over?

I hope your employer offers you more professional compensation than
you are proposing to the voice over community in your ad.

peter k. o’connell :: audio’connell voice over talent
+01 716 572 1800 :: www.audioconnell.com

Hurling insults back when you’ve been insulted didn’t work in the school yard and it doesn’t work now so (as those who know me will agree) my response was tame even by my own standards. I thought just by offering a little perspective that this might let this person know that the fee was really bad.

And I did get a response, albeit unsigned, (which I’m assuming is because of this producer’s shame for lowballing this job):

> From: voice4radio@comcast.net
> Date: October 1, 2009 10:27:26 EDT
> To: “Peter K. O’Connell” > Subject: Re: VO needed
>
> Hahahahaha…listen sweetheart…we’re producing these ads for $15 for small market stations who can’t afford $150 spots..nor do they have the staff on hand to do their own production..so the next time you wanna be a smart ass, think before you speak..$7 is definitely enough for our talent. And since I posted this ad yesterday at 5pm..I’ve received hundreds of demos from guys who are fine with the ‘compensation’..These are people who manage their own production companies, who work in large markets and have incredible voices..(they’re just wanting a little spending money on the side)..like the rest of us. And these days, in radio…we’re all starving, so be quiet..

Which was followed up by his/her second response (still anonymous of course):

> From: voice4radio@comcast.net
> Date: October 1, 2009 10:34:40 EDT
>
> To: “Peter K. O’Connell” > Subject: Re: VO needed
>
> PS…Yeah, I checked out your website..You’re ‘one of those’….(I won’t comment..I’ll just leave it at that)..lol..

Because I’m really not sure what this person meant, I’ll have to assume that “one of those” means “professional voice over talent” or “someone who actually makes money in voice over”. It’s true, I am “one of those”…oh the shame I bear!

Are there people in the voice over industry or radio who are so desperate to put food on the table that they’ll gladly take a $7.00 voice over job (which, minus the 5 cents for printing the invoice and getting an envelope and an additional 44 cents for postage actually only equals $6.51)?

Possibly as no one is immune despite their best efforts, but I doubt any true starving is going on within this circumstance. Even if it were, most media professionals I know would be smart enough to know that they could easily avoid starvation by grabbing one of the many minimum wage jobs featured in the paper each week. Is it an easy living? Heck no but it’s a more realistic financial opportunity than snatch and grab voice jobs.

I think any responses this anonymous “producer” received were more likely responses from people WANTING to be professional voice talents or PRETENDING to be professional voice talents. Since it would seem quality is not a requirement for these producers or obviously the client, then those folks might indeed grab the glory of that $7 spotlight. But they are so sadly devaluing their professional worth (even as a newbie) for such a gig.

It’s a hard, long road ahead for these folks if they think they’ll create a career, let alone a professional reputation from $7 jobs. It’s their decision but I do feel very badly for them and they might not fully understand why.

I know, however, how much I don’t know. Mine is not the only opinion on this producer’s position (or that of the voice talent willing to take a lowball gig.

So tell me your thoughts…it’s OK to disagree with me; just provide your prospective. Or if you agree with me, your perspective is also welcome.

Is my logic flawed? Am I being an elitist?

Discuss.

Tags: radio, tv, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter o'connell voiceover
42 Comments »

A nice surprise today in the mail when I got my invitation to Buffalo Broadcasters Association’s 13th Annual Hall of Fame Awards Celebration on September 22nd.

A long time Western New York voice talent and former KB Radio jock and production director Pat Feldballe is one of this year’s inductees. I can’t say for sure but I think this is the hall’s first inductee whose primary career has been as a voice talent.

Pat’s always been a very nice fellow and if you’ve every seen a Time-Life Commercial, you’ve probably heard Pat’s voice. Lord knows he does almost every non-radio produced spot in the Buffalo market.

Congrats Pat, a well deserved honor.

Tags: announcers, audio production, commentary, commercials, radio, voice talent, voiceover by peter o'connell voiceover
No Comments »

OK gang, fun idea time!

As this blog is about voice over (vox), marketing (market) and advertising (tising) I thought we should have some summer fun here and combine all three into a voice talent business card gallery.

Simply email me a decent quality jpeg picture of your business card (front and back if you print on both sides) and we’ll show them here. Email peter (insert the at sign) audio’connell dot com and I’ll post all entries. Maybe we’ll have a card beauty contest and pick a winner….we’ll see first what kinda legs this idea has.

By the way, I’m not a pro at sizing these cards and images to fit the blog so some cards will be bigger and some will be smaller but size does not equal talent…at least in this effort.

Here’s mine to kick things off:

Tags: advertising, blogs, branding, commentary, community, logo design, marketing, radio, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter o'connell voiceover
14 Comments »