The fact of the matter is radio stations need Christmas music…badly!

Research seems to indicate that stations (Adult Contemporary or Adult Hits formats mostly) that play 24 hours of Christmas music enjoy a surge in first quarter ratings as a carry over. Radio advertising revenues have been on a steady decline (unfortunately) so I get the economic sense of the business decision.

I understand the competitive argument of being first in the market to get your station playing Christmas music…maybe listeners will think yours is the only station in the market doing it (ha!) so they will stay glued to their radio.

Further, I get that retailers are pushing Christmas shopping to start earlier and earlier so you want your station on in retail stores. Sears announced they will now be open on Thanksgiving Day because family is evidently less important than retail profits.

Knowing all that, I still believe you radio people should start your damn Christmas music the Friday after Thanksgiving!

And you don’t care what I think. And I understand.

* Poorly sung to the music of “Oh Christmas Tree”

Some will think this stuff and nonsense but I have been stewing about something for while and it has truly been bugging me.

Facebook Fan Pages.

Specifically, should I have one for my voice over marketing?

I have one for the Voice Over Entrance Exam and I have my own personal Facebook page…but do I need a “Fan” page? Sheesh!

Social Media clearly has a narcissistic component to it. Rarely are you asking people on Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn or on your blog how they are doing – more likely you are telling people who, what, when, where and how you are doing.

There is no ME in team but there sure is ME in Social Media.

Yet most of us play the game and often times enjoy it especially when there is give and take, usually always pleasant.

But I guess it’s the term Fan Page that has bothered me (I think Facebook is trying to get everyone to call it a Like Page but you’re basically asking for fans or for people to vote that they like you.)

That’s awkward to ask and seems kinda desperate in appearance when the Fan Page is about me (the e-book is a “thing” and it helps people – I have no problem with a Fan Page there).

I have joined a ton of fan pages for other people and never gave it a second thought. No, I didn’t think they were desperate at all because of their Fan Page.

But I look at myself differently. It feels like I am being egotistical if I do this Fan Page thing. The old comic line “But enough about me, what do YOU think of me?” comes to mind. Again…awkward is the word that keeps coming to mind for me.

From a business stand point, it could help me communicate with people on Facebook who are interested in my voice over business (the same reason I participate on LinkedIn and Twitter). That’s the big “Pro” in the “Pro/Con” debate that’s been raging in my cranium literally for months.

Well, ultimately that was the deciding factor for me and shamefully, I am announcing I have a Facebook Fan Page now (talk about burying the lead). Peter K. O’Connell – Male Voice Over Talent is what its called (for the SEO lovers out there). In this context, it sounds as ridiculous as “Peter K. O’Connell – Male Model” but, in for a penny, in for a pound.

We’ll have to see how long I can stomach this. I make no promises.

Thanks for listening.

My dear brothers and sisters in voice over,

There comes a time in each person’s life when they need to use their blog to bloviate, purge and otherwise sound-off on urgent pressing matters of state. Today is that day for me and I hope for you too.

And by state I mean the state of voice over auditioning in our world. Too often we are given mixed directions on how to submit auditions by our various talent representatives. From useless cattle call auditions, to slating to file names and so much more, we are forced to suffer the indignities of reading directions and following through.

Suddenly, voice over has become like a real job and this is completely unacceptable. We are sloth-like, we are sleepy, we are….voice talents!

Join my ridiculous crusade to make our lives better and more importantly to make our lives easier when we audition for new voice over jobs.

Sign your name in the comment section of this blog and begin your path to an easier auditioning experience for all!

Thank you!

Dear Voice Over Agents,

On behalf of all voice talents (none of whom know I am writing this letter which will never be mailed) who are pleased to work in partnership with you to deliver sacks of cash to all our front doors, thank you for your efforts on our behalf. It is appreciated!

We would like to address an administrative (thinking of the right word here….challenge, problem, nope…wait) opportunity that we think will help make all our lives (yours and your voice talents) much simpler and certainly more organized.

Following a week long summit of all the world’s voice over talent at a resort in the Poconos, where there were speakers, group meetings, break-out sessions and even a few make-out sessions, the following document was contrived and entitled:

The World-wide Audition Completion Keys Enjoinment (WACKE)

The root of this WACKE idea is to establish universal standards and formatting rules for each and every voice over audition that, once implemented on the professional level (between professional voice talents and professional voice talent agents), will eventually become the standard for every organization requesting voice over auditions from talent (not that we ever get any leads from anyone other than our agents, of course).

Item 1: No More Customized Voice Over Auditions Ever – It was unanimously decided that we as voice talent have either personally produced or paid ridiculously large gobs of money to have produced voice over demos that clearly outline our individual vocal skill sets and that jonesing by a client to hear his/her brand name melodiously uttered by hundreds of voice talents just so the client can ultimately pick his cousin Morty as the voice talent because he/she owes him a favor. This clearly makes customized auditions a fairly antiquated process.

Item 1, Subsection 1: Because we’re all pretty much voice over strumpets, we will agree to do a customized audition…occasionally!

Item 1, Subsection 2: Cattle Call Auditions Terminated – The practice of emailing an audition to every man on an agency roster because the specs include the word “male” (same for female) must immediate cease and desist. Agents are required to know all the voice types on their rosters and request auditions ONLY from the voice types that fairly match the description set forth by the client.

Item 2: Audition Voice Slating: All auditions will require a voice slate identifying the voice talent performing the audition. The current trend where some agents require a slate and some do not needlessly confuses small minded voice talents (which practically describes all of us on our side of the microphone).

Item 2, Subsection 2: It must be universally agreed upon by the agents where to place said slate on the audition’s audio file. Voice talents will not place the slate at the beginning of an audition for some agents and at the end of an audition for others. Front OR back, pick one and ONLY one from this point forward.

Item 2, Subsection 3: The text for every voice over audition voice slate henceforth will be as follows: “For (Agent Name) and (Client Name), this is (Voice Talent Name).” There will be no variations in text as any character names that might be needed can be included in the file name (See Item 3).

Item 3: Audition File Naming: Henceforth, all voice over audition files shall be named thusly: Client Name, Character Name, Agency Name, Voice Talent First Initial_Last Name.

Example: McDonalds, Announcer, All Coast Talent, P_O’CONNELL

Item 4: Audition File Format: The standard file format for all voice over auditions will be MP3 until such time as voice talents reconvene to recognize a new file format industry standard as dictated by advances in audio technology, assuming there are any.

Item 5: Transmission of Audition to Agent: Forthwith all agents will establish one email address for the receipt of all auditions and it will read as follows: auditions@agencydomain.suffix . Please note that any agent using a public email domain currently (like @gmail.com or @yahoo.com) needs to man-up (or woman-up) and get a professional email domain like most grown-up companies. It’s not that expense…even voice talents have them, THAT’S how cheap email domain extensions are!

Item 5, Subsection 2: Acknowledgment of Receipt of an Audition: Agents will set up an auto-responder that will issue an email back to each voice talent who has submitted an audition to them.

Adopted herein this Twenty-Fifth Day of August in the Year of our Lord two thousand and nine by the undersigned who are silly (and yet hopeful) enough to believe that such specifications could ever be universally agreed to by….anybody!

OK, look….it’s a thing with me.

We all have these “things” that irk us. They are small, mundane issues that make us each a little nuts…the things that make your friends say…”what’s your problem?”.

Mine is (well one of mine is) email signatures. Specifically email signatures without key info like phone number (office and cell!) and web site. When I need to contact somebody fast, I often look up their email for their contact info. When it’s not there when I need it, I have a little (internal) hissy fit.

The thing is not all the people with whom I correspond have a spot in my address book. This is mostly due to the fact that I don’t update my contact manager as often as I should.

But just so we’re clear, this post isn’t about what I can do better (my “perfection” is well documented)…it’s about how other people need to make my life easier.

Glad that’s settled.

So here’s the thing, say “Linus*” sends me an email, he would like me to call him and he signs the email just “Linus”.

Uh, “Linus” do you know that MOST email programs have an automatic signature feature wherein you can fill out your complete sig with all your pertinent contact info once and it will appear at the bottom of your email automatically as soon as you open it?

Well, “Linus” now you do. I’m glad we had this little talk.

* I don’t know any Linus although it has, for a long time, been one of my favorite names. However, it has never been one of Mrs. audio’connell’s favorite names, hence in my brood you will find no “Linus”

About once a year (maybe twice if I’m actually in the mood for it) I remember I need to update the voice over blog roll that you see to the right of this post. (No, no, your other right!)

It contains a list of all the voice over talents who have blogs. Well now that isn’t entirely true, you see, because there are some voice talents who have blogs but seem to be blogging impaired (they start a blog in 2007, write one post and that’s it) or who have content that is regularly so far off the voice over path that it doesn’t qualify for what I want to list.

None the less, either the amont of voice over bloggers has grown enormously recently or I haven’t been keeping up. Now since you and I know that I am perfect and without fault, let’s just say the list has grown.

When doing research on any project its always best to either start with Google or start at the library. In the world of voice over, that library is found at the internet intersection of Bob and Souer where the land’s most popular voice over blog resides. Bob has over 1 million subscribers.

Here? Well there’s just you and me but I pay you a pretty penny to pretend you like reading this stuff so I don’t want to hear any complaints!

Anyway, over at Bob’s blog I found a ton of new blogs (people email him their links to new blogs because, you know, people actually read his blog). So while I won’t say I actually stole my updated voice-over blog roll listing from Bob’s blog, let’s just say I “borrowed” liberally – along the same lines as radio stations borrow their morning newscast scripts from the morning newspaper.

Now bloggers, listen up – many of you have made wonderful efforts in your posts. The graphics are also lovely. But I have one question: where is your “subscribe” button? Do you have one? Do you know that having a blog without a subscribe button is akin to having an Oreo without milk? Correct…it’s just not done or if it is done, it’s just not right!

Some of you have a little text post in teeny tiny letters that whisper “subscribe” on a side panel or worse that the very bottom of the blog. All the while a possible subscriber is hunting all over the place. What’s worse are you poor souls that have no subscribe button at all. RSS is the blogger’s golden ticket, folks! Note the nice big orange logo on the upper right corner of this blog! People will not click on a link to find your posts everyday- blog aficionados use blog readers. And if someone can’t subscribe to your blog, chances are I am not linking to you on this site. Just a little tough love to help your blog’s readership.

OK, rant completed and it is now my pleasure to welcome the following people to the voiceover blog roll (all of whom are welcome to link back to THIS blog, if they haven’t already). But worry not, my link is not a quid pro quo. So please enjoy reading:

alan bainbridge’s blog

amy snively’s blog

anthony mendez’s blog

marc cashman’s blog

dan lenard’s blog

dana detrick-clark’s blog

dave deandrea’s blog

dave temple’s blog

donna reed’s blog

emma clarke’s blog

erik sheppard’s blog

jamee t. perkin’s blog

kat kessling’s blog

lance blair’s blog

lindsay reiss’ blog

matt anothony’s blog

michael flowers’ blog

michael minetree’s blog

mike cooper’s blog

mitch phillips’ blog

russ renshaw’s blog

scott larson’s blog

steve anthony’s blog

t.j. jones’ blog

tom tolces’ blog

Welcome all. Your talents are grand and your insights are immeasurable.

I’m glad to have in this space and to know you as my peer.

Common sense has never reigned supreme in the corridors of Washington, D.C. because playing protectionism politics is always more fun. And then there’s the option of making something out of nothing. The folks over at the Federal Communications Commission have proven themselves devoted practitioners of both games.

All because of a couple of radio networks and Janet Jackson’s boobie. Let’s just pause for a moment because I never thought I’d have to write that word (and I can only hope I spelled it right).

XM AND SIRIUS
On February 19, 2007 satellite radio company competitors XM and Sirius announced their intention to merge. The marketplace does not need (at this juncture anyway) two services. There is barely enough audience for one to survive.

The FCC usually takes about 180 days to review such a motion and render its decision. Today, it’s rumored that a commissioner will cast the deciding yes vote to approve the merger…maybe. It’s been over a year since their review started and it’s not done. The National Association of Broadcasters are wetting their pants in fear of the merger and lobbying like heck. Senators and Congressmen who are just now discovering the FM radio band continue to offer their opinion on why it should or should not go through.

By the way, you are paying for all this grandstanding. You sitting there reading…you personally paid for all this baloney.

I’m not naïve to the fact that there are important legal issues at stake in such a merger but that’s what the six month review time is for. The FCC is teeming with lawyers who should have been able to review the pros and cons, bring it to the commissioners, let them review and vote….in the allotted time. No matter what happens with the merger (which I think should be approved) the Federal Communications Commission failed to execute its duties in a timely, professional manner.

JANET JACKSON AND THE CASE OF THE MISBEHAVING BRA
Maybe it was a corset, a tank top or some other thing that I also don’t understand. The point is that it came off during the Super Bowl’s halftime show and was visible to one of the largest TV audiences of the year (including children) for (according to court documents) “nine-sixteenths of one second.” And as far as how close up the shot was on television, maybe 1/16 of the screen.

Now, if you are like me you probably saw the “incident” on You Tube (no I’m not giving you the link…if you need it that bad you go find it yourself) or some such thing and it seemed longer…well that’s what slo-mo instant replay on a loop can do to your memory.

Whether it was a planned mistake by the performers (asking for forgiveness instead of permission) or a performance mistake it was a mistake. I’m a pretty conservative guy on most things but to me it was much ado about nothing. It was the constant replays on the web and on news shows that made it a story and then an issue and then the FCC got involved and botched the whole thing.

Government inquires, depositions, testimony, committee meetings all to fine CBS $500,000. And a Federal Appeals Court just slapped the FCC upside the head, throwing out the fine saying the FCC didn’t follow its own rules properly so their fine was illegal.

Do you want to guess how much money was spent by you and I, our tax dollars from our earnings, on deciding on that fine and then getting it over turned? I don’t know but my low estimate is about 5x the fine amount when you work in the salaries and legal fees.

It seems the FCC is hapless and we as its bankers are helpless. I don’t like that, do you?

Editor’s Note: In the daily observation of life around him, the author occasionally feels the need to point out ridiculously inane behavior and general thoughtlessness. These are called “Rants” and this is one of those times.

Today is Blog Action Day , a day when bloggers across the internet have agreed to publish a post about one topic based on the concept:

“What would happen if every blog published posts discussing the same issue, on the same day? One issue. One day. Thousands of voices.”

We found out about this project in August.

My environmental hot button has always been litter: how incredibly easy it is to contain, how unnecessarily careless people are with their minor waste and how it’s grown into such a huge problem.

I’ll let the more environmentally educated in the world tackle the statistics on garbage collected and how best to recycle, etc. I want to focus on the simple everyday problem of daily litter and stopping people from littering.

Many people of a certain generation will remember in 1971 the Keep America Beautiful campaign’s TV spot for Earth Day where the actor known as Iron Eyes Cody came upon all the litter surrounding America, which made him cry.

That was 1971.

It’s not much different in 2007.

At least twice a week as I’m driving my car, I see one of the other drivers tossing some wrapper or cigarette or other refuse out of their car on to a street or expressway. Somehow the materials that got into their car “immediately” need to be expunged from the car…for some reason, it can’t be disposed of in their home’s garbage can or in a nearby trash receptacle at their next stop (there are trash cans at public places almost everywhere these days).

It’s not just cars though. Parks, streets, its everywhere!

I know Americans are lazier than ever, I know we’re less educated than ever and more disrespectful than ever. So all I think it takes is a quick reminder…a loud, public, always polite reminder that will attract attention from anyone within ear shot and embarrass the crap out of the litter bug.

(In an overly clear loud voice professional voice talent….but you can do it too>) “Hello, HELLO SIR!!!! I’m sure you dropped that wrapper on the sidewalk by accident so I just wanted to remind you to please, right now, pick up that wrapper and throw it in the garbage can you’re standing next to, great, thanks!”

Start politely humiliating the offenders, wherever possible. If we’re silent, litterbugs think we don’t mind. We mind and we need to let them know it.

I think one of the best ways to tackle a huge problem like protecting the earth’s environment is to start small. To a person, litter is a small thing, something that if we each just THINK about it, about what we are doing, how and where we are disposing our trash, we can make a huge impact.

I hope you’ll help by not littering and publicly (and politely) calling out anyone who does.

Editor’s Note: In the daily observation of life around him, the author occasionally feels the need to point out ridiculously inane behavior and general thoughtlessness. These are called “Rants” and this is one of those times.

She died from the recurrence of breast cancer on October 4, 2007. Lisa Moore is survived by her husband and 5 year old daughter.

She was a lawyer, a mother, a wife and a character in the comic pages of hundreds of newspapers in America. Her illness and death had been planned and drawn out by Funky Winkerbean creator Tom Batiuk, himself a cancer survivor.

As a result of this strip and Batiuk’s absolute right to tell the stories he wants to tell, much good will be done in the very worthwhile fight against cancer. University Hospitals Ireland Cancer Center in Cleveland has unveiled a fund called Lisa’s Legacy Fund for Cancer Research and Education, named in honor of Batiuk’s character and her cancer storyline. The “Lisa” character will be the subject of a book, a compilation of her strips. The story line has resonated with thousands of readers, many directly or indirectly touched by cancer. This is all quite admirable that something like this can come from a comic strip.

The story line of this character’s death did not resonate, however, with this reader.

Part of my daily routine, as some of you are aware, is to head out for breakfast each day to my regular place, get my bagel and my Pepsi and read the morning paper. I will learn, during my daily reading, about the significantly troubling news of the day. Various wars, crimes against men, women and children around the world and in my back yard. Politicians will make thoughtless decisions and sports teams will often disappoint. There is usually some good news in there too but it’s usually overshadowed by the former.

My one respite in my newspaper reading had been the comic page, the “funnies”. Just a little break in the monotony of the bad news I have read or am bound to face in the day ahead. Tom Batiuk decided that his space on the comic pages must now provoke more than entertain and that a cancer story must be told in a realistic manner. He believes, according to an article in the Akron Beacon Journal newspaper, that newspaper comics don’t always have to make people laugh.

“I think that is a somewhat limited viewpoint,” Batiuk said. “It defines comic strips somewhat narrowly. I owe it to my readers to challenge myself and challenge readers’ expectations. Being on the comic page is a privilege.”

Actually, Tom, no you don’t need to challenge your readers, we’d really prefer to be entertained. Death, even in the comics, is not considered entertainment.

Many of us who have been touched by cancer in our lives have been challenged enough, thank you.

We’d been long engaged by the story lines and characters you’d developed in a setting we’d come to enjoy only to be disengaged by your previously entertaining strip which suddenly decided to kill off a character so that readers will grasp or be reminded of cancer’s severity.

So that we readers can imagine the patient’s and surviving family’s fear, pain and suffering.

So we can wallow even for a brief moment in the image of a 5 year old daughter without her Mother or of a widower.

We simple readers actually understand what is involved in horror wrought by cancer and we didn’t need to be reminded of it in your panels.

We’re each very sorry that you or anyone has to go through it. But pushing it on us in the comic pages of our newspaper is crappy.

Ultimately, it is your comic, these are your characters and you are the deity of their stories. I fully respect your right to go in any direction with them that you choose. For me, sadly, I choose to go elsewhere.

Newspaper comic strips should entertain or otherwise be banished to the editorial page. There cartoonists can publish all the real-life death, mayhem, bad news or depressing situations their minds can muster. Readers expect it, there.

I need less bad news and fewer surprises in my life, not Moore.

Editor’s Note: In the daily observation of life around him, the author occasionally feels the need to point out ridiculously inane behavior and general thoughtlessness. These are called “Rants” and this is one of those times.

Today on the sixth anniversary of the attacks on 9/11, according to Fox News, “Construction equipment now fills the vast city block where the World Trade Center once stood. The work under way for four new towers forced the (September 11, 2001 memorial) ceremony’s move away from the twin towers’ footprints and into a nearby park for the first time.”

There are a lot of opinions on the war on terror and a lot of political grand standing about what I believe is a no win situation brought about by a cowardly attack on America six years ago. I don’t want to sound at all like the idiot pundits and politicians we hear on TV all the time who offer stupid sound bites on the anniversary of 9/11. And personally, I am the furthest thing from political on any topic.

For what little it is worth, I knew the United States of America had to respond to the attacks on 9/11 but unlike so many pundits and politicians, I had no idea what the perfect response was…didn’t think there was one. I felt it was and continues to be a lose-lose situation. I am also grateful for the sacrifice our American troops have made and continue to make and I mourn the loss of their lives and the lives of any innocent civilians caught in the war’s crossfire…most especially the children.

But I do have one solution for one result of the attack that I will openly share with you because it seems so completely obvious, even I get it.

The land upon which the World Trade Center’s twin towers were built, and felled by the 9/11 attack, is sacred ground. Thousands of innocent American citizens died there. Their deaths begat a war which continues to kill and maim thousands more United States’ citizens within our military.

The footprint of the World Trade Center’s twin towers is not for development (the branded “Rebirth of Ground Zero in New York City”) other than to create the most amazing park memorial that any united group of artists (can there be such a thing?) can conceive. There should be no new super towers, no super structures construction to show the world “we can rebuild” thus flashing a pointless steel constructed “middle finger” to terrorists anywhere.

Building anything on that ground other than a full scale memorial is to me, if you’ll “excuse my French”, total bullshit! That just stinks of developers and politicians trying to recoup or even cash in on highly profitable construction while egregiously ignoring what I believe (and think most people would agree) to be “the right thing to do”. Obviously, enough of “the right people” (not a political term in this use) disagreed with me but they’re still not right.

Buildings can’t send nearly as strong a message as people can and do. Shame on us for not doing even the simplest thing right.

May God Bless that sacred ground anyway as well as the souls of the just* taken into heaven from our country on and because of September 11, 2001.

* “The souls of the just are in the hands of God, and no torment shall touch them.
In the eyes of the foolish they appear to be dead;
their departure was reckoned as defeat, and their going from us as disaster.
But they are at peace, for though in the sight of men they may be punished,
they have a sure hope of immortality.”
Wisdom 3:1-4

Editor’s Note: In the daily observation of life around him, the author occasionally feels the need to point out ridiculously inane behavior and general thoughtlessness. These are called “Rants” and this is one of those times.

Some thoughts while flying in one of these crazy small Embraer Regional Jets over the Great Lakes on my way home.

• Iowa has very, very nice people. I’d never been before and while I don’t know that I’d want to live there (or that they’d want me to) people are real salt of the earth folks. That is a tremendous asset to any city and lacking in many cities.

• The downtown Marriott in Des Moines is very customer friendly. All Marriotts are not this way (they’re not awful mind you just sometimes not outgoing) and the Des Moines team was great.

• Tall people are really treated unfairly on regional jets. I’m short so I do fine but if you’re like 5’ 10” or taller, you are uncomfortable from the minute you get on the plane until you get off. Somebody needs to be more equitable in their plane designs.

• This does NOT mean I want the prop planes back. I’ve been told the only reason those planes still fly commercially is to protect the pilots who only have prop plane certification. If this is true, that’s dumb. Whether or not it’s true, just get rid of the props and buy some regional jets with better head room.

• Men should not wear sandals in airports or on planes. Feet on anyone are not their most attractive body part but on men, as I’ve come to unwittingly notice, feet are especially unattractive and sandals only exacerbate the problem, not improve it. Toe nail control for men seems to be impossible and the unfortunate among us that are seated near you are disgusted. Cover your feet with sneakers or dress shoes when you fly.

• The above is not an endorsement of wearing socks with sandals (no matter how old you are). It is, to be clear, an indictment of any man wearing sandals anywhere but at a beach or pool and, depending on toe nail control, possibly not even then.

• Staying with the feet topic, when gentlemen you do act egregiously enough to wear sandals on a plane that does not give you the right to in any way remove your sandals to let your feet “breath”. Nor to rest any part of your bare, smelly, gnarly toed feet on the arm rest of the passenger in front of you (Mr. disgusting sonavafabitch in 12A).

• The above also is directed at Mr. No Socks Loafer wearer. Once uncovered, your feet are equally repugnant even though you had sense enough to wear a normal shoe

• An individual bag of cashews does not cost $3.00 anywhere but at 33,000 feet altitude. This asinine pricing is not to cover the rising cost of fuel (which is very inexpensive in Iowa, by the way) nor is it to cover the crazy high union employee wages. It IS so that the airlines can make a $2.75 profit. You and your cashews can blow it out your fuselage.

• And stop bitching about my portable electronic devices. If a laptop, a cell phone or an i-pod can bring down your plane, then you’ve built a crappy plane. Start again cause I’ve got work to do and you’re keeping me from it.

• I’ve been flying commercially since I was about 7 years old and flying used to be special. My parents would put us in jacket and tie. No one looked like they just rolled outta bed. While not advocating formality when flying today, can we at least create a rule about showering? Please?!

Happy trails!