My friend Keith has died.

If you listen to Catholic radio in Raleigh, North Carolina on AM 540 (or anywhere in the world via catholic540.org), Keith was your friend, too.

Along with his wife, Cecelia, Keith helped put Catholic 540-AM Divine Mercy Radio (WETC-AM) on the air.

Without them, the 37th-largest radio market in America might not have a Catholic radio station. Their dedication and faith, with more than a little prodding by the Holy Spirit, led to WETC’s modern-day success.

WATCH…..

Like many Catholic radio broadcasters, Keith knew nothing about radio when he and Cecelia set off on their long journey to start the station. Joined by many supporters along the way, they quickly learned the business and forged ahead.

Through their radio ministry, the Divine Mercy Radio team improved, and continues to improve, the lives of millions of people Keith and Cecelia never knew, and who never knew the Flanarys.

The broadcasting awards the station received were nice, but serving God and His people through the Gospel and a radio signal was always, and still is, Divine Mercy Radio’s mission.

In radio, and with his family and friends, Keith was a good and faithful servant. We are all better for having known this humble, gracious man.

God bless Keith and all who love him.

“This is Catholic 540-AM, Divine Mercy Radio. WETC Wendell-Zebulon.”

Tags: radio, raleigh 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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Look, I’ll be honest with you.

When I moved from Buffalo to Raleigh after five decades, I had a moment of voiceover panic. Do I just… pretend Buffalo never happened? Do I scrub 30+ years of Western New York history from my website and go full North Carolina?

That felt wrong. Really wrong. After all, one does not simply erase Buffalo out of his system. Nor does one want to (#GoBills).

But here’s the other side of it: after 10 years in Raleigh, I think I’ve paid my dues. I’ve survived enough North Carolina summers to earn my humidity badge. I know what “Apex” means without needing GPS. I’ve even stopped reflexively saying “pop” instead of “soda” (okay, that’s a lie, but I’m working on it).

So I figured I should create a dedicated Raleigh North Carolina voice talent page on my website, even though my Buffalo Niagara voice talent page is still very much alive and kicking.

Why the North Carolina Voiceover Connection Matters

Here’s the thing: even though I work remotely with clients worldwide via Source-Connect, local connections still matter. The Triangle area is booming with tech companies, universities, and creative agencies that need commercial voiceover, narration, character voice work and corporate video content. As a professional voice actor now based in Raleigh, I wanted to make it crystal clear that I’m here and available for both local sessions and remote projects throughout North Carolina.

Buffalo native and voice talent Peter K. O’Connell watching a Buffalo Bills game in his Raleigh, North Carolina home. He’s the very essence of calmness, isn’t he?

But I’m also still very much a Buffalo guy. That city shaped everything about my broadcasting career, from my first radio station field trip as a kindergartener to decades of work with Western New York clients like Rich Products and the Buffalo News. Buffalo taught me the work ethic and authenticity that define how I approach every voiceover project today.

The Dual Identity Advantage

I genuinely am both a Raleigh resident AND a Buffalo native (I even kept my 716 phone number). This gives me unique positioning as East Coast voiceover talent who can serve clients from Charlotte to Durham to Greensboro to Apex to Cary to Buffalo and everywhere in between.

Whether you’re a producer in the Research Triangle Park looking for a Raleigh recording studio for a directed session, or a Buffalo agency needing a narrator who gets Western New York, I’m your guy. Same voice talent, same professional studio, same commitment to making your project sound great. For me, geography is flexible, but voiceover quality never is. You get that way after 40 years in this business.

Tags: commentary, North Carolina, raleigh, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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As the Buffalo Bills prepare to host the Pittsburgh Steelers in a Divisional Playoff game in my old home town of Buffalo, NY (well actually, the stadium is the the suburb of Orchard Park, NY), I felt I should address something that might not get spoken of very often.

My new hometown (well going on 8 years anyway) of Raleigh, NC (well actually I’m the suburb of Cary, NC — turns out in the past two sentences, I’m not terribly good at geography) — any this new place I live in North Carolina is Buffalo, NY SOUTH!!!

Unbeknownst to me and my family when we moved here there are a ton of Western New Yorkers and Buffalonians down here.

So whether I am wearing my Bills, Sabres, Bisons or Bandits shirts (or even an old Buffalo Braves shirt), somebody always says something like “Go Bills” or “Let’s Go Buffalo”.

None the less, as you’ll see in the video…while strolling across Raleigh as a Bills fan, I remain “surprised”. 🙂

#gobills

Tags: blogs, buffalo, cary, commentary, raleigh, Raleigh Durham Voiceover Meetup, video, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Community service work is certainly good for the soul but it can also lead to unexpected and deeply appreciated recognition.

In my volunteer work for non-commercial, listener supported Divine Mercy Radio here in Raleigh, I help the radio station with programming and production work.

Last week, EWTN Global Catholic Radio honored Divine Mercy Radio with their Crystal Microphone Award for Best Top of the Hour ID from among the network’s amazing 350 Catholic radio affiliates.

This is the project for which we received our recognition:

Tags: commentary, community, radio, radio imaging, raleigh by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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It was quite an honor to be the first guest in the new studio of the “Guys Who Do Stuff” Podcast, which we recorded a few weeks ago. Yes…I got to go to a REAL podcast studio, none of this phone stuff (which, of course is fine).

The podcast is produced by co-hosted and produced by Joe Woolworth and Josh Manning, both who live in the Cary, Raleigh, Durham North Carolina area where I am. Joe owns a web, media and business strategy company called Relevant Media Solutions. Josh is a media producer (web, photography and film) at his company called Jerico 7.

Joe Woolworth, Co-host of Guys Who Do Stuff Podcast

So as media producers, Joe and Josh are story tellers and through their podcast, they tell stories of unique small businesses and the people that run them. I believe the idea is that no matter how unique the business featured in the podcast, there are universal threads that run through each story and those threads are applicable to any business. By guests talking about the successes and challenges of their businesses, listeners can apply  the business and life lessons shared to their own lives.

How I got involved was just me networking, completely unaware of this podcast.

Josh Manning, Co-host of Guys Who Do Stuff Podcast

Because I’m still meeting new people (having only been in Raleigh Durham for coming up on 3 years) I was reaching out to local marketing and media people on Alignable, a locally focused business networking site. Through that site, I’ve been setting up some Starbucks marketing meetings with folks (similar to my Bagel Marketing back in Buffalo, NY but Starbucks is closer to my house, hence the name I just coined sitting here writing this blog post). I’m focused on folks in my Town of Cary, North Carolina (CARY = Containment Area for Relocated Yankees or Can’t Afford Raleigh Yet).

So I see Joe’s business on Alignable and I either emailed or called him and invited him to Starbuckies for a coffee and a chat (well, I do hot chocolate, not coffee, but it’s in the same cup as the coffee so people think I cool…fooled ’em again!) As we talked, Joe decided I would be a good guest for the podcast…or the guest he had scheduled had died…one of those two things. Anyway we talked.

What did we talk about? Easier probably to identify what we didn’t talk about but to try and summarize it we spoke about my start in voiceover, the University of Dayton, working with kids at home, Tony Stark, Spiderman, the Marvel Universe, co-working spaces (BTW in that part of the podcast, the co-working place I used was called HQ Raleigh…so embarrassed I blank on that name, sorry HQ Raleigh), then Wegman’s, the Gig Economy, Canada, getting the business, working in your underwear, greenways and parks, In-And-Out Burgers, Shake Shack, residuals, picking RDU, restaurants, Ernie Anderson, Mary Tyler Moore, The Partridge Family, Bruce Miles, D.B. Cooper, Mel Blanc, Looney Tunes, acting, Grover, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and after that, I forget.

The podcast has a fun, informative, light-hearted feel to it that makes the listen seem shorter than it is.

Now this co-working space where Joe and Josh have built their podcast studio is pretty awesome. It’s called Vibe and it’s a co-working community inside the Cary Towne Center Mall in Cary, NC. I’m not sure how many co-working spaces you’ve been in…I’ve been in more than a few.Many co-working spaces are very corporate…kinda steel and cold in tall office buildings…or they try and be too UNcorporate…and it’s too country, college-dormy. Vibe Cary is right in between for small business people, micropenuers who want professional and comfortable where you don’t feel like you should wear a tie but you probably don’t want to wear your ripped t-shirt and look like a slob either. Professionally casual. That’s my take anyway. You can get a membership or use it by the hour; you can get a private office or use a meeting space or, yes, record a podcast!

A great experience at a great place with great hosts. Thanks for including me.

Tags: podcast, podcast episodes, podcasting, raleigh, university of dayton by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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