When people hear I’ve done commercial voice over work for national brands like Duracell, Lowe’s Home Improvement, L.L.Bean, and Crest Toothpaste (among others), they often assume that’s all I do. And hey, I get it—big brands, big reach.

But here’s the thing: I genuinely love lending my voice to local commercials and regional commercials just as much. There’s something deeply rewarding about working with a local business and helping them sound like a national brand—without the national brand budget (but make no mistake, keep the national brand paychecks coming, national brands!) 🙂

A great local commercial example?

A recent TV commercial voice over project I voiced for Next Plumbing, a homegrown company in Lafayette, Louisiana. (You can watch the ad below—it turned out beautifully.)

The production team delivered top-tier visuals, so they wanted a voice over artist who could match that level of quality: warm, confident, and relatable without sounding too “salesy.” As a full-time professional voice actor, I brought the same polish and tone that I use for national campaigns, but with a local sensibility that helped the TV spot really shine.

Whether it’s a regional spot for Ford, Maaco, or even the Cleveland Browns, I approach every job—big or small—with the same attention to the voiceover performance detail. I treat every English language spot or narration the same.

As an experienced voice over talent, I know how to bring a message to life in a way that resonates with audiences. From radio voice over to marketing narrations and explainer videos, from YouTube ads to online promos, I offer dependable, high-quality voice over services that help brands connect with their audience. Business size doesn’t matter.

So if you’re in voice casting mode for your next local, regional, or national campaign, I’d love to help. Your project deserves a great voice—and I’d be honored if it were mine.

Tags: announcers, casting, commercials, narrations, radio, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA – November 4, 2024 – – Peter K. O’Connell, America’s Friendly, Neighborhood Voiceover Talent, has released a new voiceover demo featuring examples of his live event announcing for awards shows, corporate sales meeting and charity fundraising events.

LISTEN TO PETER K. O’CONNELL’S VOICE OF GOD – LIVE ANNOUNCER DEMO BELOW:

O’Connell’s off stage, live announcing and pre-recorded announcing work has been heard at events across America and as far away as Korea. This type of announcing work is commonly called the “voice of God” by event industry producers and planners.

In addition to live announcing, O’Connell is also in demand as an on-stage event Emcee or Host at similar live events including awards shows, charity galas and corporate sales meetings.

About Peter K. O’Connell

Voice actor Peter K. O’Connell has shared his voiceover, live announcer (voice of God) and audio production skills with companies around the world.

In addition to his work as a Live Announcer and Emcee for events, Peter’s commercial, narration & web clients include brands like Disney Cruise Line, Tic Tac Mints, iHeart Media, Crest Toothpaste, IBM, SXM Media and AWS.

O’Connell’s company, audio’connell Voiceover Talent, is a Source-Connect equipped voiceover studio that is a division of O’Connell Communications, LLC.

– 30 –

NOTES FOR EDITORS

CONTACT:

Peter K. O’Connell Your Friendly, Neighborhood Voiceover Talent

audio’connell Voiceover Talent

P.O. Box 5493 | Raleigh, NC 27512-5493

PH. +01 716-572-1800 & +01 919-283-1516

EM. peter@audioconnell.com

W. audioconnell.com

SOURCE-CONNECT: @audioconnell

COMPANY MEDIA CENTER:

http://www.audioconnell.com/media

PETER K. O’CONNELL VO CREDITS:

VO Credits Link

COMPANY NAME SPELLING:

Use lower case letters- audio’connell or audio’connell Voiceover Talent

COMPANY NAME PRONUNCIATION:

au·di-o’·con·nell (awe-de-oh-kah-nel)

Tags: announcers, Demos, media releases, voice of God by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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LISTEN TO PETER K. O’CONNELL’S VOICE OF GOD – LIVE ANNOUNCER DEMO BELOW:

To be clear right at the outset, I like my voice just fine but I am in no way comparing its power to the Almighty.

What those in the voiceover, broadcast and event planning worlds might know (but you, gentle reader, may not) is that the term “Voice of God” merely refers to the (usually) off-stage announcing voice you often hear at:

• Award shows and gala banquets
• National sales and marketing meetings
• Charity fundraisers and auctions
• New product introduction events
• Live game shows

…and a myriad of other events where the announcer (me!) helps guide the event flow (I refer to it as Chauffeuring the show from behind the mic). The announcer adds either some necessary excitement or sensitivity to the proceedings. Usually these Voice of God announcing jobs are live and in-person but they also can be pre-recorded and inserted into the production as needed by the event producers.

I have done Voice of God Live Announcing jobs both live and pre-recorded for many years.

But I have been a little remiss in getting my Voice of God announcer demos out there…it is my hope to have rectified my omission with the production of my latest Voice of God Live Announcing demo.

For decades, Peter K. O’Connell has served as a professional live event / “voice of god” announcer, emcee / live host for a myriad of events.

You know that I also do Live Hosting and Emceeing for events (just like the ones listed above) especially if you’ve been to my webpages for Voice of God announcing and live event work (those webpages are audioconnell.com / peterkoconnell.com).

Most recently, I flew to Chicago a few weeks ago to serve as Emcee and Live Host for the WoVOCon Voiceover Unconference (similar to the FaffCon Voiceover Unconference from some years ago). I doing those type of hosting gigs for many years as well and still enjoy them.

Watch / Listen to Peter’s Voice of God – Live Announce Demo Below…..

Tags: announcers, live announcing, voice of God by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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My friend and fellow voice actor Mara Junot will be the announcer for the live broadcast on the Screen Actors Guild Award on Saturday, February 24 at 8pm ET on Netflix.

That statement may surprise you (not that I have a friend but that…well, OK maybe you are surprised I have a friend that’s a real person but…oh shut up).

Anyway, Mara is an extremely talented and versatile voice talent, that’s the whole point.

I have known Mara for many years and while I would not be so arrogant to say we are close friends (we live very far away from each other, also she is young and I am as old as death), if I were to see her next week, we would start talking like it had not been over 4 years since I last saw her.

She’s just that friendly, kind and open. She’s just Mara…I think she’s like that with everybody.

It’s a gift.

While I am (of course) extremely bitter that I did not get the live announcer gig for yet another major award show (my perfect record of “not invited to audition” remains safe) 😉 if anybody else should get the live announcer gig, it should be Mara.

I know my fellow friends in the VO industry who know Mara share my inordinate joy for her on securing this great gig. 🙂

When you see the show and hear her work, you’ll understand. She deserves all good things.

Tags: announcers, live announcing, voice actors, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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The original and current announcer for the syndicated broadcast of “Jeopardy”, Johnny Gilbert

As much as I focus and study the voiceover industry and it’s players, I still miss stuff.

I catch up eventually but I don’t know that I’ll ever catch to voiceover legend and RECORD HOLDING ANNOUNCER Johnny Gilbert, the announcer for Jeopardy.

Rightly so, a lot has been made about the health struggles of beloved Jeopardy host Alex Trebek. As Trebek has worked through his cancer fight, the most recent on-camera work of his now 35 year reign as host of Jeopardy continues to be a perfect as his first days.

But with Alex since day one of this version of Jeopardy has been his off-camera announcer, Johnny Gilbert. Gilbert’s opening line: “This. Is. Jeopardy!” is iconic and he continues his significant announcing duties more than 3 decades later with amazing perfection.

Gilbert is also the Guinness World Record Holder for longest career as a game show announcer for same show, now at 35 years.

Oh and this little side note of this working professional announcer: Johnny Gilbert is 95 years old!!!!!!!

Johnny Gilbert is an amazing voiceover talent.

Here’s some behind the scenes on Johnny’s work.

Tags: announcers, tv by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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As you know, with me, there’s always a voiceover story.

Even at a Little League baseball game.

It was last weekend at one of my children’s games…but this was more than a regular game. This was part of a kind of baseball festival at this really nice baseball facility in Cary, NC.

I am not a coach of my son’s team but just one of many Dad helpers there to support the Manager (mostly during practices). This day, the Assistant Coach asked if I would take the team lineup to the facility’s pressroom because as a special part of this big baseball event, the players are introduced over the PA for each game. For the young players, this is a really special treat that does not happen at regular games.

As instructed, I went up to the press room which is on the second floor of this kind of hub structure at this multi-field park that looks a bit like an airport control tower – from the 2^nd floor deck you can see all the surrounding fields. I walked in and handed a person our lineup sheet, told them which team it was for and the field we would be playing on so they could do the introductions.

“No, no,” the person said. “You have to come up just before the game starts so you can do the announcing. We have someone from each team do the intros,” the person said.

I took a second to make sure I understood what they just said, as it was a surprise to me.

“Someone from our team does the actual team intros on the PA?” I asked? He confirmed I had heard correctly.

I thought the town would just have an employee do it or hire a radio guy for the weekend. Nope. A parent.

As there were four parents including me helping out on my son’s team and three of them (not me) had jobs on the field during the game, I knew how this story was likely going to end.

I went down to my son’s coaches and I said, “I have good news and bad news. The bad news is they want someone from our team to do the team intros on the PA. The good news is I do live announcing for a living, so if you want, I can do the intros.”

They thought that was a swell idea.

So back up I went to the airport control tower/baseball complex HQ to await my instructions from the Town of Cary employees (all very nice folks).

Things happened pretty quickly once I got back inside.

The audio setup was very, um, practical. The speakers outside were pretty good. The microphone, inside the fairly large, mostly glass walled room, was a very low end desk mic with a push-to-talk switch….kinda like I used to have on my CB radios in the 70’s.

But it all worked.

My son’s team was the home team, so the parent from the away team did the intro’s for the away team first. I was instructed that, because I went last, my job after I read the coach’s name on our roster, I was to say “Play Ball”.

It was very hard to hear anything going on outside which led me to believe this must have been much more than single-paned glass I was surrounded by. I knew I was going to be louder than the previous parent (or probably most parents announcing during the event). I knew I’d have to back off the mic a bit so I would not sound distorted.

Make it exciting, I thought. Make it memorable, I told myself. Make it sportstacular!

On second thought, I may have been just solely focused on name pronunciations.

In any case, at the last minute I had the good sense to grab my phone to record it. The camera work wasn’t pretty (nor was/is the subject) but the announce went just fine and the kids (and coaches) were thrilled.

Tags: announcers, commentary, live announcing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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