Apparently the voiceover paparazzi have a very long memory.

CanvasRebel very kindly invited me for an online interview back in 2023. A few months ago, they asked me again. I’m not quite sure how I landed on their interview list a second time, but I was happy to answer a fresh set of questions.

The focus was a bit different this time—they asked about the people who have helped me build and run audio’connell Voiceover Talent and how those relationships came about.

That includes my graphic designer, Ann Hackett, who has put up with my design ideas for more than 20 years.

It also includes a recording studio in Chicago where I booked a session while traveling. The staff liked my work and suggested I contact Big Mouth Talent. I did, and within a few weeks, I had a new voiceover agent in Chicago. I went looking for a microphone and came home with an agent. That was a pretty good trip.

We also talked about the radio station visit that started my fascination with microphones at age five, what I learned at WVUD decades later, and two other lessons that took me considerably longer to learn.

If you’d like to learn all the details, you can read our new conversation here.

Tags: commentary, marketing, media by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Seriously.

What if my kindergarten teacher at Medaille School, Sister Donna Marie, had decided that day in 1969 to take us to the zoo?

I might be shoveling elephant poop today.

Instead, she took a bunch of five-year-olds to WEBR-AM in Buffalo.

I walked into that radio station, saw the control room and microphones and something clicked. I didn’t know what a voice actor was. I certainly didn’t have a career plan.

I was, what…five years old?

But I knew I wanted microphones to be part of whatever came next.

Turns out, I may not have had much choice.

My Dad had been a New York State High School Oratory Champion. My Mom had long wanted to work in broadcasting at a time when women simply weren’t given many opportunities to do that.

So while my five-year-old self didn’t realize it, my broadcasting obsession was probably genetic.

Sister Donna Marie gave those genes someplace to go.

And years later, another teacher did the same.

My high school teacher recognized my interest in broadcasting and helped me pursue it — another person who saw something and gave it a little push before any of us could know where it would lead.

He would later become my business partner and even a groomsman at my wedding.

I’ve been thinking about all of them again because VoyageRaleigh recently interviewed me about life, lessons, legacy and my 40+ year career as a professional voice actor.

Looking backward makes a career seem much more organized than it actually was.

Mine certainly wasn’t.

There were radio stations, broadcasting, audio production, voiceover, audio’connell Voiceover Talent, thousands of scripts, a move from Buffalo to Raleigh and more microphones than five-year-old me could possibly have imagined.

But before all of that were people.

Two parents who totally supplied the raw material.

A nun who unknowingly lit the fuse.

A teacher who recognized where it might lead.

And a five-year-old who walked into a radio station and thought:

I want to do this.

More than five decades later, I still do.

Read the full VoyageRaleigh interview with Peter K. O’Connell.

Tags: commentary, media, public relations, raleigh by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA – June 4, 2025 — Auto brands face a constant challenge: standing out in a crowded, fast-moving marketplace. To help organizations solve this problem, award-winning voice talent Peter K. O’Connell has released his new automotive commercial demo, featuring national, regional, and local car-commercial segments — including a showcase of his latest work for Ford.

Each segment highlights O’Connell’s automotive voiceover style—clear, confident, and built to connect with drivers. His performance keeps the message easy to follow and supports the brand’s call to action, giving car commercials the clarity and impact they need.

For decades, O’Connell has supported auto manufacturers, dealership groups, and local dealers across the U.S. and globally, delivering professional, broadcast-ready voiceover from his Source-Connect equipped studio.

PRESS THE PLAY BUTTON BELOW TO HEAR PETER K. O’CONNELL’S AUTOMOTIVE COMMERCIAL VOICEOVER DEMO:

About Peter K. O’Connell

Commercial voice actor Peter K. O’Connell has provided automotive commercial voiceovers, live-announcer (“voice of God”) services and audio production support to companies globally.

Beyond automotive campaigns, his commercial, narration and web-video clients include Disney Cruise Line, Ford, iHeart Media, Crest Toothpaste, IBM, SXM Media and Maaco Auto Body Shop & Painting.

O’Connell’s studio, audio’connell Voiceover Talent, is a division of O’Connell Communications, LLC, and offers full Source-Connect capability for seamless remote recording.

– 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: media, media releases by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Combining my love of typography with my sincere enjoyment of Conan O’Brien, I really enjoyed watching this and I hope you do too.

And I was watching Vimeo because I just uploaded my first video to it – my new commercial demo.

Tags: commentary, logo design, marketing, media, video, vimeo, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Fellow voice over talent Roy Bunales introduced me to something on his Facebook page that I thought was very interesting. It was a video that I guess has been around for over a year and has had close to 2 million views. The video is below, it’s four minutes long and I’d like you to STOP reading now watch it and then return back here for a second for a brief discussion below the video.

Let me ask you honestly…did you see that ending coming? I didn’t see it coming but on Roy’s feed, their was no title. If you were watching on TV, you wouldn’t have seen that coming either.

What a story.

Were you bothered by the length? I wasn’t at all, I was engaged, yet its payoff very much made it a commercial.

What a story.

And that’s the message for you today: story.

We went through a time and place where if an image was on a screen for a half second, that was too long. Then it couldn’t be just one image, it had to be multiple images.

Now we are an audience in throes of on-going sensory overload. We tune out advertising more than we tune in.

How, then, do you make an actual impression in the viewer or listener’s mind: story.

Share a story (not tell).

Offer a message (not promote).

Develop a relationship (don’t talk down).

Create a community (not build an audience).

It will resonate with the viewer and they will bond with the message, the product or service. I will not soon forget this brand…nor will you I think.

Not all stories are great but a great story will fill an enormous void. When was the last time your advertising or marketing shared a story? Funny or dramatic?

What’s your reaction to this? Am I being unrealistic? Or did this message find you more deeply engaged than most advertising?

P.S. So a bit after I published this, I came across the following video that I think illustrates my point even more…by helping shift the way consumers might think about a company…German engineering made “fun”.

Tags: advertising, commentary, commercials, marketing, media, video by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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If your business in any way involves advertising, marketing or social media, this is worth a look.

Whether or not you agree or disagree with the plight of media portrayed in this clip, I was very impressed with the time, effort and talent put forth.

Just to save you a bit of time, after you hear the chorus once, you can zip past it cause its the same lyrics and graphics each time.

I’d tell you to enjoy it but some folks who are living this right now may not completely enjoy this as it may cut a bit close to home.

Tags: advertising, branding, commentary, commercials, facebook, google, marketing, media, newspapers, radio, social media, technology by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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