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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.

Tags: announcers, blogs, commentary, rants, social media, technology by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Others will say this better and most are more qualified to comment but here are my thoughts anyway.

1. The Internet – Quality non-union performers are out there and production companies see that more and more and more. Non union performers charge less. People want to pay less. See where this is going?

2. Geography – The strangle-hold production unions seemingly have on cities like Los Angeles, New York and Chicago may give unions a false sense of security. One could also argue that even in supposedly less expensive production cities like Toronto and Vancouver unions have some hold. With technology cheaper and more prevalent, who needs to work in those cities to produce quality work? Nobody.

3. The Economy– You really think TV and Radio union shops are going to be able to negotiate anything of real value in the near future beyond “you’ll still have a job”? Ad revenues are in the toilet and there is no money for people…hence all the lay-offs. Not good all the way around.

4. Public and long term in-fighting – The Screen Actors Guild has become an embarrassment to watch with it members finally firing their chief negotiator. Today according to the New York Times public and bitter squabble will continue in court. Mind you, this is all about in-fighting- control of the union stuff with no resolution to the contract issues. How much credibility the union has lost in the minds of producers is probably incalculable.

UNIONS HAVE A PURPOSE
Unions have a place in this world IF they operate respectfully and within sound business reason (enjoy trying to drill down THAT definition).

Without a union-base in place as a foundation for setting wages, the inequity of wages that is currently in place among non-union performers (especially in the voice over world) will literally explode and the shrapnel will be lower wages for performers. It would be like the 1920’s for performers all over again.

Unions were established to provide healthy, safe and equitable working conditions for workers who were grossly abused by their employers. The bosses got irresponsible and the unions stemmed that awful tide.

In the performance unions, one of the things that unions established was minimum pay scale upon which fees and residuals should and would be paid. A minimum market value for work performed. This is a very good thing and has always benefitted performers including non-union performers who usually base their rates in part on union scale.

DOOMED TO REPEAT HISTORY?
The unions, however, seemed to fall prey to bad habits of the nasty employers who caused the unions’ formation in the first place. The union leaders kept requiring more and more financially from its dues-paying membership while offering less value to them.

Combine this with the increasing numbers of union members who are electing to become fi-core members as well as the three points I made above and you should see a real problem brewing for unions.

TROUBLE FOR NON-UNION PERFORMERS AS WELL
All this trouble for the unions, by the way, does not mean good news for non-union performers (of which I am currently one). A strong, equitable and respected union ultimately benefits ALL performers including the non-union performers.

The unions today are as unwieldy as the corporations they try to tame so I really don’t know how a lot of this can be fixed. I might suggest reviewing why SAG has a national board of 71 people just as a starting point.

But step 1 has to be that SAG fixes its internal problems immediately and privately. Continued high profile and public in-fighting will lead to its demise and will leave a gapping hole (opportunity) to undermine the performance union system.

Tags: commentary, unions by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I feel bad for writers covering the business of radio these days and I’m really not kidding.

Given the fact that the radio business has been tanking for sometime now (ad sales are down everywhere) combined with the other fact that radio is coming in a tight second to newspapers in the race for “worst hurt by the economic crap-down” (meltdown doesn’t seem quite descriptive enough for me), these poor writers have been posting stories that read more like obits.

Check out the various “People On the Move” or “In Brief” sections of major industry pubs and there’s one word you see over and over: exits.

Oh you see other words too: “leaves”, “departs” “let go”, “shown the door”, “resigns”. I only wish I was kidding.

That’s gotta suck. Usually people who write for industry trades have at least a passing interest in their prime directive but my experience has been that people who write for radio trades like All Access.com, FMQB, Radio and Records and the like – really have the radio bug that infects so many of us.

They have a passion for radio. Many people do.

Today the Buffalo News, itself prey to budget cuts and bloodletting, wrote a front page story about the recent disc jockey carnage that local owners Entercom, Citadel and Regent Communications have laid waste to in the past 12 months. Combine low ad revenues with corporations (notice I didn’t say broadcasters…there’s a difference) who spent reserves unwisely and the top radio station expense lines are the first to go: salaries and benefits.

As is the national trend, these local stations all replaced the departed with either syndicated fare or weirdly extended shifts. One station here has at present two on-air personalities working from 5:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Is there voice tracking involved? I would have to think so.

Unlike some of the tirades I’ve seen on message boards like Radio-info.com, I’m not pointing fingers or trying to stomp up and down at the injustice of it all (easier for me as I’ve not lost my job…had I, I too might stomp a bit). It IS a business and it must be managed that way.

But for lack of a better term – broadcasting is a public trust and these companies and their local managers (in every market) owe their communities local content and information. It is what makes this communication tool valuable and special. Syndication and voice tracking does not serve that public trust. But I also wonder if the public really cares.

You may accuse me here of romanticizing the business of radio a bit and you may have cause. I do love what radio is and could be. Maybe its usefulness is coming to a close or maybe it’s simply evolving into something different that no one yet can predict.

But the constant loss – sales, market share, audience, talented staff (valued co-workers) and maybe even prestige hurts everyone who cares about radio. That includes a lot of us but the numbers seem to indicate it’s not the majority of U.S.

I’d love to hear what your thoughts/stories are on all this is…maybe its just me.

Tags: advertising, announcers, commentary, commercials, media, radio, voice talent by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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My business resolution in 2009 was/is actually only one word: execute.

Too often in a business day, I’ll get started in six different directions and lucky if I find the finish line on two of those starts. Same thing the next day to the point where (if you follow the math) lots of stuff didn’t get done.

Well on day to day business, that’s going to happen sometimes but this year (he said with vigor and emphasis!) not on projects or important tasks – not related to clients (their stuff always gets done…money first!)

But like every business person, I’m always studying my business’ trends, activity in the industry etc.

While doing that, a thought occurred to me…should I keep my listings on the pay to play (P2P) voice over web sites?

I do not have a paid listing on the pay to play web sites like Voice 123 because I think these sites qualitatively, quantitatively and financially devalue the voiceover profession. I could rant forever on that but will spare you unless you ask in the comments.

I did keep a free page for SEO/SEM considerations. But the thought had occurred to me on more than one occasion: am I hurting my brand through even a free association with such sites?

Further, by being listed even in a free listing, am I offering an implied endorsement of these types of sites?

Today I got my answer.

On the VO-BB, there was yet another debate about the P2P sites. In the thread I brought up my conundrum. A voice talent friend of mine offered this observation:

“The way I see it, if people in the biz that I look up to are on them (and there are a few folks that are… and do gigs from them) then it’s good enough for me.”

I highly doubt that this person was referring to me in the quote but after reading it I did not doubt that one could see my participation on a P2P site as an endorsement. It was time to execute (I love when the signs are crystal clear).

Voice 123 was very helpful in their (possibly third-world based) on-line chat room with the deletion of my account. In fact, in my history of dealings with the company, this may have been their most impressive display of customer service. For that only, I thank them.

Tags: announcers, branding, commentary, marketing, peter o'connell, search engine marketing, voice 123, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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