Voice actor Peter K. O’Connell as Santa…or is it REALLY Santa??

Okay, okay — I know it’s not even Halloween yet. But here I am, having been knee-deep in Christmas scripts for a while.

Sorry folks, the holidays have arrived again (certainly for some months now — in the world of voiceover).

For voice actors, this time of year is pure magic. The studios have been buzzing with holiday energy, and as you’ve seen and heard in retail stores (and some media) ad agencies, production studios, and digital media teams are cranking out festive campaigns for radio, TV, streaming, and social.

It’s honestly one of the most fun times to be behind the mic.

Why the Holidays Matter So Much in Voiceover

The holiday season is huge — not just for shoppers, but for brands and voiceover professionals alike. Here’s a snapshot of just how important Q4 really is in the U.S.:

Top 5 U.S. Holiday Advertising & Consumer Facts:

• U.S. consumers planned to spend around $1,595 on average for the 2025 holiday season. (Deloitte)

• Holiday retail sales were forecast to reach about $1.66?trillion, with 92% of consumers planning to shop this season. (ICSC)

• Nearly half of U.S. shoppers planned to make purchases before Thanksgiving, showing how early brands need to start their campaigns. (Circana 2025 Report)

• U.S. digital ad spending was expected to exceed $300?billion in 2025, with digital video (including CTV) growing around 16% year-over-year. (eMarketer)

• For the 2025 holidays, 37% of consumers planned to shop in September/October, earlier than the 32% planning purchases in November/December. (AdRoll 2025)

Top 5 Voiceover / Audio Advertising Stats:

• Holiday-themed audio ads can boost purchase intent and brand recall by 26%. (Audacy/Consumable)

• In Q4 2024, U.S. listeners spent 67% of daily audio time with ad-supported radio, 18% with podcasts, and 12% with streaming audio. (Nielsen)

• Multi-channel holiday audio ads delivered 55% higher conversions, with festive voiceover cues playing a key role. (Radio Ink Q4 Case Study)

• Retailers using holiday-themed audio ads saw a +5.2-point lift in unaided brand awareness and a +5.7-point boost in purchase intent. (Audacy / Radio Ink)

• In-store audio ads with voiceovers influence Gen-Z buying behavior about 5× more than Baby Boomers during the holiday season. (Vibenomics 2025)

The Fun Part: Playing in Santa’s, er…Peter’s Audio Workshop

This is where it gets really fun for us. Around the holidays, we get to lean into all sorts of characters.

I’ve voiced Santa Claus (more times than I can count), elves, reindeer — even the occasional overly excited toy robot. I haven’t voiced Mrs. Claus…yet!

There’s something special about bringing those characters to life — a blend of storytelling, humor, and warmth that keeps holiday advertising feeling personal and memorable.

Why It All Matters for Commercial Producers and Creative Directors

For producers, ad agency creative directors, studio engineers, and digital media creators, the holidays are go time. In my opinion, the only more pressure-filled, deadline ridden time is political season. That’s a special kind of fast and furious.

In Q4, every project has a rush deadline, every brand wants to sound fresh, and every campaign is racing to hit that emotional sweet spot before the year ends.

That’s where seasoned voice talent comes in — folks who can pivot from warm and cozy to bright and energetic, and who can bring characters (and products) to life under tight turnarounds.

So yes — even though it’s technically spooky-season right now, my studio already smells faintly of pine needles and peppermint. And that’s just fine by me.

Here’s to a busy, merry, and microphone-filled holiday season ahead.

The holiday mic is hot, and my studio smells faintly of peppermint. Need a festive voice for Santa, elves, or quirky toys? Let’s make some Christmas voiceover magic — peter@audioconnell.com | 716-572-1800 or 919-283-1516

Tags: advertising, character voices, commercials, marketing, political advertising, radio, tv, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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The multi-state devastation left over from Hurricane Helene (which hit my state on September 27th) shattered countless lives.

Swannanoa residents walk through devastating flood damage from the Swannanoa River in western North Carolina on Sunday.
PHOTO CREDIT: Travis Long / The News & Observer / TNS via Getty Images

Some of the hardest hit communities include those on the western side of North Carolina, in and around Asheville, where rains and the resulting massive floods left many neighborhoods (and lives) in complete ruin.

While national, state and local agencies and volunteers are working to bring aid to those in need, this recovery will require a lot of time and even more money.

There will be no quick fixes or magic wands to solve the devastation.

To help make people aware of the problem and encourage donations for the recovery effort from Hurricane Helene, I’ve produced an audio public service announcement that is available for broadcast use, web use and podcast use to spread the word of where donations are accepted.

FREE PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT FOR WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA FOLLOWING HURRICANE HELENE

(Please note, in this time audio pirating, no portion of the audio from this PSA may not be use for any other purpose than the purpose stated above). LINK HERE.

There are many worthwhile organizations that are accepting donations to aid the Hurricane recovery efforts. For the purposes of this free recording, I chose the following:

• The North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund – helping Hurricane ravaged communities recover from catastrophic damage – donate at nc.gov/donate
• Catholic Charities USA, where 100% of Hurricane gifts collected will go to support recovery efforts. Visit CatholicCharitiesUSA.org
• The American Red Cross, which is accepting Hurricane Helene donations at redcross.org/donate

If you are don’t work in broadcast or don’t produce a podcast, but know people who do, please feel free to share this post and this PSA with them.

Thanks.

This audio public service announcement (PSA) to support regional and national fundraising efforts for Western North Carolina – as a result of Hurricane Helene – is available for FREE all broadcast (Radio/TV/Cable), Podcasters and Webcasters who support this effort. No other use of this audio is permitted.

Tags: audio'connell voice over talent, commentary, podcast, podcasting, public service announcement, radio, tv 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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Affiliate promo voiceover work is one of the best parts of this business for a voice actor…it’s always new, the evolution of it is fascinating if you ever study it (even over just the past few decades), new shows, new news teams…the change keeps it interesting, I think.

Match that constant change with some really smart Creative Services Directors, who always come up with new promotional ideas for shows and events, and the voiceover work doesn’t feel so much like work.

My new television affiliate show promo voiceover demo includes not just my voiceover work (which I think is pretty good) but it also includes some of those great promo concepts that I mentioned, including shows like Ellen and Family Feud. The concepts and my reads are show-friendly, advertiser-friendly and overall…very brand-friendly for the stations.

The television affiliate news demo that I recently produced has a different feel – still promotional, but news is often times more serious than entertainment programming and so news promos need to have a more serious edge.

Both types of promo are right within my wheelhouse. If you’re a CSD looking for a new show or news promo voice for your television station (no matter the market), listen to the demo BELOW, please get in touch with me and let’s talk. Thanks.

LISTEN TO THE NEW PETER K. O’CONNELL TELEVISION AFFILIATE SHOW PROMO DEMO:

Tags: commentary, tv, TV promo by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Besides the fact that it has been a while since I updated my TV Affiliate News Promo Demo, it never hurts when a TV station inquiries about my affiliate voiceover services to force me to get my butt in gear to make the demo update.

For those not in the industry, the TV affiliates are the local stations in your local TV market where you watch your ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, NBC & PBS network shows as well as national newscasts like World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News and PBS Newshour. These TV affiliates have local newscasts with name like Eyewitness News, Action News, NewsCenter, News 4 and have news slogans like “Live, Local & Late Breaking” or “On Your Side”.

I really enjoy voicing affiliate news promos but sometimes we voice talents forget that we need to actually update our voiceover work via our demos for prospective stations.

It’s like advertising agencies that are always busy working on client work and forget to update the agency’s marketing on their web site.

I also recently updated my TV Affiliate Show Promo Demo, more for the Programming department than the News department…I am equally comfortable in both genres.

When producing this new VO demo, I felt like less is more. So I kept the demo to 4 really strong segments that best represent the versatility of my affiliate news promo voice. I hope you agree. 🙂

If you’re a Creative Service Director at a network affiliate television station, I REALLY hope you agree.

Let me know what you think. Thanks!

LISTEN TO THE NEW PETER K. O’CONNELL TELEVISION AFFILIATE NEWS PROMO DEMO:

Tags: tv, TV promo by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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On January 8, 2018, the Federal Communications Commission will remove the almost 80 year-old rule that required broadcasters to have a physical studio in or near the areas where they have a license to transmit TV or radio signals.  With that rule no longer in place, the FCC has issued a likely fatal blow to the tradition of local broadcasting in radio and TV.

I’m not talking about the syndication of a program, which has been a profitable and long standing broadcast practice (that’s how the world first heard about Oprah Winfrey). Rather, with the elimination of the rule requiring broadcast owners maintain a main studio in or near the local coverage area of their license …owners can rent an office somewhere, sell ads locally, while all non-network broadcasts emanate from one central location…some place else, anywhere else really.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who took a leadership role on this ruling, said “Continuing to require a main studio would detract from, rather than promote, a broadcaster’s ability and incentive to keep people informed and serve the public interest.”

Chairman Pai’s professional background is that of a lawyer, administrator and bureaucrat. He had only a brief career as a lawyer in the telecommunications industry. His resume references no work in broadcasting. None.

The only winner with the elimination of this rule is anyone with a large broadcasting company (about ½ dozen or more companies) who can now create centralized hub studios any single place in the country and simply send out a signal to a city or town’s transmitter.

If you go to the web site of your local TV and radio station, you’ll see the station’s corporate owner name. Click on the web site link…see how many other stations they own and where.

Then think about how much money they will save their company by shuttering all their local TV and radio stations, laying off a sizable portion (if not all) of their local staffs at those stations, putting their stations’ local sales departments in small rented local buildings while all broadcast operations emanate and are transmitted from a far-away US city.

They will try and make the broadcast look and sound local, maybe, but (as an example) a Los Angeles broadcast hub for scores of stations isn’t going to be able to truly share the local news and community feel of (say for example) Sioux Falls, SD or insert your town or city name here.

Cost cutting at local stations has been happening for some time at broadcast stations. Some radio stations broadcast only satellite programming, with maybe someone reading local news in the morning and a local TV meteorologist pre-recording a weather forecast throughout the day (or just using a national weather service…again, not local).

Many TV stations within an ownership group have their news programs actually directed from a regional production hub nowhere physically near the station. And in some markets, a TV station in one city or state will actually create a newscast in their city for a station and viewers in totally different and unrelated city…sometimes fairly far away. Or TV stations just forego a news operation all together. Too much time, effort and money….you understand.

Some will ask why it matters to have a station physically in a market. The Internet, YouTube, and iPhones have changed how we all consume news and programing. Satellite radio is more popular than ever as are Internet radio outlets.

I understand all that but…BECAUSE of those new channels — the need for local coverage is more important than ever and cannot be executed effectively by well-meaning people in a building hundreds or thousands of miles away who have no ties to a community.

A Winter Storm Whips Across Lake Erie South of Buffalo, NY

If you’ve ever been through a tornado, blizzard, forest fire, flood or other horrible disaster, that would be just one prime example of how news…live and local, will be almost completely lost either immediately or over a slow, imperceptible transition to viewers and listeners. Local meteorologists? Oh, they can just put those weather computers any place and see the readouts.

Oh, and the job losses at all these local stations? Well those are a big part of how ownership groups will save money, which is why broadcast lobbyists put immense political pressure on the executive and legislative branches of the US government (and thus the FCC) to get this rule eliminated. Just because they own broadcast outlets doesn’t necessarily make these TV and radio station group owners true broadcasters. Owners answer to revenue and profits and it matters little how those are achieved.

I understand and respect cost savings as a business owner. I get it.

But as a broadcaster, who understands the immense value that a radio and TV station bring to a community, I see a dangerous and probably irreversible change. Change whose resultant problems will be dramatically felt at a local level while its national implementers are safely ensconced in their vaults.

It may be a slow demise, but it will likely be local broadcasting’s demise nonetheless.

Tags: broadcasting, commentary, radio, tv by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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