Share
Buffalo-born Voice Actor and Raleigh, NC resident Peter K. O’Connell is profiled in The Buffalo News by Contributing Columnist Erik Brady, November 18, 2025
You’re going to ask “why”? I will answer “I dunno.”
You’re going to ask “how”? My answer is “Not entirely sure.”
You’re going to ask “gobsmacked“? I will respond “Completely!“
All I can tell you is that some days before the Buffalo Bills played the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte back on October 26th, I got a call from newspaper columnist Erik Brady.
If that name is familiar to you, that’s likely because you read one of his many great sports columns in USA Today.
I heard you gasp…because…me too!
What’s an award-winning sports columnist of 36 years from USA Today doing calling me…the MOST UNathletic voiceover actor on the planet???
Naturally he wanted all my professional insights and prognostications on the upcoming Bills-Panthers game (given “all my years playing in the NFL”), right? Right?!
Turns out, no.
Although, Erik’s call was Buffalo Bills–football-related.
Sidebar – Erik is from Buffalo (his family lives in Arlington, Virginia now). We both went to Canisius High School (about ten years apart – he’s older), and his family and mine both spent our summers in Ontario, Canada at Crescent Beach, but in different social circles, given the age difference.
Then he became a famous sportswriter (first in Buffalo at the Courier-Express and then on to USA Today) and I remained…the guy in the padded cell with the expensive microphone. 😀
Erik had retired a while back from the daily grind of sports reporting for USA Today (3+ decades…sheesh!) but is still keeping his hand in storytelling by writing as a contributing columnist for The Buffalo News. Turns out you can’t retire from being a good storyteller.
So back to this out-of-nowhere phone call from the famous USA Today sports reporter.
Erik calls me (I hear you asking “Where did he find your phone number? Was it your website? Did he have your business card?” Nope. He called my brother in Washington, D.C., where the herd of Buffalonians is very strong).
Voice Actor and Longtime Buffalo Bills Fan Peter K. O’Connell Calmly Watching the Team from his Raleigh Home
When Erik called, my mind raced and I quickly landed on the upcoming Buffalo-Charlotte football game. I was right.
He was going for the angle of a former Buffalonian, now in North Carolina, attending the Bills game in Charlotte.
Except…
I live three hours away from Charlotte in Raleigh AND I was not going to the game at all because taking five O’Connells to a National Football League game would cost $65,000 for the cheap seats.
Tickets are not cheap. But I am.
The living room TV would be just fine for us to watch that game (Bills won 40-9 and we experienced no traffic on the drive home). #gobillsfromthecomfortofmycouch
Anyway, I pretty much thought that would be the end of our nice conversation…but this guy is a reporter, he’s a digger, he asks questions.
Here’s the other fact…you ask an Irishman like me questions…I’ll give you answers.
I kept thinking (and I might have even said something like), “How is any of this stuff I’m telling you interesting?”
Eh, maybe he had some time to kill before his wife called him in for dinner.
Turns out we had a lovely conversation about our days at Crescent Beach, raising a family in Buffalo, moving to Raleigh, my voiceover business and of course the Buffalo Bills.
Then we had some more conversations a few days later.
I did not make it into the Bills–Panthers article but somehow got this profile article in The Buffalo News instead.
ME: Mind blown!
Publicity and public relations are, as I have often said here, the most awkward, uncomfortable and yet necessary parts of marketing my voiceover business.
If I were an egotastic marketer, I’d tell you that all my strategic marketing and PR efforts culminated in this fantastic profile piece in my hometown’s biggest newspaper.
Nope, not even close.
An on-line promotion by The Buffalo News of Erik Brady’s profile of Voice Actor Peter K. O’Connell
I didn’t pursue Erik or anyone at The Buffalo News for this story — yet here it is.
Speechless is probably not a good description for a voice actor like me…but it’s pretty much all I’ve got at the moment.
Erik had an idea that begat another idea and conversations gave birth to a feature article. Turns out my “great marketing strategy” merely involved answering the phone.
I am not new to the process of journalism…just new to journalism that shines such a bright spotlight on me.
Thank you, Erik.
I’m going back to the padded cell with the expensive microphone now.
######
ARTICLE: THE BUFFALO NEWS – NOVEMBER 18, 2025
Erik Brady: Even if you don’t know Peter K. O’Connell, you just might know his voice
A snippet from buffalonews.com, featuring a profile article on Voiceover Talent Peter K. O’Connell, written by Contributing Columnist Erik Brady – November 18, 2025
Peter K. O’Connell is a voiceover talent with a baritone known in the industry as the “Voice of God.” And he has one of God’s emissaries to thank for showing him the way.
“Sister Donna Marie,” he said. “God bless her.”
She was the kindergarten teacher who escorted her class at Medaille School – a long-gone Buffalo elementary school – to visit the radio studio of WEBR-AM when O’Connell was 5, circa 1969.
“I came away from that day knowing that whatever I did in my life, it would involve a microphone,” he said. “I don’t know how, but I just knew it.”
Today, at 61, he owns a voiceover business in Raleigh, N.C. Chances are you’ve heard him, whether you know it or not.
O’Connell did voice work around Buffalo for decades and these days voices commercials for national brands including Disney, Crest, Duracell and iHeartRadio. Last month he emceed an annual convention for voiceover talents in New Orleans, where he was the voice of the voiced.
“It’s been an honor to be requested back to serve as emcee” at voiceover conventions over the years, he said, “but even more so, the unsolicited, exceedingly complimentary feedback from the people there who do live announcing and emceeing for a living, as I do.”
That weekend gig came during the Bills’ bye week. Good thing, too, as O’Connell doesn’t like to miss their games.
“The Bills are ingrained in my family,” he said. “I remember as a kid sitting in the kitchen at our house on Morris (Avenue) and listening to the games on TV. And my father would always say, ‘They’re making my palms sweat again.’ ”
O’Connell attended the third of the Bills’ four Super Bowls, the loss to the Dallas Cowboys at the Rose Bowl following the 1992 season. At the time he was director of marketing for Network, Jim Kelly’s nightclub. Before that, he was assistant general manager of the Buffalo Blizzard, the indoor soccer team.
He was born in Buffalo in 1964 on the night the Beatles appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Sixteen years later, on the day before O’Connell began an internship at WFXZ-FM Radio, John Lennon was murdered in New York.
“I was a junior at Canisius High School at the time,” O’Connell said. “I prepared a script about Lennon, which of course they didn’t need from some kid, but I was ready if they did.”
He interned under Susan Hunt, who would go on to a national broadcasting career, including stints with ABC Sports, PBS and HGTV. “I have always appreciated her patience with me,” he said.
Then he worked on radio at the University of Dayton, which had a 50,000-watt FM station serving three states. Its front office was manned by adult professionals, but students filled many of the on-air roles.
“I learned on the job,” O’Connell said. “I didn’t understand then that voiceover work could be a business. But I learned, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
It was at the university station that he voiced commercials for the first time. Some of those advertisers then asked him to do voice work directly for them, and some of those commercials played on other radio stations in the Dayton market.
That’s when he understood that this could be a career. He returned to Buffalo after college and got into local voice work, including radio spots for Burnham’s appliance stores and the Buffalo Bisons.
“We were still editing reel-to-reel tapes with razor blades and wax markers,” he said. “Now it’s all digital – copy and paste and delete. Sometimes I miss the old days, though the tech today is awesome.”
What was it about that kindergarten visit to a Buffalo radio station that he came away so sure he’d make his life behind a mic?
“I think genetically I was predisposed” to voice work, he said. “My dad once won a state oratory competition when he was at Canisius High School. And my mom always wanted to be in broadcasting, but she was told at the time women didn’t do that.”
O’Connell and his wife, Andrea, have three Buffalo-born children – Isabella, 20; Joseph, 17; and John, 15. They have grown up mostly in Raleigh, but they root for the Bills anyway.
“The Bills’ virus,” their father said, “has been passed on to my children.”
This makes them third-generation palm-sweaters.
-30-
Tags: commentary, newspapers, public relations, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on Why Did One of America’s Most Respected Sports Columnists Call One of the Most UNathletic Voiceover Talents in the World to Talk Buffalo Bills Football?
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA – November 24, 2025 — Organizations across the U.S. and around the world face a constant challenge: turning complex messages into clear, engaging, and actionable stories.
For this voice actor, releasing a new narration demo feels a lot like opening night must feel for a stage actor.
