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No matter what line of work you’re in, you will have to speak in public. It may be a crowd of hundreds or only a dozen or so people. And of course, public speaking continues to be one of society’s biggest fears.

There are only two times in all the public speaking that I have done that I was actually nervous, panicked and way anxious. Both times I was doing readings at a funeral and both times I had little or no time to prepare. Funerals don’t especially bother me (sad as they are) but being unprepared really bothers me. If my physical reaction these two times was anything close to what people have with their general fear of speaking, boy do I empathize.

Now you’d think that a guy with 25+ years of voice over experience would be able to keep it together even when speaking without preparation (having never seen the text or seen it really briefly before). And likely as far as the audience was concerned, I did. But internally, I could hear my voice crack, my breathing was tight and my body was rattling from head to toe. It was bad.

I don’t like being unprepared for live work.

In a studio, hand me a script, give me a few minutes to process and rehearse then hit the record button. I’ll be golden.

Live is different. You are not hidden in a booth and you get no retakes.

Live does not grant you do-overs. Preparation makes all things flow when you are live.

I’ll give you a couple of examples. Last weekend, I had to give a pulpit talk at my church on behalf of Catholic Charities. Big Cathedral, marble podium, the works. I aced it. I had time to spend 15-30 minutes the night before to prepare. I knew the script so well I could keep the talk going with eyes off of the script to look at the audience without losing a beat.

Yesterday, I gave a talk to a class of college students on the voice over business. All extemporaneous stuff. Home run. I’ve got 25 years worth of material. Here, its not a matter of having content, it’s a matter of editing it to only an hour’s worth of good stuff.

Both times I had done my homework. Both times I scores straight A’s.

Prepare, rehearse, plan. THEN make it look effortless.

Tags: commentary, peter o'connell, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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If you know the medical or psychological term for the feeling you get when you watch a function or service or job you really have an abiding passion and respect for just be ripped apart agonizingly slowly and painfully, please let me know.

Because that’s the word I would use to describe what all voice talents and on-air radio staffers have been feeling watching radio’s long enduring death spiral. I think we’re closer to the last third of the spiral than the first third of the spiral now though. The money is really running out for broadcast companies.

Not to harp on all the reasons most of us in the business know about but in case you don’t, radio listenership and usage is way down, that brings down ratings and advertisers won’t pay for a less useful marketing channel. The competition in the media world is too big. And radio companies over paid for their properties and are saddled with mind numbing debt.

Sales people (many of whom are hired as a first job out of college and are directed to a telephone and a phone book and ordered to “sell!”) aren’t coming up with the ad dollars.

The biggest line item in every budget is salaries. And the first people to get cut (excluding sales people but that’s always been a revolving door) are the on-air talent.

Clear Channel fired Rocky Allen at WPLJ and John Gambling on WOR both powerhouse stations in New York (the latest examples). Less known (but not necessarily less talented) names continue to be felled by HR in markets across the country. No one is safe and most sad of all is that the audience seems indifferent to the loss. There’s a full body paper cut for you.

I haven’t been on the air in years but it still remains one of my most favorite jobs. That and production director for a radio station. It was creative, it was fast, you interacted with the audience….that was a gift. If you’ve worked in radio, didn’t you feel the same way?

Sure, pay was lousy and you worked with a few idiots. But I have yet to see a job that didn’t have those issues…even now and I own my own companies!

But much of what was great about radio for those of us on air has changed. More syndicated programming covers our local airwaves with names like Delilah, John Tesh and Ryan Seacrest. Bland, awful stuff. But it costs less than local, real bodies running the board at your station.

Maybe I’m the only one who notices all this and who cares but if I’m not, I really would love to get your take (short or long) on all this. Angry? Resigned? Saddened? Frustrated? Past it? Let me know. Thanks.

Tags: advertising, announcers, commentary, commercials, marketing, media, peter o'connell, radio, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Mike Kinosian who writes for Inside Radio wrote a wonderful article on the voice over careers of Joe Cipriano and John Leader (who was friends with my voiceover idol Ernie Anderson).

A great read. Thanks Mike!

Tags: announcers, narrations, radio, tv, voice actors, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on a chat with joe and john

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Creating the Unofficial NBC Nightly News Voice Off was an epiphany for many reasons not the least of which was the power of the web.

1. Until the very moment I came up with the idea, I really hadn’t been searching for a breakthrough idea for the blog which would garner lots of attention. After the event’s successful completion, I’m still not. While the blog is an important web marketing tool, it remains for me a creative outlet that, while I hope others enjoy, laugh and learn from it, doesn’t need be anything else besides that outlet. I am however thrilled that the blog provided a useful channel through which the idea could blossom. For those two reasons, I really am happy I have the blog.

2. There are so many tremendous voice over talents that I “met” for the first time through this exercise. Many I had known of for years and some are even great friends but coming across so many heretofore unheard (by me) voices was a real treat.

3. Finally, the big epiphany: some voiceover talents (not naming any names nor does this part reflect upon the aforementioned names) are crappy marketers.

Well, there goes all the new professional goodwill I just engendered from the Voice Off. But I feel if I address the issue, folks can learn from it. And folks, I witnessed all this first hand.

Lesson 1 – If you do not have your own voice over web site, I consider you a voice over wanna-be. Ouch, harsh! “But I have a page on voices.com and voice 123,” you say. Good, that’s right, direct your prospective client to your page there and hope and pray they don’t start fishing around the other talent pages on those sites (some of whom will do a 10 minute narration for $5 and a cup of day old coffee, just to get experience). Bad odds. Spend the money, get your own web page (or full site) and create a brand. Stop whining about money and do it!

Lesson 2 – Telephone numbers are not optional. Maybe you have a studio in your home and you don’t want clients calling your house and having your 10 year old answering the phone and, while sounding cute, still sounding unprofessional and I get that. Get a cell phone number, make that your business line, plaster the phone number everywhere and always answer it professionally. But get a phone number. Here’s your slogan – “The Telephone – its how business gets done!”

Lesson 3 – An email signature block is mandatory. Typing “Joe” or whatever at the bottom of an email doesn’t cut it. Every email you send out is an electronic business card. People may have kept your email just to have your contact information…unless of course you DON’T have it on there and then your important email really becomes expendable. An email signature block, which you can set up on most software to go out with every email automatically (so you really have no excuse) should contain at minimum your name, your company name, your phone number and your web site where folks can find your demos.

There are only two people now who know of your errors, you and me. And as you can see, I’m not using any names in the crappy marketers section. So quietly go about fixing these changes and go make some money. Nobody else will know how you did it cause I’m not telling.

Tags: commentary, fauxdition, internet, marketing, NBC Nightly News, social networking, unofficial audition, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover blog by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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UPDATE: As of 12/27/07, the nominations/auditions are now CLOSED! Thanks everyone…join us in the voting here.

As you’ll recall, I put out an unofficial open casting call for auditions (that link is also where you can find the Nightly News theme music)for the announcer position on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.

To following are the submitted audition (in the order they were received) for your listening pleasure. Thanks everyone for participating.

NOTE: A FASTER LISTENING PAGE HAS NOW BEEN SET UP ON THE AUDIO’CONNELL VOICE OVER TALENT WEB SITE – LISTEN TO ALL THE AUDITIONS HERE!

12/27/07 – THE AUDITIONS/NOMINATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED. Thank you all. Look for our voting post HERE!

1/12/08 – THE WINNERS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED. Please check out the top 3 HERE

Tags: announcers, commentary, fauxdition, NBC Nightly News, tv, unofficial audition, voice actors, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover blog, voices.com by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I’m not one to find a problem or an issue with something without trying to also come up with a solution. “Don’t be part of the problem, be part of the solution” is how I try to look at it.

With that in mind, I recently wrote about how much I disliked Michael Douglas’ read for the open of NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. As an actor, director and producer, Douglas is a tremendous talent. But for this particular read, he was awful. There are many people who share my opinion.

So it is with a solution in mind that I request your help, your participation in casting a voice talent to replace Michael Douglas (and fast!).

–> HERE is the NBC Nightly News theme for you to use in your audition (not for commercial purposes).

–> HERE is the script:

“From NBC News World Headquarters in New York, this is NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.”

(As of 12/27/07 the nominations/auditions are now closed. Thank you!)

This is open to men AND women BUT only serious takes, not your dog or your mother or your two year old (although my daughter COULD do a better job than the current announcer).

I’ll post all entries here on audio’connell Voice Over Talent’s voxmarketising blog and notify NBC that they are here for their review. I’m not promising anyone a job but if you get it, you’ll owe me a very expensive dinner.

As an example for you, here is my audition:

[audio:http://www.audioconnell.com/clientuploads/mp3/NBC_Nightly_News_Auditions/Peter_OConnell_NBC_Nightly_Open.mp3]

–> P.S. Now you can listen to ALL the auditions here

And below is the NBC Nightly News theme (again).

Tags: announcers, commentary, fauxdition, NBC Nightly News, tv, unofficial audition, voice actors, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover blog by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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