LISTEN:
Download audio file (peter_k_oconnell_brad_venable_110123.MP3)

Congratulations to all the nominees, thank you to all the voters and sponsors….and good luck on that car battery, Brad!

See you at Faffcon 2 in Atlanta!

UPDATE: 1/23/11 5:00 p.m. ET – The voting is now CLOSED.

As decided by our international judging panel, here are the FIVE final nominees for the 2011 Unofficial Casting Call for The Price Is Right (in alphabetical order):

SCOTT BURNS:
Download audio file (BURNS_Unofficial_TPIR_Audition REVISED.mp3)

JAMEE T. PERKINS:
Download audio file (PERKINS_Unofficial_TPIR_Audition.mp3)

JOHN THOMAS:
Download audio file (Thomas_Unofficial_TPIR_Audition.mp3)

BRAD VENABLE:
Download audio file (VENABLE_Unofficial_TPIR_Audition-1.mp3)

JOHN WEEKS:
Download audio file (WEEKS_Unofficial_TPIR_Audition .mp3)

The WINNER will receive one free registration to Faffcon 2 Electric Boogaloo – The Voiceover Unconference, taking place in Atlanta, GA from February 25-27, 2011.

This donated prize includes:
* Registration for the Faffcon 2 Conference ($199.00 value)
* A Complimentary Faffcon 2 T-Shirt ($20.00 value)
* A Private Studio Tour of CNN with your fellow Faffers on Friday, February 25, 2011
* A Complimentary Dinner Dinner at Max Lager’s Wood-Fired Grill and Brewery, including tax and tip (beverages not included)
* A one year FREE membership to VoiceTweet! ($75 value)

The winner (who must be 18 years of age or older as of today’s date) is responsible for ALL other expenses involved in their participation in Faffcon 2 including but not limited to travel, lodging, taxes and bail money – in case you enjoy yourself too much in Atlanta. The winner assumes all liability upon acceptance and execution of this prize and agrees to hold harmless the blog owner, the sponsors, Faffcon or anybody else associated with this Fauxdition or event.

This prize is sponsored by: Bob Souer, Liz de Nesnera, Dave Courvoisier, Diane Maggipinto, Melissa Exelberth, Trish Basanyi, Natalie Stanfield Thomas, Amy Snively, Pam Tierney & Todd Ellis.

VOTING RULES:
* Please vote using the comment section on the voxmarketising blog ONLY (votes on posts made via social media aggregates will not count)
* Please rank your top three choices by labeling them 1, 2 & 3
* If you vote for only one person OR if you vote for the same person three times, your vote will be disqualified
* Each person may only vote once – you are on the honor system
* The blog owner will tabulate the votes according to his scoring system
* The winner with the most votes by the close of voting on January 23, 2011 at 17:00 hrs ET will be announced on this blog
* The decision of the blog owner is final in all conflicts regarding this vote

Listen.

Vote.

Enjoy.

Thank you.

Editor’s Note: If you don’t subscribe to this blog, you miss all the cool stuff like this faux-dition. Click here to subscribe. And please promote this via social media to all your VO pals. Thanks!

You know how new products come out with a new version and say “It’s Better Than Ever!”?

Well, with this year’s unofficial announcer’s audition (faux-dition), it’s true because we have one doozy of a prize for the winner.

GREATEST GAME SHOW EVER
This year, I picked the most amazing announcer supported game show in the history of broadcasting for our unofficial casting call: “The Price Is Right”.

A staple of CBS mornings since the late 1700′s, this perennial ratings winner has had only two daytime host in its modern version (Bob Barker and now Drew Carey) and three announcers: Johnny Olsen (my hero), from Buffalo’s Big 1520 WKBW Rod Roddy and most recently Rich Fields.

But the show has been doing on-air auditions for a new announcer and so it seemed only fair that we collectively throw our fake hat into the ring for this great announcing job.

As always this event is for fun (“this is not a competition, just an exhibition; please, no wagering”.) No one…but NO ONE who enters this phony audition event is in line for the announcing job on “The Price Is Right” and no way is ANYONE associated with “The Price Is Right” endorsing, condoning or otherwise support this annual announcing fantasy. They also own all the copyrights to name, music and everything else to do with the show. I make no money on this but merely am promoting one of the coolest VO jobs in our world. Let’s all dream a little together.

I’ll grab 3 judges and we’ll whittle all the contestants down to 10 finalists and then we will vote (but not until I call the vote).

You as the participating voice over talent are responsible for the mixing and audio quality (which has been a factor in past judging and voting); your audition needs to sound broadcast ready which means the mix should sound as great as your voice. If you want to be a pro you gotta sound like a pro…completely.

Here’s my demo – again just as an example – perform the announce in whatever way you think would be most likely accepted by “The Price Is Right” producers if they were auditioning you as a new announcer (which, as far as I know, they are not).

LISTEN:
Download audio file (OConnell__Unofficial_TPIR_Audition.mp3)

THE PRIZE
But here’s where the NEW & IMPROVED part comes in – the winner by votes will win a grand prize: a complimentary registration to Faffcon 2 Electric Boogaloo – The Voiceover Unconference, taking place in Atlanta, GA from February 25-27, 2011.

This donated prize includes:
* Registration for the Faffcon 2 Conference ($199.00 value)
* A Complimentary Faffcon 2 T-Shirt ($20.00 value)
* A Private Studio Tour of CNN with your fellow Faffers on Friday, February 25, 2011
* A Complimentary Dinner Dinner at Max Lager’s Wood-Fired Grill and Brewery, including tax and tip (beverages not included)
* A one year FREE membership to VoiceTweet! ($75 value)

The winner (who must be 18 years of age or older as of today’s date) is responsible for ALL other expenses involved in their participation in Faffcon 2 including but not limited to travel, lodging, taxes and bail money – in case you enjoy yourself too much in Atlanta.

The idea with this prize is if you’re great enough to be judged to be the best in this forum, you should have the opportunity to learn with and among the best in our industry at Faffcon.

There were a bunch of people who chipped in to support Faffcon and the spirit of this annual unofficial casting call and I am truly appreciative of help in creating a complimentary Faffcon registration including but not limited to (and in no particular order) Bob Souer, Liz de Nesnera, Dave Courvoisier, Diane Maggipinto, Melissa Exelberth, Trish Basanyi, Natalie Stanfield Thomas, Amy Snively, Pam Tierney & Todd Ellis. If I have forgotten anyone…please ping me.

THE SPECS
Remember – although it is not – treat this like a real audition. Give us your best performance.

>> Here is the script – do NOT deviate from the script – enhance it vocally as you wish (that’s the fun) but stick to the copy:

Here it comes!

(Pause)

From the Bob Barker Studio at CBS in Hollywood! It’s The Price is Right!

Mary Thomas! Come on down!

Hugh Merriweather! Come on down!

Clara Jones! Come on down!

And Ben Smith! Come on down!

You are the first four contestants on The Price Is Right!

And now, here’s your host, Drew Carey!!!!!

HERE is your music and sound effects bed (right click on the link and click “Save Link As” to save it to your computer).

Do NOT deviate from this bed, do not create your own and do not substitute another version of music or sound effects. There will be a lot of entries and the judges can’t listen to auditions of varying lengths because you think you can produce a better bed.

Email your audition to peter at audioconnell dot com. MP3 file only.

File name: YOURLASTNAME_Unofficial_TPIR_Audition

LISTEN TO ENTRIES HERE.

I’ll allow submissions until it becomes tedious or boring so stay tuned. Only one entry per voice talent, please. Have fun and enjoy the ride.

P.S. The script has been altered from its original form. This now contains the most updated script.

I’ve tabulated the votes on the unofficial audition for the announcer job for World News with Diane Sawyer.

My oh my was there a lot of politicking going on in this year’s faux-dition vote. This “crown” is more important to folks than I realized.

Congratulations to Ralph and all the nominees for your efforts and obvious talent.

Very special thanks to EVERYONE who participated. I hope all 96 of you enjoyed it.

1 Ralph Hass
2 Jack Friday
3 Rich Brennan
4 Tammy McDaniel
5 (T) John Weeks
5 (T) Dan Harder
7 Jay Douglas
8 DC Goode
9 Lee Gordon
10 Philip Ives
11 Brian Haymond

The voting for the unofficial casting call for “world news with diane sawyer” will end on Friday, February 5th at 17:00 hrs eastern US time.

If’n ya taint voted yet, vote now here.

With my sincere thanks to the record 96 participants in this faux-dition and the gracious judges (all of whom said the process was very difficult) there are now terrific 11 nominees for you to vote on (11 because there was a tie for 10th spot and 11 is a bigger number than 10 and because I said so.)

First, a little housekeeping (PLEASE READ)

THE RULES FOR VOTING ON NOMINEES

1. The decision of audio’connell voice over talent (that would be me) is final

2. Nobody has a chance to get the real announcer job at World News with Diane Sawyer as the job has long ago been ably filled and because this is an unofficial and very silly contest.

3. Please choose your top three choices, numbering them 1, 2, 3 with your first choice (1) being your favorite (three different announcers, NOT three votes for one person, etc.)

4. Type your vote in the comment section of this blog post below

5. You may only vote once and you are on the honor system

6. Voting will end when I say it does, probably a couple of weeks I’m guessing

OK, the floor is yours. Have fun! Click HERE to listen to the nominees then please come back to vote below in the comment box.
______________________________________________________
As always, thanks for visiting the voxmarketising blog. If you haven’t already, we (well me really) hope you’ll subscribe using the orange RSS button on the top right column of this page. It’s free and every time someone subscribes to this blog, an angel gets its wings (hey, worth a shot .

How’s that for an informative, succinct headline?

For those of you still unsure of its meaning: the 2009 Unofficial Casting Call for the Announcer for ABC’s “World News with Diane Sawyer” will end THIS MONDAY, (January 4th in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Ten). At 5:00 p.m. eastern time (1700 hrs)….”that’s all there is, there isn’t any more.”

After that time, the judges will whittle all the fake auditions (faux-ditions, if you will) submissions down to their 10 best; voting will then begin.

No, you won’t get the real job and no there is no prize except for bragging rights.

If you haven’t yet submitted your faux-dition (you lazy so and so!), you can read all the details here on how to submit. We’d love to hear your take on the job!

And if you think you’re too cool or too talented to submit for a phony audition…you’re not. You’re just a yella bellied chicken!

I have been talked in off the ledge (so to speak) on this forum and on others regarding yesterday’s post about whether to continue with the Unofficial Voice Over Casting Call for World News with Diane Sawyer.

Last night, during the debut, there WAS a new announcer, ending the decades old reign of the great announcer Bill Rice. I wasn’t sure, given the circumstances then, if it would be in good taste to continue the fun event.

I am told (repeatedly and unanimously now) it is in perfectly good taste so we shall carry on and gladly accept your continued submissions probably up until the first of the year (January 1, 2010).

Tell a buddy, bring a friend… game on for faux-ditions, baby!

Well color me surprised and perplexed.

I did not expect that with so many changes NOT being made (set, theme) that ABC News would replace Bill Rice with a new announcer for World News with Diane Sawyer.

I said so. I meant it!

This made me feel that we would be in good taste running our unofficial audition for the announcer job for World News with Diane Sawyer. It would be fun, harmless fun which is the point of the whole exercise.

I didn’t see the first show tonight but reports are coming in that indeed there IS a new announcer. No video yet as I think we have to wait for the west coast feed to be done at 9:30 PM ET. I’ll update it when I find it.

I am stunned and feel kind of bad about the whole thing.

Nobody and I mean NOBODY was gunning for Bill’s job with this silly event and in fact I think to a person we all respected his work. But somebody at ABC decided on a new voice and made that call.

So should we continue with the faux-ditions or is it now in bad taste? Is it a matter of ‘that’s the way our business goes’ or should we, as peers show more respect?

Kudos to the new person who got the gig. I hope it turns out to be one of my friends who has kept a great secret.

Were we merely being naively prescient with this new outcome or are we now dancing on a great announcer’s career if we keep this going?

Seriously, give me your thoughts!

P.S. 12/22/09: Here is the first video I could find of the new open.

What, did you think I forgot or sumpin’? It’s December and that means it’s time for voxmarketising’s annual fake audition or “faux-ditions”

This year we go back to the news division and our network of choice will be ABC as Charles Gibson is retiring and Diane Sawyer is taking over as the “World News” anchor. Obviously, they’ll need to re-do their opening announce.

That’s where YOU come in.

As you may or may not know, the great Bill Rice has been the announcer for ABC News for over three decades and does a marvelous job. I highly doubt someone of his great talent will be dropped so not only don’t get your hopes up via this unofficial audition…don’t even day dream. As always this is for fun (“this is not a competition, just an exhibition; please, no wagering.)

I’ll grab 3 judges and we’ll whittle all the contestants down to 10 finalists and then we will vote (but not until I call the vote).

You’re responsible for the mixing and audio quality (which has been a factor in past judging and voting); your audition needs to sound broadcast ready which means the mix should sound as great as your voice.

Here’s my demo – again just as an example – perform the announce in whatever way you think would be most likely accepted by ABC News producers if they were hiring a new announcer (which, as far as I know, they are not).

Peter K. O’Connell Demo Faux-dition:
Download audio file (OCONNELL_Unofficial_Sawyer_Audition.mp3)

You can download the music bed here. (Right click on the “here” and click “save link as…” on your computer to mix it within your own system.)

Your short script from which to prove your voice over brilliance is as follows:

“From ABC News headquarters…
This is World News with Diane Sawyer.”

If you need a reference for how they do it nightly, you can view that here but we will NOT be doing the story teases, focus on the part starting at about :15 seconds in for the purposes of your audition.

Email your audition to peter at audioconnell dot com. MP3 file only.

File name: YOURLASTNAME_Unofficial_Sawyer_Audition.

LISTEN TO ENTRIES HERE.

I’ll allow submissions until it becomes tedious or boring. Only one entry per voice talent, please.

Have fun and Merry Christmas from audio’connell Voice Over Talent.

BTW, if you haven’t already taken the time to SUBSCRIBE to this blog, I hope you will now.